1  0       - 


sxi1 


TEE 


LIFE  AND   PUBLIC   SEKVICES 

\J 

OF 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN, 

SIXTEENTH  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  . 


TOGETHER  WITH 


HIS  STATE  PAPERS, 

INCLUDING 

HIS  SPEECHES,  ADDRESSES,  MESSAGES,  LETTERS, 
AND  PROCLAMATIONS, 

AND 

THE   CLOSING   SCENES   CONNECTED  WITH   HIS   LIFE  AND   DEATH, 

BY 

HENRY   J.  RAYMOND. 

t| 

TO  WHICH  ABB  ADDED 

ANECDOTES  AND  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN, 

BY  FRANK  B.  CARPENTER.  . 


WITH  A  STEEL  PORTRAIT,  AND  OTHER  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


NEW  YORK: 
DERBY  AND  MILLER,  PUBLISHERS, 

No.  5  SPRUCE  STREET. 
1865. 


'#* 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1865, 

BY  DERBY  &  M1LLEK, 

In  the  Clerk's  Offico  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  District 

of  New  York. 

** 


ALYORD,  STKEEOTYPEE  AND  PEIKTBX. 


PKEFACE. 


the  Presidential  canvass  of  1864,  the  author 
of  this  work  prepared  for  its  publishers^  volume  upon 
the  Administration  of  President  Lincoln.  Its  main  olbject 
"was  to  afford  the  American  people  the  materials  for  form 
ing  an  intelligent  judgment  as  to  the  wisdom  of  continu 
ing  Mr.  Lincoln,  for  four  years  more,  in  the  Presidential 
office. 

That  canvass  resulted  in  his  re-election.  But  he  had 
scarcely  entered  upon  the  duties  and  responsibilities 
of  his  second  term,  when  his  career  was  closed  "by 
assassination.  He  had  lived  long  enough,  however, 
to  finish  the  great  work  which  had  devolved  upon  him. 
Before  his  eyes  were  closed,  they  beheld  the  overthrow 
of  the  rebellion,  the  extirpation  of  slavery,  and  the  res 
toration,  over  all  the  land,  of  the  authority  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Not  the  people  of  his  own  country  alone,  but  all 
the  world,  will  study  with  interest  the  life  and  public 
acts  of  one  whose  work  was  at  once  so  great  and  so 
successful.  The  principles  which  guided  his  conduct, 
and  the  policy  by  which  he  sought  to  carry  them  out— 
the  temper  and  character  which  were  the  secret  sources 
of  his  strength— will  be  sought  and  found  in  the  acts 
and  words  of  his  public  life.  For  more  truly,  perhaps, 


6  PREFACE. 

than  any  other  man  of  his  own  or  of  any  other  time, 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  "but  one  character  and  one  mode  of 
action,  in  pulblic  and  private  affairs. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  work,  so  far  as  possible, 
to  facilitate  this  inquiry.  Every  public  speech,  message, 
letter,  or  document  of  any  sort  from  his  pen,  so  far  as 
accessible,  ^vill  be  found  included  in  its  pages.  These 
documents,  with  the  narrative  by  which  they  are  accom 
panied,  may,  it  is  hoped,  aid  the  public  in  understanding 
aright  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  most  illustrious 
actor,  in  the  most  important  era,  of  American  history. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1.  PORTRAIT  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  engraved  by  A.  H.  RITCHIE            .  Face  Titio 

2.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  EARLY  HOME  IN  KENTUCKY          .          .  .    "     16 

8.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  HOME  IN  SPRINGFIELD     .          .          .          .  »    104 

4.  RAISING  THE  OLD  FLAG  AT  INDEPENDENCE  HALL           .          .  .    M    154 

5.  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  AND  HIS  FAMILY,  1861        .          .          .  «    158 

6.  INAUGURATION  AS  PRESIDENT  AT  WASHINGTON  ,          /          .  .    "    162 

7.  PROCLAMATION  OF  EMANCIPATION "260 

a  FAC-SIMILE  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN*  LETTER  TO  MR,  RAYMOND  ,  589,  590 

9.  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  ENTERING  RICHMOND       ....  Face  690 

10.  ASSASSINATION  AT  FORD'S  THEATRE    .          .          .          .           .  .    M    69C 

11.  THE  DEATH  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN "702 

12.  FUNERAL  CORTEGE  THROUGH  NEW  YORK "703 

15,_REMAINS  LYING  IN  STATE  AT  CHICAGO «    710 

14.  THE  LAST  RITES  AT  SPRINGFIELD          ....  ~W  .  .    M    713 

16.  FUNERAL  ARCH  OYER  HUDSON  RIYER  RAILROAD      .          .          .  «    724 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Early  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln. — His  Own  Record. — His  Ancestry. — Changes 
of  Residence. — Death  and  Funeral  of  his  Mother. — Entrance  upon  Polit 
ical  Life. — A  Member  of  the  Legislature  and  of  Congress. — The  Mexican 
War Page  17 

CHAPTER  LT. 

THE  LINCOLN-DOUGLAS  DEBATE. 

Presidential  Campaign  of  1856. — Douglas  at  Springfield  in  1857. — Lincoln's 
Reply. — The  Great  Debate. — Eloquent  Defence  of  the  Doctrines  of  the 
Republican  Party.— Result  of  the  Contest Page  46 

CHAPTER  IIL 

MB.  LINCOLN  AND  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

The  Campaign  of  1859  in  Ohio. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Speeches  at  Columbus  and 
Cincinnati.— His  Yisit  to  the  East.— In  New  York  City.— The  Great 
Speech  at  Cooper  Institute. — Mr.  Lincoln  nominated  for  the  Presidency. 
—His  Election . . . Page  78 

CHAPTER  IY. 

FR03I  THE  ELECTION,   NOVEMBER   6,    1860,    TO  THE  INAUGURATION,   MARCH  4, 

1861. 

The  Presidential  Election. — Secession  of  South  Carolina. — Formation  of  the 
Rebel  Confederacy. — The  Objects  of  Secession. — Secession  Movements  in 
"Washington. — Debates  in  Congress. — The  Crittenden  Resolutions. — Con 
ciliatory  Action  of  Congress. — The  Peace  Conference. — Action  of  Con 
gress. — The  Secession  Movement  unchecked Page  107 

CHAPTER  Y. 

FROM  SPRINGFIELD  TO  WASHINGTON. 

Speech  at  Indianapolis. — Arrival  and  Speech  at  Cincinnati. — Speech  at  Co 
lumbus. — Speech  at  Pittsburg. — Arrival  and  Speech  at  Cleveland. — Arri 
val  at  Buffalo. — At  Rochester  and  Syracuse. — At  Albany. — Speech  at 


10  CONTENTS. 

Poughkeepsie.— In  New  York.— Eeply  to  the  Mayoi  of  New  York.— la 
New  Jersey.— Arrival  at  Philadelphia.—  Speech,  in  Philadelphia.— At 
Harriaburg. — Arrival  and  Reception  at  "Washington Page  131 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PROM  THE  INAUGURATION  TO  THE  MEETING  OP  CONGRESS,  JULY  4,  1861. 

The  Inaugural  Address.— Organization  of  the  Government— The  Bombard 
ment  of  Fort  Sutnter. — Passage  of  Troops  through  Baltimore. — Interview 
with  the  Mayor  of  Baltimore.— The  Blockade  of  Rebel  Ports.— The  Pres 
ident  and  the  Virginia  Commissioners. — Instruction  to  our  Ministers 
abroad.— Recognition  of  the  Rebels  as  Belligerents.— Rights  of  Neu- 
trals Page  161 

CHAPTER  VII. 

THB  EXTRA  SESSION  OP  CONGRESS,  AND  THE  MILITARY  EVENTS  OP  THE  SUMMER 

OP  1861. 

First  Annual  Message. — Action  of  Congress. — Slavery  and  Confiscation. — The 
Defeat  at  Bull  Run. — Treatment  of  the  Slavery  Question. — General  Fre 
mont  and  the  President. — Tho  Trent  Affair Page  106 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE  REGULAR  SESSION  OP  CONGRESS,  DECEMBER,  1861. — THE  MESSAGE. — 
DEBATES,  ETC. 

Meeting  of  Congress. — President's  Message. — Disposition  of  Congress. — 
Slavery  in  Territories  and  District  of  Columbia. — Proposed  Aid  to  Eman 
cipation  by  Slave  States. — The  Debate  in  Congress. — Tho  President  and 
General  Hunter. — The  Border  State  Representatives. — The  Border  State 
Reply. — The  Finances. — Tho  Confiscation  Bill. — The  President's  Action 
and  Opinions, — The  President's  Message. — Message  in  Regard  to  Mr. 
Cameron. — The  President  and  his  Cabinet. — Close  of  the  Session  of  Con 
gress. — Tho  President's  Letter  to  Mr.  Greeley. — The  President  and  the 
Chicago  Convention. — Proclamation  of  Emancipation Page  212 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  MILITARY  ADMINISTRATION  OP  1862. — THE  PRESIDENT  AND  GENERAL 

M'CLELLAN. 

General  McClellan  succeeds  McDowell.— The  President's  Order  for  an  Ad 
vance. — The  Movement  to  the  Peninsula. — Rebel  Evacuation  of  Manas- 
sas. — Arrangements  for  the  Peninsular  Movement. — The  President's 
Letter  to  General  McClellan.— Tho  Rebel  Strength  at  Yorktown.— The 


CONTENTS.  11 

Battle  of  Williamsburg. — McClellan's  Fear  of  being  Overwhelmed. — Tho 
President  to  McClellan. — Jackson's  Raid  in  the  Shenandoah  Yalley. — The 
President  to  McClellan. — Seven  Pines  and  Fair  Oaks. — McClellan's  Com 
plaints  of  McDowell.— His  Continued  Delays.— Prepares  for  Defeat- 
Calls  for  more  Men. — His  Advice  to  the  President. — Preparations  to  Con 
centrate  the  Army. — General  Halleck  to  McClellan. — Appointment  of 
General  Pope.— Imperative  Orders  to  McClellan.— McClellan's  Failure  to 
aid  Pope. — His  Excuses  for  Delay. — Proposes  to  Leave  Pope  Unaided. 
— Excuses  for  Franklin's  Delay. — His  Excuses  proved  Groundless. — His 
alleged  Lack  of  Supplies.— Advance  into  Maryland.— The  President's 
Letter  to  McClellan.— He  Protests  against  Delay.— McClellan  Relieved 
from  Command. — Speech  by  the  President Page  262 


CHAPTER  X. 

GENERAL  CONDUCT  OF  THE  ADMINISTRATION  IN   1862. 

Successes  in  the  Southwest. — Recognized  Objects  of  the  War. — Relations  of 
the  War  to  Slavery. — Our  Foreign  Relations. — Proposed  Mediation  of  the 
French  Emperor. — Reply  to  the  French  Proposal. — Secretary  Seward's 
Dispatch. — The  President's  Letter  to  Fernando  "Wood. — Observance  of 
the  Sabbath. .  Page  326 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  CONGRESSIONAL  SESSION  OF   1862-'63. — MESSAGE   OF  THE  PRESIDENT 
AND  GENERAL  ACTION  OF  THE  SESSION. 

The  President's  Message. — Are  the  Rebel  States  Aliens  ? — The  Provision  for 
a  Draft. — Message  on  the  Finances  and  Currency. — Admission  of  West 
Virginia.— Close  of  the  Session Page  344 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ARBITRARY  ARRESTS. — THE  SUSPENSION  OF   THE  WRIT  OF  HABEAS  CORPUS. 
— THK  DRAFT. 

Arbitrary  Arrests. — First  Suspension  of  the  Habeas  Corpus. — Aid  and  Com 
fort  to  the  Rebels. — Executive  Order  about  Arrests. — Appointment  of  a 
Commissioner  on  Arrests. — Opposition  to  the  Government. — The  Case  of 
Yallandigham. — Governor  Seymour  on  Vallandigham. — President  Lin 
coln  on  Arrests. — President  Lincoln  on  Military  Arrests. — The  Presi 
dent's  Letter  to  Mr.  Corning. — The  President  to  the  Ohio  Committee. — 
The  President  on  Yallandigham' s  Case. — The  Habeas  Corpus  Suspended. 
— Proclamation  Concerning  Aliejjs. — The  Draft  — The  Hew  York  Ripts. — 
Letter  to  Governor  Seymour. — The  Draft  Resumed  and  Completed.  Page  373 


12  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MILITARY  EVENTS  OP  1863. — THE  REBEL  DEFEAT  AT  GETTYSBURG. — FALL 
OF  YICKSBURG  AND  PORT  HUDSON. 

The  Battles  at  Fredericksburg. — Rebel  Raid  into  Pennsylvania. — Results  at 
Gettysburg. — Yicksburg  and  Port  Hudson  Captured. — Public  Rejoicings. 
— The  President's  Speech. — Thanksgiving  for  Victories. — Battle  of  Chat 
tanooga. — Thanksgiving  Proclamation Page  407 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

POLITICAL  MOVEMENTS  IN  MISSOURI. — THE  STATE  ELECTIONS  OF   1863. 

General  Fremont  in  Missouri. — The  President's  Letter  to  General  Hunter. — 
Emancipation  in  Missouri. — Appointment  of  General  Schofield. — The 
President  and  the  Missouri  Radicals. — The  President  to  the  Missouri 
Committee. — The  President  and  General  Schofield. — The  President  and 
the  Churches. — Letter  to  Illinois. — The  Elections  of  1863 Page  422 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  CONGRESS  OF   1863-'64. — MESSAGE   OF   THE  PRESIDENT. — ACTION  OF 
THE   SESSION. — PROGRESS  IN  RAISING  TROOPS. 

The  President's  Message. — The  Proclamation  of  Amnesty. — Explanatory 
Proclamation. — Debate  on  Slavery. — Call  for  Troops. — General  Blair's 
Resignation. — Diplomatic  Correspondence. — Our  Relations  with  England. 
— France  and  Mexico. — The  President  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine. . .  Page  445 

CHAPTER   XVI. 

MOVEMENTS  TOWARDS  RECONSTRUCTION. 

State  Governments  in  Louisiana  and  Arkansas. — Difference  of  Views  be 
tween  the  President  and  Congress. — The  Rebellion  and  Labor. — The 
President  on  Benevolent  Associations. — Advancing  Action  concerning 
the  Negro  Race. — Free  State  Constitutions Page  481 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

MILITARY   EVENTS   OP  THE  SPRING  AND  SUMMER  OF   1864. 

Battle  of  the  Olustee. — Kilpatrick's  Raid  on  Richmond. — The  Red  River 
Expedition. — The  Fort  Pillow  Massacre. — Rebel  Atrocities. — General 
Grant's  Advance  upon  Richmond. — Battles  in  May. — Sherman's  March  to 
Atlanta. — Rebel  Raids  in  Maryland  and  Kentucky. — Siege  of  Petersburg. 
— Martial  Law  iu  Kentucky. — Draft  for  Five  hundred  thousand  Men. — 
Capture  of  Mobile  and  Atlanta Page  513 


CONTENTS.  13 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN  OF   1864. 

The  Presidential  Election. — The  Cleveland  Convention. — The  Convention  at 
Baltimore. — Mr.  Lincoln's  Renomination  and  Acceptance. — Popular  Feel 
ing  During  the  Summer. — The  Arguelles  Case. — The  Forced  Proclama 
tion. — The  Niagara  Falls  Conference. — The  Chicago  Convention. — Progress 
and  Result  of  the  Campaign. — Popular  Joy  at  the  Result Page  547 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  MEETING  OP  CONGRESS  AND  PROGRESS  OP  THE  -WAR. 

Condition  of  the  Country  at  the  Meeting  of  Congress. — The  Message. — Pro 
ceedings  in  Congress. — Fort  Fisher. — Death  of  Edward  Everett. — Peace 
Conference  in  Hampton  Roads. — Military  Affairs Page  620 

CHAPTER  XX., 

CLOSE   OF  THE   REBELLION. 

The  Inaugural  Address. — Proclamation  to  Deserters. — Speeches  by  the  Pres 
ident. — Destruction  of  Lee's  Army. — The  President's  Visit  to  Richmond. 
— Return  to  Washington. — Close  of  the  War Page  609 

CHAPTER   XXI. 
THE  PRESIDENT'S  ASSASSINATION. 

The  Condition  of  the  Country. — Assassination  of  the  President. — Murderous 
Assault  upon  Secretary  Se\vard. — The  Funeral  Procession  from  Washing 
ton  to  Springfield,  Illinois. — Fate  of  the  Assassins. — Estimate  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  Character. — Conclusion Page  691 


ANECDOTES  AND    REMINISCENCES   OF  PRESIDENT 

LINCOLN. 

MM 

Mr.  Lincoln's  Sadness 726 

His  Favorite  Poem 728 

His  Religions  Experience 730 

His  Sympathy 735 

His  Humor,  Shrewdness,  and  Sentiment 743 

The  Emancipation  Proclamation  759 


14  CONTENTS. 

APPENDIX. 

LETTERS  ON  SUNDRY   OCCASIONS. 

PAGE 

To  Mr.  Eodges,  of  Kentucky 767 

To  General  Hooker 768 

To  John  B.  Fry ,770 

To  Governor  Magoffin 770 

To  Count  Gasparin 771 

THE  PRESIDENT  AND  GENERAL  MCCLELLAN 772 

WARNINGS  AGAINST  ASSASSINATION 779 

REPORTS,  DISPATCHES,  AND  PROCLAMATIONS  RELATING  TO 
THE  ASSASSINATION. 

Secretary  Stanton  to  General  Dix 783 

The  Death-Bed 785 

The  Assassins 786 

Reward  Offered  by  Secretary  Stanton 787 

Flight  of  the  Assassins 787 

The  Conspiracy  Organized  in  Canada 787 

Booth  Killed. — Harold  Captured 788 

Reward  Offered  by  President  Johnson 788 

The  Funeral. .  .788 


OFFICIAL  ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

Acting  Secretary  Hunter  to  Minister  Adams 789 

Acting  Secretary  Hunter  to  his  Subordinates 789 

Orders  from  Secretary  Stanton  and  General  Grant 789 

Orders  from  Secretary  Welles 790 

Order  from  Secretary  McCulloch 791 

Order  from  Postmaster-General  Dennison 791 

Proclamation  by  President  Johnson  of  a  Day  of  Humiliation  and  Mourning.  791 

Secretary  Stanton  to  Minister  Adams 792 

IMPORTANT  LETTER  FROM  J.  WILKES  BOOTH 793 

INDICTMENT  OF  THE  CONSPIRATORS 79G 

THE  FINDING  OF  THE  COURT 799 


THE  following  memorandum  given  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  Hicks,  the  weL- 
known  artist,  while  he  was  painting  his  portrait  in  Springfield,  Illinois, 
soon  after  his  first  nomination  for  the  Presidency,  is  not  without  in 
terest  : — 

"  I  was  born  February  12,  1809,  in  then  Hardin  County,  Kentucky, 
at  a  point  within  the  now  County  of  Larue,  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  where  Hodgen's  mill  now  is.  My  parents  being  dead,  and  my  own 
memory  not  serving,  I  know  no  means  of  identifying  the  precise  locality. 
It  was  on  Kolen  Creek.  A.  IJNCOLN." 

June  14, 1860. 


AS  IT  NOW  STANDS    IN    EUZABLTHTOWN.  HARDIN   CO.   KY. 

'  'S--  lv,Tt.hff  Viuil:    lir.s  Calm  and  moved  luto  it  w'aeu  Alraha-in  waei  an 
',11*8.111    an.i    !•.';','''.•]     there    til!    h_e  -.va.1  Seven  Y^ars  ot  as.?  wiien  "he 


THE   LIFE, 

PUBLIC  SERVICES   AND  STATE  PAPERS 

OF 

ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 


CHAPTER   I. 

EARLY  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. — His  OWN  RECORD. — His  ANCESTRY. — 
CHANGES  OF  RESIDENCE. — DEATH  AND  FUNERAL  OF  HIS  MOTHER. — EN 
TRANCE  UPON  POLITICAL  LIFE. — A  MEMBER  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE  AND 
OF  CONGRESS. — THE  MEXICAN  WAR. 

THE  compiler  of  tlie  "  Dictionary  of  Congress"  states, 
that  while  preparing  that  work  for  publication,  in  1858,  he 
sent  to  Mr.  Lincoln  the  usual  request  for  a  sketch  of  his 
life,  and  received  the  following  reply  : 

"  BORN,  FEBRUARY  12,  1809,  in  HARDIN  COUNTY,  KENTUCKY,. 
"EDUCATION  DEFECTIVE. 
"  PROFESSION,  A  LAWYER. 

"HAVE  BEEN  A  CAPTAIN  OF  VOLUNTEERS  IN  BLACK  HAWK  WAE. 
"  POSTMASTER  AT  A  VERY  SMALL  OFFICE. 

"FouR  TIMES  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  ILLINOIS  LEGISLATURE,  AND  WAS  A 
MEMBER  OF  THE  LOWER  HOUSE  OF  CONGRESS. 

"  YOURS,  &c., 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

Around  the  facts  stated  with  such  characteristic  mod 
esty  and  brevity  clusters  the  history  of  the  early  life  of 
our  late  President.  The  ancestors  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
were  of  English  descent ;  and  although  they  are  believed 
to  have  originally  emigrated  to  this  country  with  the 
followers  of  William  Penn,  it  is  difficult  to  trace  them 

* 


18  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

farther  Iback  than  to  their  place  of  residence  in  Berks 
County,  Pennsylvania,  whence  a  part  of  the  family  re 
moved,  in  1750,  to  that  section  of  Virginia  now  known  as 
Buckingham  County.  Thirty  years  later,  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  the  grandfather  of  our  late  President,  finding  civil 
ization  crowding  him  too  closely,  and  possibly  enticed 
by  the  stories  which  came  back  to  the  frontier  settle 
ments  from  that  famous  pioneer,  Daniel  Boone,  but 
undeterred  by  the  dangers  which  he  knew  he  must  in 
evitably  encounter,  determined  to  make  another  bold 
push  westward,  and  settled  on  Floyd' s  Creek,  in  Ken 
tucky,  in  what  is  now  known  as  Bullitt  County.  Hardly 
had  he  secured  a  home  for  his  litjle  family,  when  he  was 
fatally  shot  by  an  Indian,  who  came  upon  him  stealthily 
while  he  was  at  work,  some  distance  from  his  log  cabin. 
Thus  deprived  of  her  protector,  his  widow  at  once  re 
moved,  with  her  three  sons  and  two  daughters,  to  that 
part  of  Kentucky  now  known  as  Washington  County. 
Thomas,  the  eldest  of  the  sons,  the  father  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  was  but  six  years  old  when  his  mother  was  so 
suddenly  made  a  widow.  The  necessity  of  assisting  to 
provide  for  her  probably  delayed  his  own  settlement  in 
life,  for  it  was  not  until  he  was  twenty-eight  years  old, 
in  1806,  that  he  married  Nancy  Hanks.  His  wife  was  a 
Virginian  by  birth  ;  but  no  facts  regarding  either  her  an 
cestry  or  early  life  have  been  preserved,  although  it  is  a 
tradition,  possibly  originating  in  the  reputation  achieved 
by  her  son,  that  she  was  a  woman  of  rare  mental  endow 
ment.  Immediately  after  their  marriage  the  couple  re 
moved  to  Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  and  there,  on  Feb 
ruary  12th,  1809,  as  has  already  been  stated,  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  born.  His  early  life  was  spent  in  poverty 
and  toil ;  but  his  father,  feeling  keenly  his  own  deficien 
cies,  determined  to  give  his  son  every  possible  advantage 
in  the  way  of  gaining  an  education,  and,  when  but  seven 
years  old,  he  was  equipped  with  an  old  copy  of  Dil- 
worth's  Spelling  Book,  which  constituted  one-third  of 
the  family  library,  and  was  sent  to  school  to  a  Mr.  Hazel. 
It  is  also  said  that  one  Zachariah  Einey,  a  Roman  Catholic, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  19 

having  some  connection  with  the  Trappists,  who  had 
founded  an  institution  on  Pottinger's  Creek,  with  Urban 
Guillet  as  superior,  had  the  honor  of  instructing  the 
future  President  in  the  rudiments.  Whether  Mr.  Lin 
coln  favored  his  other  children,  one  a  girl  two  years 
older  than  Abraham,  and  the  other  a  boy  two  years  his 
junior,  to  the  same  extent,  is  doubtful,  for  the  routine  of 
school  life  was  not  only  broken  in  upon  by  his  frequent 
demands  upon  his  son's  time,  but  finally  it  was  inter 
rupted  altogether  by  his  determination  to  abandon  Ken 
tucky  and  try  his  fortunes  where  his  energies  were  not 
checked  and  repressed  by  the  obstacles  which  slavery 
constantly  thrust  in  his  way.  In  1817  Mr.  Lincoln  car 
ried  this  plan  into  execution.  The  old  home  was  sold, 
their  small  stock  of  valuables  placed  upon  a  raft,  and  the 
little  family  took  their  way  to  a  new  home  in  the  wilds 
of  Indiana,  where  free  labor  would  have  no  competition 
with  slave  labor,  and  the  poor  white  man  might  hope 
that  in  time  his  children  could  take  an  honorable  posi 
tion,  won  by  industry  and  careful  economy.  The  place 
of  their  destination  was  Spencer  County,  Indiana.  For 
the  last  few  miles  they  were  obliged  to  cut  their  road  as 
they  went  on.  "With  the  resolution  of  veteran  pioneers 
they  toiled,  sometimes  being  able  to  pick  their  way  for 
a  long  distance  without  chopping,  and  then  coming  to  a 
standstill  in  consequence  of  dense  forests.  Suffice  it  to 
say,  that  they  were  obliged  to  cut  a  road  so  much  of  the 
way  that  several  days  were  employed  in  going  eighteen 
miles.  It  was  a  difficult,  wearisome,  trying  journey,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  often  said,  that  he  never  passed  through  a 
harder  experience  than  he  did  in  going  from  Thompson's 
Ferry  to  Spenser  County,  Indiana." 

Thus,  before  he  was  eight  years  old,  Abraham  Lincoln 
began  the  serious  business  of  life.  The  cabin  in  which 
the  family  lived  was  built  of  logs,  and  even  the  aid  of 
such  a  mere  child  was  of  account  in  the  wilderness  where 
they  now  found  themselves,  after  seven  days  of  weary 
travel.  Their  neighbors,  none  of  whom  lived  nearer 
than  two  or  three  miles,  welcomed  the  strangers,  and 


20  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

lent  a  hand  towards  building  the  rude  dwelling  in  which 
the  future  President  lay  down,  after  fatiguing  but  health 
ful  toil,  to  dream  the  dreams  of  childhood,  undisturbed 
by  thoughts  of  the  future. 

But  just  as  Abraham  was  becoming  accustomed  to  his 
new  residence,  his  home  was  made  desolate  by  the  death 
of  his  mother,  which  occurred  when  he  was  ten  years  old. 
She  died  long  before  she  could  have  imagined,  in  her 
wildest  dreams,  the  eminence  and  distinction  which  her 
son  was  to  attain  ;  but  she  was  happy  in  the  knowledge 
that,  chiefly  under  her  own  tuition,  for  she  had  not  in 
trusted   his  education  entirely  to  the  schoolmaster  who 
chanced  to   settle  within  reach,   her  favorite   son  had 
learned  to  read  the  Bible — the  book  which,  as  a  Christian 
woman,  she  prized  above  all  others.     It  is  impossible  to 
estimate  the  influence  which  this  faithful  mother  ex- 
erted  in  moulding  the  character  of  her  child  ;  but  it  is 
easy  to  believe  that  the  earnestness  with  which  she  im 
pressed  upon  his  mind  and  heart  the  holy  precepts,  did 
much  to  develop  those  characteristics  which  in  after 
years  caused  him  to  be  known  as  pre-eminently  the 
"  Honest"  man.     There  is  touching  evidence  that  Abra 
ham  held  the  memory  of  his  mother  in  sacred  remem 
brance.     She  had  instructed  him  in  the  rudiments  of 
writing,  and  Mr.  Lincoln,^  in  spite  of  the   disparaging 
remarks  of  his  neighbors,  who  regarded  the  accomplish 
ment  as  entirely  unnecessary,  encouraged  his  son  to  per 
severe,  until  he  was  able  to  put  his  thoughts  upon  paper 
in  a  style  which,  although  rude,  caused  him  to  be  regarded 
as  quite  a  prodigy  among  the  illiterate  neighbors.     One 
of  the  very  first  efforts  of  his  faltering  pen  was  writing  a 
'letter  to  an    old    friend    of   his  mother's,  a  travelling 
preacher,  urging  him  to  come  and  deliver  a  sermon  over 
her  grave.     The  invitation  must  have  been  couched  in 
impressive,  if  not  affecting  language  ;  for,  although  the 
letter  was  not  written  until  nine  months  after  his  mother's 
remains  had  been  deposited  in  their  last  resting-place, 
Parson  Elkins,  the  preacher  to  whom  it  was  extended, 
responded  to  the  request,  and  three  months  subsequent- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  21 

ly,  just  a  year  after  her  decease,  preached  a  sermon  com 
memorative  of  the  virtues  of  one  whom  her  neighbors 
still  held  in  affectionate  and  respectful  remembrance.  In 
his  discourse  it  is  said  that  the  Parson  alluded  to  the 
manner  in  which  he  had  received  the  invitation,  and  Abra 
ham' s  pen  thereafter  found  frequent  employment,  in 
writing  letters  for  the  same  neighbors  who  had  before 
pretended  to  esteem  lightly  the  accomplishment  of  which 
they  at  last  recognized  the  value. 

About  two  years  after  the  death  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Mr. 
Lincoln  married  Mrs.  Sally  Johnston,  a  widow  with  three 
children.  She  proved  an  excellent  mother  to  her  step 
son  and  daughter,  and  a  faithful  wife.  During  the  twelve 
years  that  the  family  remained  in  Indiana,  Abraham's 
father  encouraged  him  to  improve  all  the  opportunities 
offered  for  mental  development.  How  scanty  these  privi 
leges  were,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  entire 
number  of  days  that  he  was  able  to  attend  school  hardly 
exceeded  one  year.  While  in  Indiana,  one  of  his  teachers 
was  a  Mr.  Dorsey,  who,  a  few  months  ago,  was  living  in 
Schuyler  County,  Illinois,  where  he  was  looked  up  to  with 
much  respect  by  his  neighbors,  as  one  of  those  who  had 
assisted  in  the  early  instruction  of  the  then  President  of 
the  United  States.  He  tells  with  great  satisfaction  how  his 
pupil,  who  was  then  remarked  for  the  diligence  and  eager 
ness  with  which  he  pursued  his  studies,  came  to  the 
log-cabin  school-house  arrayed  in  buckskin  clothes,  a  rac 
coon-skin  cap,  and  provided  with  an  old  arithmetic  which 
had  somewhere  been  found  for  him  to  begin  his  investiga 
tions  into  the  "  higher  branches."  In  connection  with  his 
attendance  upon  Mr.  Crawford's  school,  an  incident  is 
'told  which  is  sure  to  find  a  place  in  every  biography  of 
our  late  President.  Books  were,  of  course,  very  hard  to 
find  in  the  sparsely  settled  district  of  Indiana  where  the 
Lincoln  family  had  their  home,  and  every  printed  volume 
upon  which  Abraham  could  lay  his  hands  was  carefully 
guarded  and  eagerly  devoured.  Among  the  volumes  in 
Mr.  Crawford's  scanty  library  was  a  copy  of  Ramsay's 
Life  of  Washington,  which  Abraham  secured  permission, 


22  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

upon  one  occasion,  to  take  home  with  him.  During  a 
severe  storm  he  improved  his  leisure  by  reading  his  book. 
One  night  he  laid  it  down  carefully,  as  he  thought,  and 
the  next  morning  he  found  it  soaked  through  !  The  wind 
had  changed,  the  storm  had  beaten  in  through  a  crack  in 
the  logs,  and  the  appearance  of  the  book  was  ruined. 
How  could  he  face  the  owner  under  such  circumstances? 
He  had  no  money  to  offer  as  a  return,  but  he  took  the 
book,  went  directly  to  Mr.  Crawford,  showed  him  the 
irreparable  injury,  and  frankly  and  honestly  offered  to 
work  for  him  until  he  should  be  satisfied.  Mr.  Crawford 
accepted  the  offer,  and  gave  Abraham  the  book  for  his 
own,  in  return  for  three  days'  steady  labor  in  "pulling 
fodder.*'  This,  and  Weems's  Life  of  Washington,  were 
among  the  boy' s  favorite  books,  and  the  story  that  we  have 
just  told  is  so  nearly  parallel  to  the  famous  "hatchet"  in 
cident  in  the  early  days  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  that 
it  is  easy  to  believe  that  the  frequent  perusal  of  it  im 
pressed  upon  his  mind,  more  effectually  than  any  solemn 
exhortation  could  have  done,  the  precept  that  u  honesty 
is  the  best  policy,"  and  thus  assisted  to  develop  that 
character  of  which  integrity  was  so  prominent  a  trait 
in  after  years.  Among  the  other  volumes  which  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  accustomed  to  refer  to,  as  having  been 
eagerly  read  in  his  youthful  days,  were  a  Life  of  Henry 
Clay,  Esop's  Fables,  and  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress. 
It  is  quite  probable  that  the  quaint  phraseology  of  these 
last  two  volumes,  and  their  direct  and  forcible  illustra 
tions,  may  have  impressed  upon  the  productions  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  pen  that  style  which  is  one  of  their  most  pecu 
liar  and  favorite  characteristics. 

When  nineteen  years  old,  Abraham  Lincoln,  moved, 
perhaps,  equally  by  the  desire  to  earn  an  honest  liveli 
hood  in  the  shape  of  uten  dollars  a  month  and  found," 
and  by  curiosity  to  see  more  of  the  world,  made  a  trip  * 
down  the  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans,  upon  a  flat-boat* 
He  went  in  company  with  the  son  of  the  owner  of  the 
boat,  who  intrusted  a  valuable  cargo  to  their  care.  The 
trip  was  quite  an  eventful  and  exciting  one,  for  on  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  23 

way  down  the  great  river  they  were  attacked  by  seven 
negroes,  who  hoped  to  capture  the  Iboat  and  the  cargo. 
They  found,  however,  that  they  had  undertaken  a  task 
to  the  execution  of  which  they  were  unequal.  After  a 
spirited  contest  the  negroes  were  driven  Iback,  and  com 
pelled  to  abandon  their  attempt,  leaving  our  boatmen 
the  undisputed  masters  of  the  field.  Upon  this  trip 
young  Lincoln's  literary  acquirements  were  called  into 
useful  action,  and  besides  the  stipulated  ten  dollars  per 
month,  he  gained  a  substantial  reputation  as  a  youth  of 
promising  business  talent. 

During  the  twelve  years  that  the  family  had  been 
living  in  Indiana,  the  advancing  tide  of  civilization  had 
again  encroached  upon  them  almost  imperceptibly,  and 
in  1830  Thomas  Lincoln,  impatient  of  the  restrictions 
which  he  found  the  gradually  increasing  population 
drawing  around  him,  again  determined  to  seek  a  new 
home  farther  west,  and  after  fifteen  days'  journey  came 
upon  a  site  near  Decatur,  Macon  County,  Illinois,  which 
seemed  to  him  a  desirable  one.  He  immediately  erected 
a  log  cabin,  and,  with  the  aid  of  his  son,  who  was  now 
twenty-one,  proceeded  to  fence  in  his  new  farm.  Abra 
ham  had  little  idea,  while  engaged  in  the  unromantic 
occupation  of  mauling  the  rails  which  were  to  bound  his 
father  s  possessions,  that  he  was  writing  a  page  in  his  life 
which  would  be  read  by  the  whole  nation  years  after 
ward.  Yet  so  it  proved  to  be.  A  writer,  describing  one 
of  the  incidents  in  the  earlier  political  career  of  the  late 
President,  says : — 

During  the  sitting  of  the  Republican  State  Convention,  at  Decatur,  a 
banner,  attached  to  two  of  these  rails,  and  bearing  an  appropriate  inscrip 
tion,  was  brought  into  the  assemblage,  and  formally  presented  to  that 
body,  amid  a  scene  of  unparalleled  enthusiasm.  After  that,  they  were  in 
demand  in  every  State  of  the  Union  in  which  free  labor  is  honored, 
where  they  were  borne  in  processions  of  the  people,  and  hailed  by  hun 
dreds  of  thousands  of  freemen  as  a  symbol  of  triumph,  and  as  a  glorious 
vindication  of  freedom  and  of  the  rights  and  dignity  of  free  labor.  These, 
however,  were  far  from  being  the  first  and  only  rails  made  by  Lincoln, 
He  was  a  practised  hand  at  the  business.  Mr.  Lincoln  has  now  a  can* 
made  from  one  of  the  rails  split  by  his  own  hands  in  boyhood. 


24  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Every  one  remembers  how,  during  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1860,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  characterized  as  a 
"  rail- splitter  ;"  first,  sneeringly,  by  his  opponents  ;  after 
wards  by  his  own  supporters,  as  the  best  possible  proof 
that  he  was  of  and  from  the  people. 

Notwithstanding  the  increasing  age  of  Thomas  Lincoln, 
his  disposition  was  so  restless,  and  his  desire  for  change 
so  ineradicable,  that,  after  a  single  year' s  residence  in  his 
new  home,  he  determined  to  abandon  it,  and  in  the  spring 
of  1831  started  for  Coles  County,  sixty  or  seventy  miles 
to  the  eastward.  Abraham  determined  not  to  follow  his 
father  in  his  journeyings,  and  possibly  the  want  of  his  son' s 
efficient  help  compelled  him  to  forego  further  change, 
and  to  settle  down  for  the  rest  of  his  days  on  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Kaskaskia  and  Embarras,  where  he  died  on 
January  17,  1851,  in  the  seventy -third  year  of  his  age. 
In  the  spring  of  1831,  Abraham  made  his  second  trip  to 
New  Orleans,  in  the  capacity  of  a  flat-boatman,  returning 
in  the  summer  of  the  same  year.  The  man  who  had  em 
ployed  him  for  this  voyage  was  so  well  pleased  with  the 
energy  and  business  capacity  displayed  by  young  Lincoln, 
that  upon  establishing  a  store  at  New  Salem,  some  twenty 
miles  from  Springfield,  soon  afterward,  he  engaged  him  to 
assist  him  in  the  capacity  of  clerk,  and  also  to  superin 
tend  a  flouring-mill  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  In  one  of 
the  celebrated  debates  during  the  Senatorial  campaign, 
Mr.  Douglas  ventured  to  refer,  in  rather  disparaging 
terms,  to  this  year  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life,  taunting  him 
with  having  been  a  grocery -keeper.  To  this  Mr.  Lincoln 
replied  as  follows  :— 

The  judge  is  wofully  at  fault  about  his  early  friend  Lincoln  being  a 
<;  grocery-keeper."  I  don't  know  as  it  would  be  a  great  sin,  if  I  had 
been;  but  he  is  mistaken.  Lincoln  never  kept  a  grocery  anywhere  in 
the  world.  It  is  true  that  Lincoln  did  work  the  latter  part  of  one  winter 
in  a  little  still-house,  up  at  the  head  of  a  hollow. 

This  frank  statement  drew  the  sting  completely  from 
the  taunt  of  Senator  Douglas.  Some,  at  least,  of  those 
who  were  listening  to  the  debate,  knew  that,  at  the  time 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  25 

to  which  Mr.  Lincoln  referred,  a  winter  of  unusual 
severity  had  caused  extreme  suffering  through  that  sec 
tion  of  Illinois,  and  that  he  was  not  only  anxious,  but 
compelled,  to  take  up  with  any  occupation  by  which  he 
might  turn  an  honest  penny  in  order  to  keep  his  father  s 
family,  who  were  even  then  partially  dependent  upon 
him,  from  positive  want. 

In  1832  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out,  and 
coin,  prompt  as  ever  to  answer  the  call  of  duty,  joined  a 
volunteer  company  and  took  the  field  against  the  Indians. 
That  he  had  already  gained  a  recognized  position  in  the 
part  of  the  State  where  he  theji  lived,  is  clearly  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  he  was  elected  captain  of  his  company. 
After  a  few  weeks'  ineffectual  service,  the  force  which  had 
responded  to  the  call  of  Governor  Reynolds  was  dii 
banded     The  troubles  broke  out  anew,  however,  wit 
a  short  time,  and  again  Mr.  Lincoln  enlisted,  this  time 
also  as  a  private.     What  rank  was  conferred  upon  him, 
if  any  during  this  campaign  is  not  recorded  ;  but  in  spit 
of  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  him  by  older  mem 
bers  of  his  company,  to  induce  him  to  return  home,  he 
discharged  his  duties  faithfully  through  the  three  monti 

campaign. 

Many  years  after,  during  his  congressional  career,  Mr. 
Lincoln  referred  thus  humorously  to  his  military  servic 
in  this  "war:"- 

By  the  way,  Mr.   Speaker,  did  yon  know  I  was   a  military  hero? 
Yes  sir  in  the  days  of  the  Black  Hawk  war  I  fought,  bled,  and  came 
awa'y     Speaking  of  General  Cass's  career,  reminds  me  of  my  own. 
was  not  at  Sullivan's  defeat,  but  I  was  about  as  near  to  it  as  Cassias  to 
Hull's  surrender;  and,  like  him,  I  saw  the  place  soon  after     It  is  quil 
certain  that  I  did  not  break  my  sword,  for  I  had  none  to  break;  but 
bent  my  musket  pretty  badly  on  one  occasion.     If  Cass  broke  Ins  sword 
the  idea  is,  he  broke  it  in  desperation.     I  bent  the  musket  by  accid 
If  General  Cass  went  in  advance  of  me  in  picking  whortleberries,  I  gues 
I  surpassed  him  in  charges  upon  the  wild  onions.    If  he  saw  any  live 
fighting  Indians,  it  was  more  than  I  did,  but  I  had  a  great  many  b 
smuggles  with  the  mosquitoes;  and  although  I  never  fainted  from  loss 
blood,  I  certainly  can  say  I  was  often  very  hungry. 

His  military  career  closed,  Mr.  Lincoln  turned  his  atten- 


26  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES, 

tion  to  politics.  He  espoused  the  cause  of  Henry  Clay — 
in  opposition  to  that  of  General  Jackson,  who  was  very 
popular  in  that  section  of  Illinois — and  ran  as  a  candidate 
for  the  State  legislature.  Although  this  contest  took 
place  three  months  Ibefore  the  presidential  election,  the 
same  elements  entered  into  it,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  de 
feated,  as  he  undoubtedly  expected  to  be,  although  his 
failure  must  have  been  amply  compensated  for  "by  the 
highly  complimentary  vote  that  he  received  in  his  own 
precinct,  which  gave  him  two  hundred  and  seventy- seven 
votes  out  of  two  hundred  and  eighty-four  cast ;  and  this, 
"be  it  remembered,  was  the  first  and  last  time  that  he  was 
ever  beaten  before  the  people.  The  contest  ended,  Mr. 
Lincoln  settled  down  to  business  again.  He  purchased 
a  store  and  stock  of  goods  on  credit,  and  secured  the 
postmastership  of  the  town;  but  the  venture  was  un 
successful,  and  he  sold  out.  Meanwhile,  he  was  still 
employing  every  opportunity  ottered  him  to  improve  his 
mind.  He  had  mastered  grammar,  and  occupied  his 
leisure  time  in  general  reading,  taking  care  to  write  out  a 
synopsis  of  every  book  he  perused,  so  as  to  fix  the  con 
tents  in  his  memory. 

About  this  time  he  met  John  Calhoun,  afterwards 
president  of  the  Lecompton  Constitutional  Convention. 
Calhoun  proposed  to  Lincoln  to  take  up  surveying,  and 
himself  aided  in  his  studies.  He  had  plenty  of  employment 
as  a  surveyor,  and  won  a  good  reputation  in  this  new 
line  of  business  ;  but  the  financial  crash  of  1837  destroyed 
his  business,  and  his  instruments  were  finally  sold  under 
a  sheriff's  execution.  This  reverse  again  threw  him  back 
into  political  life,  and  as  the  best  preparation  for  it  he 
vigorously  pursued  his  legal  studies. 

In  1834,  Mr.  Lincoln  again  ran  for  the  legislature,  and 
this  time  was  elected.  Then  that  political  life  commenced, 
which  his  countrymen's  votes  have  since  shown  they 
fully  appreciated.  In  1836,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  again  elect 
ed  to  the  legislature  as  one  of  the  seven  representatives 
from  Sangamon  County,  and  during  this  term  he  was 
assigned  a  place  on  the  Finance  Committee,  his  member- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  27 

ship  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Accounts  and  Expendi 
tures  during  Ms  first  term  having  qualified  him  for  this 
duty. 

The  following  letter,  which  was  written  during  this 
canvass,  besides  being  an  interesting  reminiscence  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  early  political  life,  is  valuable  as  exhibiting, 
in  a  striking  manner,  his  determination  to  be  frank  and 
honest  in  all  his  dealings  with  the  public  and  with  his 
opponents : — 

NB-W  SAI.EM,  June  21, 1836. 

DEAR  COLONEL: — I  am  told  that,  during  my  absence  last  week,  you 
passed  through  this  place,  and  stated  publicly  that  you  were  in  possession 
of  a  fact  or  facts,  which,  if  known  to  the  public,  would  entirely  destroy 
the  prospects  of  N.  W.  Edwards  and  myself  at  the  ensuing  election ;  but 
that,  through  favor  to  us,  you  would  forbear  to  divulge  them. 

No  one  has  needed  favors  more  than  I,  and,  generally,  few  have  been 
less  unwilling  to  accept  them ;  but  in  this  case  favor  to  me  would  be  in 
justice  to  the  public,  and,  therefore,  I  must  beg  your  pardon  for  declining 
it.  That  I  once  had  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  Sangamon  county  is 
sufficiently  evident,  and  if  I  have  since  done  any  thing,  either  by  design 
or  misadventure,  which,  if  known,  would  subject  me  to  a  forfeiture  of 
that  confidence,  he  that  knows  of  that  thing  and  conceals  it,  is  a  traitor 
to  Iiis  country's  interest. 

I  find  myself  wholly  unable  to  form  any  conjecture  of  what  fact  or 
facts,  real  or  supposed,  you  spoke.  But  my  opinion  of  your  veracity  will 
not  permit  me,  for  a  moment,  to  doubt  that  you,  at  least,  believed  what 
you  said.  I  am  flattered  with  the  personal  regard  you  manifested  for 
me;  but  I  do  hope  that,  on  more  mature  reflection,  you  will  view  the 
public  interest  as  a  paramount  consideration,  and  therefore  determine  to 
lot  the  worst  come. 

I  here  assure  you  that  the  candid  statement  of  facts  on  your  part,  how 
ever  low  it  may  sink  me,  shall  never  break  the  ties  of  personal  friendship 
between  us. 

I  wish  an  answer  to  this,  and  you  are  at  liberty  to  publish  both,  if  you 
choose.  Very  respectfully, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Col.  EOBEET  ALLEN. 

It  was  in  this  year  (1836)  that  Mr.  Lincoln  first  became 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Douglas,  whom  he  was  destined 
to  meet  in  so  many  hotly  contested  campaigns,  but  whom 
he  did  not  then  anticipate  that  he  should,  twenty-four 
years  afterwards,  defeat  in  a  presidential  election.  The 
Democrats  of  course  held  the  ascendency  in  the  Illinois 


28  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

legislature  at  this  time,  and  they  took  advantage  of  their 
strength  to  pass  some  extreme  pro- slavery  resolutions, 
branding  as  "abolitionists"  those  who  refused  to  indorse 
them.  That  his  position  might  not  be  misunderstood, 
Mr.  Lincoln  took  advantage  of  his  parliamentary  privi 
lege  to  enter  upon  the  Journal  of  the  House,  in  connec 
tion  with  a  colleague,  his  reasons  for  voting  in  opposition 
to  the  resolutions.  This  document,  which  now  possesses 
historical  interest,  reads  as  follows  : — 

MARCH  3, 1S8T. 

The  following  protest  was  presented  to  the  House,  which  was  read  and 
ordered  to  be  spread  on  the  journals,  to  wit: 

"Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery  having  passed  both 
branches  of  the  General  Assembly  at  its  present  session,  the  undersigned 
hereby  protest  against  the  passage  of  the  same. 

"  They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on  both  injustice 
and  bad  policy ;  but  that  the  promulgation  of  abolition  doctrines  tends 
rather  to  increase  than  abate  its  evils. 

"  They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  no  power, 
under  the  Constitution,  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the 
different  States. 

"  They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  the  power, 
under  the  Constitution,  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia; 
but  that  the  power  ought  not  to  be  exercised,  unless  at  the  request  of  the 
people  of  said  District. 

"  The  difference  between  these  opinions  and  those  contained  in  the  said 
resolutions,  is  their  reason  for  entering  this  protest 
"(Signed) 

"DAN  STONE, 
"A.  LINCOLN, 
Representatives  from  the  County  of  Sangamon." 

In  1838,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  for  the  third  time  elected  to 
the  State  legislature  ;  and  among  his  six  colleagues,  as  rep 
resentatives  from  Sangamon  County,  was  John  Calhoun, 
since  notorious  for  his  connection  with  the  Lecompton 
Constitution.  His  position  as  leader  of  the  Whigs  in  the 
House  was  so  well  recognized,  that  he  received  the  party 
vote  for  the  Speakership,  and  was  defeated  by  only  one 
vote.  In  1840,  for  the  fourth  successive  term,  Mr.  Lin 
coln  was  returned  to  the  legislature,  and  again  received 
the  vote  of  his  party  as  the  candidate  for  Speaker. 
Meanwhile,  lie  had  been  vigorously  engaged  in  canvas 
sing  the  State,  in  anticipation  of  the  presidential  election. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

and  had  greatly  enhanced  Ms  reputation  "by  his  repeated 
earnest  and  eloquent  efforts. 

Politics  had  interfered  so  seriously  with  Mr.  Lincoln  s 
legal  studies,  which  had  been  energetically  prosecuted 
during  the  intervals  of  legislative  duty,  that  at  the  clos 
of  this  term  he  declined  a  renomination,  in  order  that  he 
might  devote  his  whole  time  to  the  practice  of  his  profes 
sion.  As  already  stated,  he  had  been  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1836  ;  and  on  April  15,  1837,  he  settled  permanently 
in  Springfield,  the  seat  of  Sangamon  County,  which  was 
destined  to  be  his  future  home.  His  friend  and  former 
colleague  in  the  legislature,  Hon.  John  T.  Stuart,  was 
his  partner. 

One  incident  of  his  law  practice  partakes  deeply  ( 
romantic.  It  is  authentic,  however,  anjj,  is  well  worth 
narrating.  When  Mr.  Lincoln  first  went  out  into  the 
world,  to  earn  a  living  for  himself,  he  worked  for  a  Mr. 
Armstrong,  of  Petersburg,  Menard  County,  who,  with 
his  wife,  took  a  great  interest  in  him,  lent  him  books  to 
read,  and,  after  the  season  for  work  was  over,  encour 
aged  him  to  remain  with  them  until  he  should  find  some 
thing  "to  turn  his  hand  to."  They  also  hoped  much 
from  his  influence  over  their  son,  an  over-indulged  and 
somewhat  unruly  boy.  The  sequel,  which  is  thus  graph 
ically  told  by  the  Cleaveland  Leader,  shows  how  these 
good  people  reaped  their  reward  for  their  generosity  to 
the  young  man  whom  they  so  generously  took  under 
their  protection.  That  journal  says  :— 

Some  few  years  since,  the  eldest  son  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  old  friend, 
Armstrong,  the  chief  supporter  of  his  widowed  mother— the  good  old 
man  having  some  time  previously  passed  from  earth— was  arrested  on 
the  charge  of  murder.  A  young  man  had  heen  killed  during  a  riotous 
melee  in  the  night-time  at  a  camp-meeting,  and  one  of  his  associates 
stated  that  the  death-wound  was  inflicted  by  young  Armstrong.  A  pre 
liminary  examination  was  gone  into,  at  which  the  accuser  testified  so 
positively,  that  there  seemed  no  doubt  of  the  guilt  of  the  prisoner,  and 
therefore  he  was  held  for  trial.  As  is  too  often  the  case,  the  bloody 
act  caused  an  undue  degree  of  excitement  in  the  public  mind.  Every 
improper  incident  in  the  life  of  the  prisoner— .each  act  which  bore  the 
least  semblance  to  rowdyism— each  schoolboy  quarrel,— was  suddenly 


SO  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

remembered  and  magnified,  until  they  pictured  him  as  a  fiend  of  the  most 
horrible  hue.  As  these  rumors  spread  abroad  they  were  received  as  gos 
pel  truth,  and  a  feverish  desire  for  vengeance  seized  upon  the  infatuated 
populace,  whilst  only  prison  bars  prevented  a  horrible  death  at  the  hands 
of  a  mob.  The  events  were  heralded  in  the  county  papers,  painted  in 
highest  colors,  accompanied  by  rejoicing  over  the  certainty  of  punishment 
being  meted  out  to  the  guilty  party.  The  prisoner,  overwhelmed  by  the 
circumstances  under  which  he  found  himself  placed,  fell  into  a  melan 
choly  condition  bordering  on  despair,  and  the  widowed  mother,  looking 
through  her  tears,  saw  no  cause  for  hope  from  earthly  aid. 

At  this  juncture,  the  widow  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Lincoln,  vol 
unteering  his  services  in  an  effort  to  save  the  youth  from  the  impending 
stroke.  Gladly  was  his  aid  accepted,  although  it  seemed  impossible  for 
even  his  sagacity  to  prevail  in  such  a  desperate  case ;  but  the  heart  of  the 
attorney  was  in  his  work,  and  he  set  about  it  with  a  will  that  knew  no 
such  word  as  fail.  Feeling  that  the  poisoned  condition  of  the  public  mind 
was  such  as  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  impanelling  an  impartial  jury 
in  the  court  having  jurisdiction,  he  procured  a  change  of  venue  and  a 
postponement  of  the  trial.  He  then  went  studiously  to  work  unravelling 
the  history  of  the  case,  and  satisfied  himself  that  his  client  was  the  victim 
of  malice,  and  that  the  statements  of  the  accuser  were  a  tissue  of  false 
hoods. 

"When  the  trial  was  called  on,  the  prisoner,  pale  and  emaciated,  with 
hopelessness  written  on  every  feature,  and  accompanied  by  his  half- 
hoping,  half-despairing  mother — whose  only  hope  was  in  a  mother's  belief 
of  her  son's  innocence,  in  the  justice  of  the  God  she  worshipped,  and  in 
the  noble  counsel,  who,  without  hope  of  fee  or  reward  upon  earth,  had 
undertaken  the  cause — took  his  seat  in  the  prisoners'  box,  and  with  a 
"stony  firmness"  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  indictment.  Lincoln  sat 
quietly  by,  while  the  large  auditory  looked  on  him  as  though  wondering 
what  he  could  say  in  defence  of  one  whose  guilt  they  regarded  as  certain. 
The  examination  of  the  witnesses  for  the  State  was  begun,  and  a  well- 
arranged  mass  of  evidence,  circumstantial  and  positive,  was  introduced, 
which  seemed  to  impale  the  prisoner  beyond  the  possibility  of  extrication. 
The  counsel  for  the  defence  propounded  but  few  questions,  and  those  of  a 
character  which  excited  no  uneasiness  on  the  part  of  the  prosecutor — 
merely,  in  most  cases,  requiring  the  main  witnesses  to  be  definite  as  to 
the  time  and  place.  "When  the  evidence  of  the  prosecution  was  ended, 
Lincoln  introduced  a  few  witnesses  to  remove  some  erroneous  impressions 
in  regard  to  the  previous  character  of  his  client,  who,  though  somewhat 
rowdyish,  had  never  been  known  to  commit  a  vicious  act ;  and  to  show 
that  a  greater  degree  of  ill  feeling  existed  between  the  accuser  and  the 
accused,  than  the  accused  and  the  deceased. 

The  prosecutor  felt  that  the  case  was  a  clear  one,  and  his  opening 
speech  was  brief  and  formal.  Lincoln  arose,  while  a  deathly  silence 
pervaded  the  vast  audience,  and  in  a  clear  and  moderate  tone  began  his 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  31 

argument.  Slowly  and  carefully  lie  reviewed  the  testimony,  pointing  out 
the  hitherto  unobserved  discrepancies  in  the  statements  of  the  principal 
witness.  That  which  had  seemed  plain  and  plausible  he  made  to  appear 
crooked  as  a  serpent's  path.  The  witness  had  stated  that  the  affair  took 
place  at  a  certain  hour  in  the  evening,  and  that,  by  the  aid  of  the  brightly 
Binning  moon,  he  saw  the  prisoner  inflict  the  death-blow  with  the  slung- 
shot.  Mr.  Lincoln  showed  that  at  the  hour  referred  to  the  moon  had  not 
yet  appeared  above  the  horizon,  and  consequently  the  whole  tale  was  a 
fabrication. 

An  almost  instantaneous  change  seemed  to  have  been  wrought  in  the 
minds  of  his  auditors,  and  the  verdict  of  "  not  guilty"  was  at  the  end  of 
every  tongue.  But  the  advocate  was  not  content  with  this  intellectual 
achievement.  His  whole  being  had  for  months  been  bound  up  in  this 
work  of  gratitude  and  mercy,  and  as  the  lava  of  the  over  charged  crater 
bursts  from  its  imprisonment,  so  great  thoughts  and  burning  words  leaped 
forth  from  the  soul  of  the  eloquent  Lincoln.  He  drew  a  picture  of  the 
perjurer  so  horrid  and  ghastly,  that  the  accuser  could  sit  under  it  no 
longer,  but  reeled  and  staggered  from  the  court-room,  whilst  the  audience 
fancied  they  could  see  the  brand  upon  his  brow.  Then  in  words  of  thril 
ling  pathos  Lincoln  appealed  to  the  jurors  as  fathers  of  some  who  might 
become  fatherless,  and  as  husbands  of  wives  who  might  be  widowed,  to 
yield  to  no  previous  impressions,  no  ill-founded  prejudice,  but  to  do  his 
client  justice;  and  as  he  alluded  to  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  he  owed 
the  boy's  sire,  tears  were  seen  to  fall  from  many  eyes  unused  to  weep. 

It  was  near  night  when  he  concluded,  by  saying  that  if  justice  was 
done— as  he  believed  it  would  be— before  the  sun  should  set,  it  would 
shine  upon  his  client  a  free  man.     The  jury  retired,  and  the  court  ad 
journed  for  the  day.     Half  an  hour  had  not  elapsed,  when,  as  the  officers 
of  the  court  and  the  volunteer  attorney  sat  at  the  tea-table  of  their  hotel, 
.a  messenger  announced  that  the  jury  had  returned  to  their  seats.     All 
repaired  immediately  to  the  court-house,  and  whilst  the  prisoner  was 
being  brought  from  the  jail,  the  court-room  was  filled  to  overflowing  with 
citizens  from  the  town.     When  the  prisoner  and  his  mother  entered, 
eilence  reigned  as  completely  as  though  the  house  were  empty.    The  fore 
man  of  the  jury,  in  answer  to  the  usual  inquiry  from  the  court,  delivered 
the  verdict  of  "  Not  Guilty!"     The  widow  dropped  into  the  arms  of  her 
son,  who  lifted  her  up  and  told  her  .to  look  upon  him  as  before,  free  and 
innocent.     Then,  with  the  words,  "Where  is  Mr.  Lincoln?"  he  rushed 
across  the  room  and  grasped  the  hand  of  his  deliverer,  whilst  his  heart 
was  too  full  for  utterance.    Lincoln  turned  his  eyes  toward  the  West, 
where  the  sun  still  lingered  in  view,  and  then,  turning  to  the  youth,  said : 
"  It  is  not  yet  sundown  and  you  are  free."     I  confess  that  my  cheeks  were 
not  wholly  unwet  by  tears,  and  I  turned  from  the  affecting  scene.     As  1 
cast  a  glance  behind,  I  saw  Abraham  Lincoln  obeying  the  Divine  injunc 
tion  by  comforting  the  widowed  and  fatherless. 


32  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

A  writer  in  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin^  in  the  course 
of  an  article  giving  reminiscences  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  thus 
sketches  still  another  phase  of  his  legal  career : — 

A  number  of  years  ago,  the  writer  of  this  lived  in  one  of  the  judicial 
circuits  of  Illinois  in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  had  an  extensive,  though 
not  very  lucrative  practice.  The  terms  of  the  court  were  held  quarterly, 
and  usually  lasted  about  two  weeks.  The  occasions  were  always  seasons 
of  great  importance  and  much  gayety  in  the  little  town  that  had  the  honor 
of  being  the  county  seat.  Distinguished  members  of  the  Bar  from  sur 
rounding  and  even  from  distant  counties,  ex-judges  and  ex-members  of 
Congress  attended,  and  were  personally,  and  many  of  them  popularly 
known  to  almost  every  adult,  male  and  female,  of  the  limited  population. 
They  came  in  by  stages  and  on  horseback.  Among  them,  the  one  above 
all  whose  arrival  was  looked  forward  to  with  the  most  pleasurable  antici 
pations,  and  whose  possible  absence — although  he  never  was  absent — 
was  feared  with  the  liveliest  emotions  of  anxiety,  was  "Uncle  Abe,"  as 
he  was  lovingly  called  by  us  all.  Sometimes  he  might  happen  to  be  a 
day  or  two  late,  and  then,  as  the  Bloomington  stage  came  in  at  sundown, 
the  Bench  and  the  Bar,  jurors  and  the  general  citizens,  would  gather  in 
crowds  at  the  hotel  where  he  always  put  up,  to  give  him  anvelcome  if  he 
should  happily  arrive,  and  to  experience  the  keenest  feelings  of  disappoint 
ment  if  he  should  not.  If  he  arrived,  as  he  alighted  and  stretched  out 
both  his  long  arms  to  shake  hands  with  those  nearest  to  him  and  with 
those  who  approached — his  homely  face  handsome  in  its  broad  and  sun 
shiny  smile,  nis  voice  touching  in  its  kindly  and  cheerful  accents — every 
one  in  his  presence  felt  lighter  in  heart  and  became  joyous.  He  brought 
light  with  him.  He  loved  his  fellow-men  with  all  the  strength  of  his 
great  nature,  and  those  who  came  in  contact  with  him  could  not  help 
reciprocating  the  love.  His  tenderness  of  the  feelings  of  others  was 
of  sensitiveness  in  the  extreme. 

For  several  years  after  settling  in  Springfield,  Mr.  Lin 
coln  remained  a  Ibachelor,  residing  in  the  family  of  Hon. 
William  Butler,  who  was,  a  few  years  since,  elected  State 
Treasurer.  On  November  4th,  1842,  he  married  Miss 
Mary  Todd,  daughter  of  Hon.  Robert  S.  Todd,  of  Lex 
ington,  Kentucky.  She  now  mourns  the  violent  and 
untimely  death  of  her  lamented  husband. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  love  for  Henry  Clay,  which  was  enkin 
lied  by  the  life  of  that  statesman,  which  he  read  when  a 
boy,  grew  with  his  years,  and  when  he  reached  manhood 
it  had  deepened  into  enthusiastic  admiration.     In  1844  he 
stumped  Illinois  for  him,  and  even  extended  his  labors  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  33 

Indiana.  None  felt  more  keenly  than  lie  the  unexpected 
defeat  of  his  favorite.  In  1846  Mr.  Lincoln  was  induced 
to  accept  the  nomination  for  Congress,  and  in  the  district 
\vhich  had,  two  years  before,  given  Mr.  Clay,  for  Presi 
dent,  a  majority  of  nine  hundred  and  fourteen  votes,  he 
astonished  himself  and  his  friends  by  rolling  up  a  major 
ity  of  fifteen  hundred  and  eleven.  To  add  to  the  signifi 
cance  of  his  triumph,  he  was  the  only  Whig  representative 
from  Illinois,  which  had  then  seven  members  in  that 
body.  This  Congress  had  before  it  subjects  of  great 
importance  and  interest  to  the  country.  The  Mexican 
War  was  in  progress,  and  Congress  had  to  deal  with 
grave  questions  arising  out  of  it,  besides  determining  and 
providing  the  means  by  which  it  was  to  be  carried  on. 
The  irrepressible  Slavery  Question  was  there  also,  in 
many  of  its  Protean  forms, — in  questions  on  the  right  of 
petition,  in  questions  as  to  the  District  of  Columbia,  in 
many  questions  as  to  the  Territories. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  charged  by  his  enemies  in  later  years, 
when  political  hostility  was  hunting  sharply  for  material 
out  of  which  to  make  capital  against  him,  with  lack  of 
patriotism,  alleging  that  he  voted  against  the  war.  The 
charge  was  sharply  and  clearly  made  by  Judge  Douglas, 
at  the  first  of  their  joint  discussions  in  the  Senatorial 
contest  of  1858.  In  his  speech  at  Ottawa,  he  said  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  that  "while  in  Congress  he  distinguished  him 
self  by  his  opposition  to  the  Mexican  war,  taking  the 
si  Le  of  tlie  common  enemy  against  liis  own  country, 
and  when  he  returned  home  he  found  that  the  indigna 
tion  of  the  people  followed  him  everywhere." 

No  better  answer  can  be  given  to  this  charge  than  that 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  made,  in  his  reply  to  this 
speech.  He  says:  "I  was  an  old  Whig,  and  whenever 
the  Democratic  party  tried  to  get  me  to  vote  that  the  war 
had  been  righteously  begun  by  the  President,  I  would 
not  do  it.  But  whenever  they  asked  for  any  money  or 
land-warrants,  or  any  thing  to  pay  the  soldiers  there, 
during  all  that  time  I  gave  the  same  vote  that  Judge 
Douglas  did.  You  can  think  as  you  please  as  to  whether 


34  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

that  was  consistent.  Such  is  the  truth,  and  the  Judge 
has  a  right  to  make  all  he  can  out  of  it.  But  when  he, 
by  a  general  charge,  conveys  the  idea  that  I  withheld 
supplies  from  the  soldiers  who  were  fighting  in  the  Mex 
ican  war,  or  did  any  thing  else  to  hinder  the  soldiers,  he 
is,  to  say  the  least,  grossly  and  altogether  mistaken,  as  a 
consultation  of  the  records  will  prove  to  him." 

We  need  no  more  thorough  refutation  of  this  imputa 
tion  upon  his  patriotism  than  is  embodied  in  this  clear 
and  distinct  denial.  It  required  no  little  sagacity,  at  that 
time,  to  draw  a  clear  line  of  demarcation  between  sup 
porting  the  country  while  engaged  in  war,  and  sustaining 
the  Avar  itself,  which  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  common  with  the 
great  body  of  the  party  with  which  he  was  connected, 
regarded  as  utterly  unjust.  The  Democratic  party  made 
vigorous  use  of  the  charge  everywhere.  The  whole 
foundation  of  it,  doubtless,  was  the  fact  which  Mr.  Lin 
coln  states,  that,  whenever  the  Democrats  tried  to  get 
him  "to  vote  that  the  war  had  been  righteously  begun," 
he  would  not  do  it.  He  showed,  in  fact,  on  this  point, 
the  same  clearness  and  directness,  the  same  keen  eye  for 
the  important  point  in  a  controversy,  and  the  same  tena 
city  in  holding  it  fast,  and  thwarting  his  opponent's 
utmost  efforts  to  obscure  it  and  cover  it  up,  to  draw 
attention  to  other  points  and  raise  false  issues,  which 
were  the  marked  characteristics  of  his  great  controversy 
with  Judge  Douglas  at  a  subsequent  period  of  their  poli 
tical  history.  It  is  always  popular,  because  it  always 
seems  patriotic,  to  stand  by  the  country  when  engaged  in 
war — and  the  people  are  not  invariably  disposed  to  judge 
Leniently  of  efforts  to  prove  their  country  in  the  wrong  as 
against  any  foreign  power.  In  this  instance,  Mr.  Lincoln 
saw  that  the  strength  of  the  position  of  the  Administration 
before  the  people,  in  reference  to  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
was  in  the  point,  which  they  lost  no  opportunity  of  reiter 
ating,  viz.  :  that  Mexico  had  shed  the  blood  of  our  citizens 
on  our  own  soil.  This  position  he  believed  to  be  false, 
and  he  accordingly  attacked  it  in  a  series  of  resolutions 
requesting  the  President  to  give  the  House  information 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  35 

on  that  point ;  which  President  Polk  would  have  found 
as  difficult  to  dodge  as  Douglas  found  it  to  dodge  the 
questions  which  Mr.  Lincoln  proposed  to  him. 

As  a  part  of  the  history  of  Mr.  Lincoln' s  Congressional 
career,  we  give  these  resolutions,  omitting  the  preamble, 
which  simply  reproduces  the  language  employed  by 
President  Polk  in  his  message,  to  convey  the  impression 
that  the  Mexicans  were  the  aggressors,  and  that  the  war 
was  undertaken  to  repel  invasion,  and  to  avenge  the  shed 
ding  of  the  blood  of  our  fellow-citizens  on  our  own  soil. 
The  quaint  phraseology  of  the  resolutions  stamps  them 
as  the  production  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  pen.  They  read  as 
follows : 

Resolved  J)y  iht  House  of  Representatives,  That  the  President  of  the 
United  States  be  respectfully  requested  to  inform  this  House — 

1st.  Whether  the  spot  on  which  the  blood  of  our  citizens  was  shed,  as 
in  his  messages  declared,  was  or  was  not  within  the  territory  of  Spain,  at 
least  after  the  treaty  of  1819,  until  the  Mexican  revolution. 

2d.  Whether  that  spot  is  or  is  not  within  the  territory  which  was 
wrested  from  Spain  by  the  revolutionary  Government  of  Mexico. 

3d.  Whether  that  spot  is  or  is  not  within  a  settlement  of  people,  which 
settlement  has  existed  ever  since  long  before  the  Texas  revolution,  and 
until  its  inhabitants  fled  before  the  approach  of  the  United  States  army. 

4th.  Whether  that  settlement  is  or  is  not  isolated  from  any  and  all 
other  settlements  by  the  Gulf  and  the  Rio  Grande  on  the  south  and  west, 
and  by  wide  uninhabited  regions  on  the  north  and  east. 

5th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement,  or  a  majority  of  them,  or 
any  of  them,  have  ever  submitted  themselves  to  the  government  or  laws 
of  Texas  or  of  the  United  States,  by  consent  or  by  compulsion,  either  by 
accepting  office,  or  voting  at  elections,  or  paying  tax,  or  serving  on  juries, 
or  having  process  served  upon  them,  or  in  any  other  way. 

6th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement  did  or  did  not  flee  from  the 
approach  of  the  United  States  army,  leaving  unprotected  their  homes  and 
their  growing  crops,  "before  the  blood  was  shed,  as  in  the  messages  stated ; 
and  whether  the  first  blood  so  shed,  was  or  was  not  shed  within  the 
enclosure  of  one  of  the  people  who  had  thus  fled  from  it. 

7th.  Whether  our  citizens,  whose  blood  was  shed,  as  in  his  messages 
declared,  were  or  were  not,  at  that  time,  armed  officers  and  soldiers,  sent 
into  that  settlement  by  the  military  order  of  the  President,  through  the 
Secretary  of  War. 

8th.  Whether  the  military  force  of  the  United  States  was  or  was  not 
so  sent  into  that  settlement  after  General  Taylor  had  more  than  once 


36  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES.  AND 

intimated  to  the  "War  Department  that,  in  his  opinion,  no  such  movement 
was  necessary  to  the  defence  or  protection  of  Texas. 

These  resolutions,  which  Mr.  Polk  would  have  found 
it  very  inconvenient  to  answer,  were  laid  over,  under  the 
rule,  and  were  never  acted  upon,  although  Mr.  Lincoln 
commented  on  them  in  a  speech,  made  January  12,  1848, 
which,  by  the  way,  was  his  first  formal  appearance  in  the 
House.  In  this  speech  he  discussed,  in  his  homely  but 
forcible  manner,  the  absurdities  and  contradictions  of  Mr. 
Folk's  message,  and  exposed  its  weaknesses. 

In  these  times,  when  questions  of  so  much  greater  mag 
nitude  and  importance  '"have  overshadowed  those  which 
occupied  or  agitated  the  public  mind  twenty  years  ago, 
it  seems  strange  that  political  opponents  could  even 
then  have  compelled  Mr.  Lincoln  to  defend  his  course  in 
Congress,  as  having  been  prompted  by  patriotic  motives. 
The  nation  which  has  been  plunged  into  mourning  by  his 
sudden  and  violent  death,  would  now  regard  as  gratuitous 
and  puerile  any  argument,  the  purpose  of  which  should 
be  to  prove  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  action  upon  this  Mexican 
question  was  governed  by  the  same  inflexible  ideas  of 
honor  and  right  which  ruled  him  so  unwaveringly 
throughout  his  entire  public  career,  and  which  have 
since  made  his  memory  sacred. 

A  Whig  from  conviction,  Mr.  Lincoln  acted  consistently 
with  his  party  upon  all  questions  of  public  concern.  On 
June  20,  1848,  after  the  nomination  of  General  Cass  as  the 
Democratic  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  Mr.  Lincoln 
made  an  able  speech  in  support  of  the  line  of  policy  the 
Whigs  had  pursued  regarding  internal  improvements. 
He  ridiculed  mercilessly  the  position  taken  by  General 
Cass  upon  this  important  question,  and,  in  concluding  his 
remarks,  thus  stated  his  own  views,  while  he  dealt  a 
severe  blow  at  the  same  pseudo  chivalric  spirit  of  the 
South,  which  he  has  since  been  chiefly  instrumental  in 
humbling  to  the  dust.  He  said : 

How  to  do  something,  and  still  not  to  do  too  much,  is  the  desideratum 
Let  each  contribute  his  mite  in  the  way  of  suggestion.  The  late  Silas 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  37 

Wright,  in  a  letter  to  the  Chicago  convention,  contributed  his,  which  was 
worth  something ;  and  I  now  contribute  mine,  which  may  be  worth 
nothing.  At  all  events,  it  will  mislead  nobody,  and  therefore  will  do  n«> 
harm.  I  would  not  borrow  money.  I  am  against  .an  overwhelming, 
crushing  system.  Suppose  that,  at  each  session,  Congress  shall  first 
determine  how  much  money  can,  for  that  year,  be  spared  for  improve 
ments;  then  apportion  that  sum  to  the  most  important  objects.  Su 
far  all  is  easy;  but  how  shall  we  determine  which  are  the  most  im 
portant  ?  On  this  question  comes  the  collision  of  interests.  /  shall  be 
slow  to  acknowledge  that  your  harbor  or  your  river  is  more  important 
than  mine,  and  vice  versa.  To  clear  this  difficulty,  let  us  have  that  same 
statistical  information  which  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Vinton]  sug 
gested  at  the  beginning  of  this  session.  In  that  information  we  shall  have 
a  stern,  unbending  basis  of  facts— a  basis  in  nowise  subject  to  whim, 
caprice,  or  local  interest.  The  pre-limited  amount  of  means  will  save  us 
from  doing  too  much,  and  the  statistics  will  save  us  from  doing  what  we 
do  in  wrong  places.  Adopt  and  adhere  to  this  course,  and,  it  seems  to 
me,  the  difficulty  is  cleared. 

One  of  the  gentlemen  from  South  Carolina  [Mr.  Rhett]  very  much  de 
precates  these  statistics.  lie  particularly  objects,  as  I  understand  him,  to 
counting  all  the  pigs  and  chickens  in  the  hind.  I  do  not  perceive  much 
force  in  the  objection.  It  is  true,  that  if  every  tiling  be  enumerated,  a 
portion  of  such  statistics  may  not  be  very  useful  to  this  object.  Such 
products  of  the  country  as  are  to  be  consumed  where  they  are  produced, 
need  no  roads  and  rivers,  no  means  of  transportation,  and  have  no  very 
proper  connection  with  this  subject.  The  surplus,  that  which  is  produced 
in  one  place  to  be  consumed  in  another  ;  the  capacity  of  each  locality  for 
producing  a  greater  surplus;  the  natural  means  of  transportation,  and 
their  susceptibility  of  improvement ;  the  hindrances,  delays,  and  losses  of 
life  and  property  during  transportation,  and  the  causes  of  each,  would  be 
among  the  most  valuable  statistics  in  this  connection.  From  these  it 
would  readily  appear  where  a  given  amount  of  expenditure  would  do  the 
most  good.  These  statistics  might  be  equally  accessible,  as  they  would 
be  equally  useful,  to  both  the  Nation  and  the  States.  In  this  way,  and  by 
l.hese  means,  let  the  Nation  take  hold  of  the  larger  works,  and  the  States 
Ihe  smaller  ones ;  and  thus,  working  in  a  meeting  direction,  discreetly, 
but  steadily  and  firmly,  what  is  made  unequal  in  one  place  may  be  equal 
ized  in  another,  extravagance  avoided,  and  the  whole  country  put  on  that 
career  of  prosperity  which  shall  correspond  with  its  extent  of  territory, 
its  natural  resources,  and  the  intelligence  and  enterprise  of  its  people. 

The  nomination  of  General  Taylor  as  the  Whig  candi 
date  for  the  Presidency,  by  the  Convention  of  that  party 
at  Philadelphia,  to  which  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  delegate, 
fairly  opened  the  campaign,  and  Congress  prolonged  its 


38  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES, 

session  until  August  14th,  as  the  members, — Senators  and 
Representatives  alike, — insisted,  each  for  himself,  upon 
expressing  his  views,  and  defining  his  position  in  full,  for 
the  benefit  of  his  constituents.  The  only  speech  of  any 
length  made  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  subsequent  to  that  from 
which  we  have  already  quoted,  was  delivered  July  27th, 
when  he  defended,  with  characteristic  shrewdness  and 
ability,  the  position  General  Taylor  had  taken  regarding 
the  exercise  of  the  veto  power.  This  speech  is,  perhaps, 
more  strongly  marked  by  Mr.  Lincoln' s  peculiarities  than 
any  other  of  his  Congressional  utterances.  The  keen 
sarcasm  with  which  he  exposed  the  inconsistencies  of 
both  General  Cass  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  is  not  surpassed 
in  any  of  his  subsequent  efforts. 

Upon  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  the  members  en 
tered  energetically  into  the  popular  canvass,  Mr.  Lincoln 
first  making  a  visit  to  New  England,  where  he  delivered 
a  number  of  effective  campaign  speeches  in  support  of 
General  Taylor.  The  journals  of  the  day  note  his  pres 
ence  at  the  Massachusetts  State  Convention  during  his 
brief  visit  to  New  England,  and  speak  in  terms  of  the 
highest  praise  of  an  address  which  he  delivered  at  New 
Bedford.  He  felt  conscious,  however,  that  he  could  labor 
more  effectively  among  his  Western  friends,  and  accord 
ingly  spent  most  of  his  time  during  the  canvass  in  that 
section  of  the  country.  Although  he  failed  to  carry  his 
own  State  for  his  favorite  candidate,  his  disappointment 
was  entirely  forgotten  in  General  Taylor' s  election. 

In  December,  when  the  Thirtieth  Congress  reassembled 
for  its  second  session,  Mr.  Lincoln  took  his  seat ;  but  the 
exhaustion  consequent  upon  the  exciting  political  cam 
paign  just  closed,  reacted  upon  Congress,  and  precluded 
the  possibility  of  any  exciting  discussions.  Important 
action  was  taken,  however,  upon  the  slavery  question 
in  some  of  its  phases.  It  is  needless  to  state,  that  du 
ring  his  entire  Congressional  service  Mr.  Lincoln  steadily 
and  persistently  cast  his  vote  upon  the  side  of  freedom. 
He  repeatedly  recorded  himself  against  laying  on  the 
table,  without  consideration,  petitions  in  favor  of  thw 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  39 

abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
against  the  slave-trade. 

On  the  question  of  abolishing  slavery  in  the  District, 
he  took  rather  a  prominent  part.  A  Mr.  Gott  had  in 
troduced  a  resolution  directing  the  proper  committee 
to  introduce  a  bill  abolishing  the  slave-trade  in  the 
District.  On  January  16  (1849),  Mr.  Lincoln  moved  the 
following  amendment,  instructing  the  Committee  to  intro 
duce  a  bill  not  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade,  but  of 
slavery,  within  the  District  :— 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  the  District  of  Columbia  be  instructed 
to  report  a  bill  in  substance  as  follows : 

SEO.  1.  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  rf 
the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled,  That  no  person  now  within  the 
District  of  Columbia,  nor  now  owned  by  any  person  or  persons  now  resi 
dent  within  it,  nor  hereafter  born  within  it,  shall  ever  be  held  in  slavery 
within  said  District. 

SEO.  2.  That  no  person  now  within  said  District,  or  now  owned  by  any 
person  or  persons  now  resident  within  the  same,  or  hereafter  born  within 
it,  shall  ever  be  held  in  slavery  without  the  limits  of  said  District :  Pro 
vided,  That  the  officers  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  being 
citizens  of  the  slaveholding  States,  coming  into  said  District  on  public 
business,  and  remaining  only  so  long  as  may  be  reasonably  necessary  for 
that  object,  may  be  attended  into  and  out  of  said  District,  and  while  there, 
by  the  necessary  servants  of  themselves  and  their  families,  without  their 
right  to  hold  such  servants  in  service  being  impaired. 

SEC.  3.  That  all  children  born  of  slave  mothers  within  said  District, 
on  or  after  the  1st  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1850,  shall  be 
free ;  but  shall  be  reasonably  supported  and  educated  by  the  respective 
owners  of  their  mothers,  or  by  their  heirs  or  representatives,  and  shall 
serve  reasonable  service  as  apprentices  to  such  owners,  heirs,  or  represen 
tatives,  until  they  respectively  arrive  at  the  age  of years,  when 

they  shall  be  entirely  free :  And  the  municipal  authorities  of  Washington 
arid  Georgetown,  within  their  respective  jurisdictional  limits,  are  hereby 
empowered  and  required  to  make  all  suitable  and  necessary  provision  for 
enforcing  obedience  to  this  section,  on  the  part  of  both  masters  and  ap 
prentices. 

SEC.  4.  That  all  persons  now  within  this  District,  lawfully  held  as 
slaves,  or  now  owned  by  any  person  or  persons  now  resident  within  said 
District,  shall  remain  such  at  the  will  of  their  respective  owners,  their 
heirs,  or  legal  representatives :  Provided,  that  such  owner,  or  his  legal 
representatives,  may  at  any  time  receive  from  the  Treasury  of  the  United 


^0  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

States  the  full  value  of  his  or  her  slave,  of  the  class  in  this  section  men 
tioned,  upon  which  such  slave  shall  be  forthwith  and  forever  free  :  And  pro 
vided  further,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  Secretary  of 
State,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  shall  be  a  board  for  determining 
the  value  such  slaves  as  their  owners  desire  to  emancipate  under  this 
section,  and  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  hold  a  session  for  the  purpose  on  the 
first  Monday  of  each  calendar  month,  to  receive  all  applications,  and,  on 
satisfactory  evidence  in  each  case  that  the  person  presented  for  valuation 
is  a  slave,  and  of  the  class  in  the  section  mentioned,  and  is  owned  by  the 
applicant,  shall  value  such  slave  at  his  or  her  full  cash  value,  and  give  to 
the  applicant  an  order  on  the  Treasury  for  the  amount,  and  also  to  such 
slave  a  certificate  of  freedom. 

SEC.  5.  That  the  municipal  authorities  of  Washington  and  George 
town,  within  their  respective  jurisdictional  limits,  are  hereby  empowered 
and  required  to  provide  active  and  efficient  means  to  arrest  and  deliver 
up  to  their  owners  all  fugitive  slaves  escaping  into  said  District. 

SEC.  6.  That  the  elective  officers  within  said  District  of  Columbia  are 
hereby  empowered  and  required  to  open  polls,  at  all  the  usual  places  of 
holding  elections,  on  the  first  Monday  of  April  next,  and  receive  the  vote 
of  every  free  white  citizen  above  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  having 
resided  within  said  District  for  the  period  of  one  year  or  more  next  prece 
ding  the  time  of  such  voting  for  or  against  this  act,  to  proceed  in  taking  said 
votes,  in  all  respects  riot  herein  specified,  as  at  elections  under  the  muni 
cipal  laws,  and  with  as  little  delay  as  possible  to  transmit  correct  state 
ments  of  the  votes  so  cast  to  the  President  of  the  United  States;  and  it 
shall  be  the  duty  of  the  President  to  count  such  votes  immediately,  and 
if  a  majority  of  them  be  found  to  be  for  this  act,  to  forthwith  issue  his  pro 
clamation  giving  notice  of  the  fact ;  and  this  act  shall  only  be  in  full  force 
and  effect  on  and  after  the  day  of  such  proclamation. 

SEC.  7.  That  involuntary  servitude  for  the  punishment  of  crime, 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  in  no  wise  be  pro 
hibited  by  this  act. 

SEC.  8.  That  for  all  purposes  of  this  act,  the  jurisdictional  limits  of 
Washington  are  extended  to  all  parts  of  the  District  of  Columbia  not 
included  within  the  present  limits  of  Georgetown. 

A  bill  was  afterwards  reported  by  the  committee  for 
bidding  the  introduction  of  slaves  into  the  District  for 
sale  or  hire.  This  bill  also  Mr.  Lincoln  supported,  but 
in  vain.  The  time  for  the  success  of  such  measures,  in 
volving  to  an  extent  attacks  upon  slavery,  had  not  yet 
come. 

The  question  of  the  Territories  also  came  up  in  many 
ways.  The  Wilraot  Proviso  had  made  its  first  appearance 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  41 

in  the  previous  session,  in  the  August  "before,  but  it  was  re 
peatedly  before  this  Congress  also,  when  efforts  were  made 
to  apply  it  to  the  territory  which  we  procured  from  Mex 
ico,  and  to  Oregon.  On  all  occasions  when  it  was  before 
the  House  it  was  supported  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  he  stated 
during  his  contest  with  Judge  Douglas,  that  he  had  voted 
for  it,  "in  one  way  and  another,  about  forty  times." 
He  thus  showed  hinself,  in  1847,  to  be  the  same  friend  of 
freedom  for  the  Territories  which  he  was  afterwards,  du 
ring  the  heat  of  the  Kansas  struggle. 

Another  instance  in  which  the  slavery  question  was 
before  the  House,  was  in  the  famous  Pacheco  case.  This 
was  a  bill  to  reimburse  the  heirs  of  Antonio  Pacheco  for 
the  value  of  a  slave  who  was  hired  by  a  United  States 
officer  in  Florida,  but  ran  away  and  joined  the  Seminoles, 
and,  being  taken  in  arms  with  them,  was  sent  out  of 
Florida  with  them,  when  they  were  transported  to  the 
West,  The  bill  was  reported  to  the  House  by  the  Com 
mittee  on  Military  Affairs.  This  committee  was  com 
posed  of  nine.  Five  of  these  were  slaveholders,  and 
these  made  the  majority  report.  The  others,  not  being 
slaveholders,  reported  against  the  bill.  The  ground 
taken  by  the  majority  was,  that  slaves  were  regarded  as 
property  by  the  Constitution,  and  when  taken  for  public 
service  should  be  paid  for  as  property.  The  principle 
involved  in  the  bill,  therefore,  was  the  same  one  which 
the  slaveholders  had  struggled  in  so  many  ways  to  main 
tain.  As  they  sought  afterwards  to  have  it  established 
by  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  so  now  they  tried 
to  have  it  recognized  by  Congress,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  op 
posed  it  there,  as  heartily  as  he  afterwards  withstood 
it  when  it  took  the  more  covert,  but  no  less  dangerous 
shape  of  a  judicial  dictum. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  congressional  career  terminated  at  the 
close  of  this  session  (March  4,  1849),  and,  for  reasons 
satisfactory  to  himself,  he  declined  a  renomination, 
although  his  re-election,  had  he  consented  to  become  a 
candidate,  was  morally  certain.  In  this  same  year>  how 
ever,  he  was  the  Whig  candidate  in  Illinois  for  United 


42  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

States  Senator,  but  without  success — the  Democrats  hav 
ing  the  control  of  the  State,  which  they  retained  until  the 
conflict  arising  out  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  in  1854. 

Nothing  could  more  forcibly  illustrate  the  complete 
rest  and  relaxation  from  political  cares  and  anxieties 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  enjoyed  during  these  few  years,  than 
the  fact  that  he  found  time,  while  practising  his  pro 
fession,  to  indulge  the  exercise  of  his  inventive  faculties. 
A  correspondent  of  the  Boston  Advertiser,  writing  from 
Washington,  thus  states  the  form  in  which  the  mechan 
ical  genius  of  the  ex-Congressman  and  future  President 
found  expression  :— 

Occupying  an  ordinary  and  commonplace  position  in  one  of  the  show 
cases  in  the  large  hall  of  the  Patent  Office,  is  one  little  model  which,  in 
ages  to  come,  will  be  prized  as  at  once  one  of  the  most  curious  and  one  of 
the  most  sacred  relics  in  that  vast  museum  of  unique  and  priceless  things. 
This  is  a  plain  and  simple  model  of  a  steamboat,  roughly  fashioned  in 
wood,  by  the  hand  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  bears  date  in  1849,  when 
the  inventor  was  known  simply  as  a  successful  lawyer  and  rising  politi 
cian  of  Central  Illinois.  Neither  his  practice  nor  his  politics  took  up  so 
much  of  his  lime,  as  to  prevent  him  from  giving  much  attention  to  con 
trivances  which  he  hoped  might  be  of  benefit  to  the  world  and  of  profit 
to  himself. 

The  design  of  this  invention  is  suggestive  of  one  phase  of  Abraham 
Lincoln's  early  life,  when  he  went  up  and  down  the  Mississippi  as  a  flat- 
boatman,  and  became  familiar  with  some  of  the  dangers  and  inconve 
niences  attending  the  navigation  of  the  Western  rivers.  It  is  an  attempt 
to  make  it  an  easy  matter  to  transport  vessels  over  shoals  and  snags  and 
sawyers.  The  main  idea  is  that  of  an  apparatus  resembling  a  noiseless 
bellows,  placed  on  each  side  of  the  hull  of  the  craft,  just  below  the  water- 
line,  and  worked  by  an  odd  but  not  complicated  system  of  ropes,  valves, 
and  pulleys.  When  the  keel  of  the  vessel  grates  against  the  sand  or 
obstruction,  these  bellows  are  to  be  filled  with  air;  and,  thus  buoyed  up, 
the  ship  is  expected  to  float  lightly  and  gayly  over  the  shoal,  which  would 
otherwise  have  proved  a  serious  interruption  to  her  voyage. 

The  model,  which  is  about  eighteen  or  twenty  inches  long,  and  has 
the  air  of  having  been  whittled  with  a  knife  out  of  a  shingle  and  a  cigar- 
box,  is  built  without  any  elaboration  or  ornament,  or  any  extra  apparatus 
beyond  that  necessary  to  show  the  operation  of  buoying  the  steamer  over 
the  obstructions.  Herein  it  differs  from  very  many  of  the  models  which 
share  with  it  the  shelter  of  the  immense  halls  of  the  Patent  Office,  and 
which  are  fashioned  with  wonderful  nicety  and  exquisite  finish,  as  if 
much  of  the  labor  and  thought  and  affection  of  a  lifetime  had  been  de- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  43 

voted  to  their  construction.  This  is  a  model  of*a  different  kind ;  carved 
as  one  might  imagine  a  retired  rail-splitter  would  whittle,  strongly,  hut, 
not  smoothly,  and  evidently  made  with  a  view  solely  to  convey,  hy  the 
simplest  possible  means,  to  the  minds  of  the  patent  authorities,  an  idea 
of  the  purpose  and  plan  of  the  simple  invention.  The  label  on  tlio 
steamer's  deck  informs  us  that  the  patent  was  obtained;  but  we  do  not 
learn  that  the  navigation  of  the  western  rivers  was  revolutionized  by  this 
quaint  conception.  The  modest  little  model  has  reposed  here  sixteen 
years;  and  since  it  found  its  resting-place  here  on  the  shelf,  the  shrewd 
inventor  has  found  it  his  task  to  guide  the  ship  of  state  over  shoals  more 
perilous,  and  obstructions  more  obstinate,  than  any  prophet  dreamed  of 
when  Abraham  Lincoln  wrote  his  bold  autograph  on  the  prow  of  this 
miniature  steamer. 

This  curious  episode,  however,  must  not  create  the 
impression  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  allowed  his  mind  to  be 
entirely  diverted  from  the  observation  of  the  important 
political  events  then  transpiring.  He  undoubtedly  noted 
carefully  the  development  of  those  questions  which  sub 
sequently  absorbed  so  large  a  share  of  attention,  and 
calculated  accurately  the  influence  which  they  would 
have  upon  the  relations  of  the  two  great  political  organ 
izations.  He  had  fought  slavery  often  enough  to  know 
what  it  was,  and  he  was  thoroughly  conversant  with  the 
animus  of  its  supporters.  It  is  not,  therefore,  at  all  likely 
that  he  was  taken  by  surprise  when  the  Nebraska  Bill 
was  introduced,  and  the  proposition  was  made  by  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  to  repeal  that  very  Missouri  Compromise 
which  he  had  declared  to  be  "a  sacred  thing,  which  no 
ruthless  hand  would  ever  be  reckless  enough  to  disturb." 

The  Nebraska  Bill  was  passed  May  22, 1854,  and  the 
event  gave  new  and  increased  force  to  the  popular  feel 
ing  in  favor  of  freedom,  which  the  proposition  to  repeal 
the  Missouri  Compromise  had  excited.  Everywhere  the 
friends  of  freedom  gathered  themselves  together  and  ral 
lied  round  her  banner,  to  meet  the  conflict  which  was 
plainly  now  closely  impending,  and  which  had  been  forced 
upon  the  people  by  the  grasping  ambition  of  the  slave 
holders.  The  political  campaign  of  that  year  in  Illinois 
was  one  of  the  severest  ever  known.  It  was  intensified 
by  the  fact  that  a  United  States  Senator  was  to  be  chosen 


44  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

by  the  legislature  tKen  to  be  elected,  to  fill  tlie  place  of 
Shields,  who  had  voted  with  Douglas  in  favor  of  the  Ne 
braska  Bill. 

Mr.  Lincoln  took  a  prominent  part  in  this  campaign. 
He  met  Judge  Douglas  before  the  people  on  two  occa 
sions,  the  only  ones  when  the  Judge  would  consent  to 
such  a  meeting.     The  first  time  was  at  the  State  Pair  at 
Springfield,  on  October  4th.     This  was  afterwards  con 
sidered  to  have  been  the  greatest  event  of  the  whole  can 
vass.     Mr.  Lincoln  opened  the  discussion ;  and  in  his 
clear  and  eloquent,  yet  homely  way,  exposed  the  tergiver 
sations  of  which  his  opponent  had  been  guilty,  and  the 
fallacy  of  his  pretexts  for  his  present  course. 

Mr.  Douglas  had  always  claimed  to  have  voted  for  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  because  he  sustained 
the  "great  principle"  of  popular  sovereignty,  and  de 
sired  that  the  inhabitants  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  should 
govern  themselves,  as  they  were  well  able  to  do.  The 
fallacy  of  drawing  from  these  premises  the  conclusion 
that  they  therefore  should  have  the  right  to  establish 
slavery  there,  was  most  clearly  and  conclusively  exposed 
by  Mr.  Lincoln,  so  that  no  one  could  thereafter  be  misled 
by  it,  unless  he  was  a  willing  dupe  of  pro-slavery 
sophistry. 

"My  distinguished  friend,"  said  he,  "says  it  is  an 
insult  to  the  emigrants  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  sup 
pose  that  they  are  not  able  to  govern  themselves.  We 
must  not  slur  over  an  argument  of  this  kind  because  it 
happens  to  tickle  the  ear.  It  must  be  met  and  answered. 
I  admit  that  the  emigrant  to  Kansas  and  Nebraska  is 
competent  to  govern  himself,  but  I  deny  Jiis  right  to 
govern  any  other  person  witJiout  that  person's  consent." 

The  two  opponents  met  again  at  Peoria.  We  believe 
it  is  universally  admitted  that  on  both  of  these  occasions 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  decidedly  the  advantage.  The  result  of 
the  election  was  the  defeat  of  the  Democrats,  and  the 
election  of  anti-Nebraska  men  to  the  legislature,  to  secure 
the  election  of  a  United  States  Senator  who  would  be  true 
to  freedom,  if  they  could  be  brought  to  unite  upon  a  can- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  45 

didate.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  naturally  the  candidate  of 
those  who  were  of  Whig  antecedents.  Judge  Trumbull 
was  as  naturally  the  candidate  of  some  who  had  reallj 
come  out  from  the  Democratic  party — though  they  still 
called  themselves  Free  Democrats. 

There  was  danger,  of  course,  in  such  a  posture  of 
affairs,  and  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  that  spirit  of  patriotism  which 
he  has  always  shown,  by  his  own  personal  exertions 
secured  the  votes  of  his  friends  for  Judge  Trumbull,  who 
was  accordingly  chosen  Senator.  The  charge  was  after 
wards  made  by  the  enemies  of  both,  that  there  had  been 
in  this  matter  a  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  Judge 
Trumbull,  and  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  the  right  to  feel,  and 
did  feel,  aggrieved  at  the  result.  Mr.  Lincoln  himself, 
however,  expressly  denied,  in  his  speech  at  Charleston, 
September  18,  1858,  that  there  had  been  any  such  breach 
of  faith. 


46  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE    LINCOLN-DOUGLAS    DEBATE. 

PRESIDENTIAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1856.— DOUGLAS  AT  SPRINGFIELD  IN  1857.— 
LINCOLN'S  REPLY. — THE  GREAT  DEBATE. — ELOQUENT  DEFENCE  OF  THE 
DOCTKINES  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY. RESULT  OF  THE  CONTEST. 

THE  pressure  of  the  slavery  contest  at  last  fully  organ 
ized  the  Republican  party,  which  held  its  first  convention 
for  the  nomination  of  President  and  Vice-President  at 
Philadelphia,  on  June  17,  1856.  John  C.  Fremont  was 
nominated  for  President,  and  William  L.  Dayton  for 
Vice-President.  Mr.  Lincoln's  name  was  prominent  be 
fore  the  convention  for  the  latter  office,  and  on  the  infor 
mal  ballot  he  stood  next  to  Mr.  Dayton,  receiving  110 
votes.  Mr.  Lincoln' s  name  headed  the  Republican  elec 
toral  ticket  in  Illinois,  and  he  took  an  active  part  in  the 
canvass,  but  the  Democrats  carried  the  State,  though 
only  by  a  plurality  vote. 

Meanwhile,  Senator  Douglas  embraced  every  oppor 
tunity  to  keep  himself  and  his  doctrines  before  the 
people,  but  whichever  way  he  turned,  he  found  his 
vigilant  antagonist  constantly  in  his  front.  For  twenty 
years  the  two  had  been  so  invariably  opposed  to  each 
other  in  politics,  that  whenever  Mr.  Douglas  made  a 
speech,  the  people  instinctively  anticipated  a  reply  from 
Mr.  Lincoln  ;  and  there  was  a  special  Providence  in  thus 
opposing  to  the  wily,  deceptive  sophistries  of  the  former 
the  clear,  incisive  common  sense  of  the  latter,  which  the 
multitude  could  not  avoid  comprehending.  Early  in 
June,  1857,  Senator  Douglas  made  his  famous  speech  in 
Springfield,  which  was  universally  accepted  as  a  declara 
tion  that  he  meant  to  sustain  all  the  acts  of  the  Lecomp- 
ton  Convention,  even  though  a  pro- slavery  constitution 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  47 

should  be  formed,  the  responsibility  for  the  adoption  of 
which  he  meant  to  fasten  upon  the  Eepublican  party, 
since  it  was  anticipated  that  the  members  of  that  organ 
ization  in  the  Territory  would  refrain  from  voting.  He 
further  indorsed  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  this  same 
speech,  and,  in  discussing  the  Utah  rebellion,  proposed  to 
end  the  difficulty  by  annulling  the  act  establishing  the 
Territory.  Mr.  Lincoln  promptly  took  issue  with  him 
upon  all  these  points,  in  a  speech  also  delivered  at 
Springfield,  twr  weeks  later.  He  declared  himself  in 
favor  of  "  coercing"  the  people  of-  Utah  into  obedience, 
and  while  he  "did  not  admit  or  deny  that  the  Judge's 
method  of  coercing  them  might  not  be  as  good  as  any," 
he  showed  how  Mr.  Douglas  abandoned  his  principles, 
and  "his  much-vaunted  doctrine  of  self-government  for 
the  Territories,"  by  suggesting  such  a  plan.  He  then 
defended  the  course  of  action  which  the  Republicans  in 
Kansas  had  adopted,  and  ridiculed  mercilessly  the  myth 
ical  "Free  State  Democrats,"  of  whom  so  much  had  been 
said.  Next  he  discussed  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and 
showed  that,  in  denouncing  it,  he  had  not  gone  so  far  as 
Mr.  Douglas  himself  had  done  in  applauding  General 
Jackson  for  disregarding  the  decision  of  the  same  tribunal 
upon  the  constitutionality  of  the  National  Bank.  Quoting 
from  the  Dred  Scott  decision  some  expressions  in  which 
Chief-Justice  Taney  intimated  that  the  public  estimate  of 
the  black  man  was  more  favorable  then  than  it  was  in  the 
days  of  the  revolution,  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  to  the  impli 
cation  in  the  following  forcible  manner  :— 

This  assumption  is  a  mistake.  In  some  trifling  particulars  the  condi 
tion  of  that  race  has  been  ameliorated ;  hut,  as  a  whole,  in  this  country, 
the  change  between  then  and  now  is  decidedly  the  other  way;  and  their 
ultimate  destiny  has  never  appeared  so  hopeless  as  in  the  last  three  or 
four  years.  In  two  of  the  five  States — New  Jersey  and  North  Carolina — 
that  then  gave  the  free  negro  the  right  of  voting,  the  right  has  since  been 
taken  away ;  and  in  the  third — New  York—it  has  been  greatly  abridged, 
while  it  has  not  been  extended,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  a  single  additional 
State,  though  the  number  of  the  States  has  more  than  doubled.  In  those 
days,  as  I  understand,  masters  could,  at  their  own  pleasure,  emancipate 
their  slaves ;  but,  since  then,  such  legal  restraints  have  been  made  upon 


48  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

emancipation  as  to  amount  almost  to  prohibition.  Tn  those  days,  legis 
latures  held  the  unquestioned  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  their  respective 
States ;  but  now  it  is  becoming  quite  fashionable  for  State  constitutions 
to  withhold  that  power  from  the  legislatures.  In  those  days,  by  com 
mon  consent,  the  spread  of  the  black  man's  bondage  to  the  new  countries 
was  prohibited;  but  now,  Congress  decides  that  it  will  not  continue  the 
prohibition,  and  the  Supreme  Court  decides  that  it  could  not,  if  it  would. 
In  those  days,  our  Declaration  of  Independence  was  held  sacred  by  all, 
and  thought  to  include  all;  but  now,  to  aid  in  making  the  bondage  of  the 
negro  universal  and  eternal,  it  is  assailed,  sneered  at,  construed,  hawked 
at,  and  torn,  till,  if  its  framers  could  rise  from  their1  graves,  they  could 
not  at  all  recognize  it.  All  the  powers  of  earth  se<.  n  rapidly  combining 
against  him.  Mammon  is  after  him;  ambition  follows,  philosophy  fol 
lows,  and  the  theology  of  the  day  is  fast  joining  the  cry.  They  have  him 
in  his  prison-house  ;  they  have  searched  his  person,  and  left  no  prying 
instrument  with  him.  One  after  another  they  have  closed  the  heavy 
iron  doors  upon  him  ;  and  now  they  have  him,  as  it  were,  bolted  in  with 
a  lock  of  a  hundred  keys,  which  can  never  be  unlocked  without  the  con 
currence  of  every  key;  the  keys  in  the  hands  of  a  hundred  different  men, 
and  they  scattered  to  a  hundred  different  and  distant  places;  and  they 
stand  musing  as  to  what  invention,  in  all  the  dominions  of  mind  and 
matter,  can  be  produced  to  make  the  impossibility  of  his  escape  more 
complete  than  it  is. 

It  is  grossly  incorrect  to  say  or  assume  that  the  public  estimate  of 
the  negro  is  more  favorable  now  than  it  was  at  the  origin  of  the  Govern 
ment. 

No  one  would  have  been  more  surprised  than  Mr.  Lin 
coln  himself,  could  the  fact  have  been  revealed  to  him, 
when  uttering  these  words,  that  through  him  as  an  hum 
ble  instrument  in  the  hands  of  Providence,  and  in  the 
brief  space  of  eight  years,  a  vast  change  would  be  brought 
about  in  the  status  of  that  class,  whose  sufferings  and 
wrongs  he  thus  eloquently  depicted. 

In  this  same  speech  Mr.  Lincoln  turned  from  the  course 
of  his  argument  for  a  moment,  to  demolish,  in  his  charac 
teristic  manner,  the  absurd  charge  which  his  opponent 
had  demeaned  himself  by  repeating,  that,  in  laboring  to 
secure  the  negro  his  rights,  the  Republicans  desired  to 
place  him  on  a  complete  political  and  social  equality  with 
themselves.  He  said  :— 

There  is  a  natural  disgust,  in  the  minds  of  nearly  all  white  people,  to 
the  idea  of  an  indiscriminate  amalgamation  of  the  white  and  black  races ; 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         .    49 

ami  J'udge  Douglas  evidently  is  basing  his  chief  hope  upon  the  chances  of 
his  being  able  to  appropriate  the  benefit  of  this  disgust  to  himself.  If  he 
can,  by  much  drumming  and  repeating,  fasten  the  odium  of  that  idea 
upon  his  adversaries,  he  thinks  he  can  struggle  through  the  storm.  lie 
therefore  clings  to  this  hope,  as  a  drowning  man  to  the  last  plank.  He 
makes  an  occasion  for  lugging  it  in  from  the  opposition  to  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  He  finds  the  Republicans  insisting  that  the  Declaration  of 
Inpependence  includes  ALL  men,  black  as  well  as  white,  and  forthwith  he 
boldly  denies  that  it  includes  negroes  at  all,  and  proceeds  to  argue  gravely 
that  all  who  contend  that  it  does,  do  so  only  because  they  want  to  vote, 
eat  and  sleep,  and  marry  with  negroes !  He  will  have  it  that  they  cannot 
be  consistent  else.  Now,  I  protest  against  the  counterfeit  logic  which 
concludes  that,  because  T  ~o  not  want  a  black  woman  for  a  slave,  I  must, 
necessarily  want  her  for  a  wife.  I  need  not  have  her  for  either.  I  can 
just  leave  her  alone.  In  some  respects,  she  certainly  is  not  my  equal ; 
but  in  her  natural  right  to  eat  the  bread  she  earns  with  her  own  hands, 
without  asking  leave  of  any  one  else,  she  is  my  equal,  and  the  equal  of 
all  others. 

We  have  thus  presented  the  leading  points  in  these 
two  speeches,  because  the  discussion  was  the  prelude  to 
the  famous  Senatorial  contest  of  1858,  which  gave  Mr. 
Lincoln  a  national  reputation,  not  only  as  an  able  debater 
and  eloquent  orator,  but  as  a  sagacious  and  wise  politi 
cian — wise  enough  to  stand  inflexibly  by  principles  of 
the  soundness  of  which  he  was  himself  satisfied,  even 
against  the  judgment  of  earnest  friends. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1857,  Mr.  Buchanan  had  taken 
his  seat  in  the  Presidential  chair.  The  struggle  between 
freedom  and  slavery  for  the  possession  of  Kansas  was  at 
its  height.  A  few  days  after  his  inauguration,  the  Su 
preme  Court  rendered  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  which  was 
thought  by  the  friends  of  slavery  to  insure  their  victory, 
by  its  holding  the  Missouri  Compromise  to  be  unconstitu 
tional,  because  the  Constitution  itself  carried  slavery  all 
over  the  Territories  of  the  United  States.  In  spite  of  this 
decision,  the  friends  of  freedom  in  Kansas  maintained 
their  ground.  The  slaveholders,  however,  pushed  for 
ward  their  schemes,  and  in  November,  1857,  their  Con 
stitutional  Convention,  held  at  Lecompton,  adopted  the 
Lecompton  Constitution.  The  trick  by  which  they  sub 
mitted  to  the  popular  vote  only  a  schedule  on  the  slavery 


50  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

question,  instead  of  the  whole  Constitution,  compelling 
every  voter,  however  he  might  vote  upon  this  schedule, 
to  vote  for  their  Constitution,  which  iixed  slavery  upon 
the  State  just  as  surely,  whether  the  schedule  was  adopted 
or  not,  will  be  well  remembered,  as  well  as  the  feeling 
which  so  unjust  a  device  excited  throughout  the  North. 
Judge  Douglas  had  sustained  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  but 
he  could  not  sustain  this  attempt  to  force  upon  the  people 
of  Kansas  a  Constitution  against  their  will.  He  took 
ground  openly  and  boldly  against  it — denouncing  it  in 
the  Senate  and  elsewhere  as  an  outrage  upon  the  people 
of  Kansas,  and  a  violation  of  every  just  Democratic  prin 
ciple.  He  declared  that  he  did  not  care  whether  the 
people  voted  the  Slavery  clause  "up  or  down,"  but  he 
thought  they  ought  to  have  the  chance  to  vote  for  or 
against  the  Constitution  itselfr 

The  Administration  had  made  the  measure  their  own, 
and  this  opposition  of  Douglas  at  once  excited  against 
him  the  active  hostility  of  the  slaveholders  and  their 
friends,  with  whom  he  had  hitherto  acted  in  concert. 
The  bill  was  finally  passed  through  Congress  on  April 
30th,  1858,  under  what  is  known  as  the  English  Bill, 
whereby  the  Constitution  was  to  be  submitted  to  the 
votes  of  the  people  of  Kansas,  with  the  offer  of  heavy 
bribes  to  them,  in  the  way  of  donations  of  land,  etc.,  if 
they  would  accept  it ;  and  the  people,  in  spite  of  the 
bribes,  voted  it  down  by  an  immense  majority. 

Judge  Douglas's  term  was  on  the  eve  of  expiring,  and 
he  came  home  to  Illinois  after  the  adjournment  of  Con 
gress,  to  attend  in  person  to  the  political  campaign,  upon 
the  result  of  which  was  to  depend  his  re-election  to  the 
Senate. 

His  course  on  the  Lecompton  bill  had  made  an  open 
breacti  between  him  and  the  Administration,  and  he  had 
rendered  such  good  service  to  the  Republicans,  in  their 
battle  with  that  monstrous  infamy,  that  there  were  not 
wanting  many  among  them  who  were  inclined  to  think  it 
would  be  wise  not  to  oppose  his  re-election. 

But  the  Republicans  of  Illinois  thought    otherwise. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABU  AH  AM  LINCOLN.  51 

They  knew  that  lie  was  not  in  any  sense  a  Republican. 
They  knew  that  on  the  cardinal  principle  of  the  Repub 
lican  party,  opposition  to  the  spread  of  Slavery  into  the 
Territories,  he  was  not  with  them  ;  for  he  had  declared 
in  the  most  positive  way  that  he  "did  not  care  whether 
Slavery  was  voted  down  or  up."  And  they  therefore 
determined,  in  opposition  to  the  views  of  some  influential 
Republicans,  at  home  as  well  as  in  other  States,  to  fight 
the  battle  through  against  him,  with  all  the  energy  that 
they  could  bring  to  the  work.  And  to  this  end,  on  the 
17th  of  June,  1858,  at  their  State  Convention  at  Spring 
field,  they  nominated  Mr.  Lincoln  as  their  candidate  for 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

The  circumstances  we  have  briefly  sketched  invested 
the  campaign  about  to  open  with  national  importance. 
The  people  of  tiie  whole  Union  saw  that  the  struggle  then 
initiated  in  Illinois  must  ultimately  extend  to  other  States, 
and  they  knew  that  they  would  soon  be  compelled  them 
selves  to  pass  upon  the  questions  there  to  be  decided. 
None  doubted  that  the  principle  of  ' '  Popular  Sovereignty' ' 
would  be  thoroughly  examined,  for  the  reputation  of  the 
two  combatants  as  men  of  extraordinary  ability  was  es 
tablished.  It  was  the  universal  expectation  that  each 
aspirant  for  senatorial  honors  would  display  peculiar 
caution  in  opening  the  struggle,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
other  from  gaining  any  undue  advantage  ;  but  Mr.  Lin 
coln  scorned  every  appearance  of  subterfuge  or  evasion. 
His  opinions  had  become  sharply  defined  and  clearly 
crystallized  during  the  contests  through  which  he  had 
passed  in  the  years  preceding,  and  in  his  speech  to  the 
Convention  which  nominated  him,  signifying  his  accept 
ance  of  the  honor  conferred  upon  him,  he  expressed  him 
self  so  unreservedly  and  frankly  that  even  his  supporters 
were  for  the  moment  startled. 

In  a  speech  delivered  at  Chicago,  July  9, — the  first 
after  Mr.  Lincoln's  nomination, — Senator  Douglas  alluded 
to  this  address  as  having  been  "  well  prepared  and  care 
fully  written."  In  reply,  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "  Gentlemen. 
Judge  Douglas  informed  you  that  this  speech  of  mine 


62  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

was  probably  carefully  prepared.  I  admit  that  it  was. 
I  am  not  a  master  of  language.  I  have  not  a  fine  educa 
tion  ;  I  am  not  capable  of  entering  into  a  disquisition 
upon  dialectics,  as  I  believe  you  call  it."  In  the  address 
thus  alluded  to,  Mr.  Lincoln  struck  the  key-note  of  the 
campaign.  Its  exposition  of  his  political  creed,  and  his 
statement  of  the  important  points  at  issue,  is  so  succinct 
and  complete  that  we  reproduce  it  here.  It  is  as  fol 
lows  :— 

MR.  PRESIDENT,  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  CONVENTION: — If  wo  could 
first  know  where  we  are,  and  whither  we  are  tending,  we  could  better 
judge  what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it.  We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year 
since  a  policy  was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object,  and  confident  prom 
ise,  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that 
policy  that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly  augment 
ed.  In  my  opinion,  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have  been  reached 
and  passed.  "A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  I  believe 
this  Government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do 
not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved,  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall, 
but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing, 
or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further 
spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief 
that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction  ;  or  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as 
new,  North  as  well  as  South. 

Have  we  no  tendency  to  the  latter  condition? 

Let  any  one  who  doubts  carefully  contemplate  that  now  almost  com 
plete  legal  combination — piece  of  machinery,  so  to  speak — compounded 
of  the  Nebraska  doctrine  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Li-t  him  consider 
not  only  what  work  the  machinery  is  adapted  to  do,  and  how  well  adapt 
ed  ;  but  also  let  him  study  the  history  of  its  construction,  and  trace,  if  ho 
can,  or  rather  fail,  if  he  can,  to  trace,  the  evidences  of  design  and  concert 
of  action  among  its  chief  architects  from  the  beginning. 

The  new  year  of  1854  found  slavery  excluded  from  more  than  half  the 
States  by  State  Constitutions,  and  from  most  of  the  national  territory  by 
Congressional  prohibition.  Four  days  later  commenced  the  struggle 
which  ended  in  repealing  that  Congressional  prohibition.  This  opened 
all  the  national  territory  to  slavery,  and  was  the  first  point  gained. 

But  so  far  Congress  only  had  acted ;  and  an  indorsement  by  the  people, 
real  or  apparent,  was  indispensable,  to  save  the  point  already  gained  and 
give  chance  for  more. 

This  necessity  had  not  been  overlooked,  but  had  been  provided  for,  as 
well  as  might  be,  in  the  notable  argument  of  "squatter  sovereignty/ 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  53 

otherwise  called  "sacred  right  of  self-government;"  which  latter  phrase, 
though  expressive  of  the  only  rightful  basis  of  any  government,  was  so 
perverted  in  this  attempted  use  of  it  as  to  amount  to  just  this:  That  if 
any  one  man  choose  to  enslave  another,  no  third  man  shall  he  allowed  to 
object.  That  argument  was  incorporated  into  the  Nebraska  bill  itself,  in 
the  language  which  follows:  "It  being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of 
this  act  not  to  legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor  to  exclude 
it  thqrefrom ;  but  to  leave  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to  form  and 
regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States."  Then  opened  the  roar  of  loose  decla 
mation  in  favor  of  "squatter  sovereignty,"  and  "sacred  right  of  selt-gov- 
ernment."  "But,"  said  opposition  members,  "let  us  amend  the  bill  so 
as  to  expressly  declare  that  the  people  of  the  Territory  may  exclude 
slavery."  "Not  we,"  said  the  friends  of  the  measure;  and  down  they 
voted  the  amendment. 

While  the  Nebraska  bill  was  passing  through  Congress,  a  law-case,  in 
volving  the  question  of  a  negro's  freedom,  by  reason  of  his  owner  having 
voluntarily  taken  him  first  into  a  free  State  and  then  into  a  Territory  cov 
ered  by  the  Congressional  prohibition,  and  held  him  as  a  slave  for  a  long 
time  in  each,  was  passing  through  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the 
District  of  Missouri ;  and  both  Nebraska  bill  and  lawsuit  were  brought 
to  a  decision  in  the  same  month  of  May,  1854.  The  negro's  name  was 
"Dred  Scott,"  which  name  now  designates  the  decision  finally  made  in 
the  case.  Before  the  then  next  presidential  election,  the  law-case  came 
to,  and  was  argued  in,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States ;  but  the 
decision  of  it  was  deferred  until  after  the  election.  Still,  before  the  elec 
tion,  Senator  Trurabull,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  requested  the  leading 
advocate  of  the  Nebraska  bill  to  state  his  opinion  whether  the  people  of  a 
Territory  can  constitutionally  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits ;  and  the 
latter  answers:  "That  is  a  question  for  the  Supreme  Court." 

The  election  came.  Mr.  Buchanan  was  elected,  and  the  indorsement, 
such  as  it  was,  secured.  That  was  the  second  point  gained.  The  in 
dorsement,  however,  fell  short  of  a  clear  popular  majority  by  nearly 
four  hundred  thousand  votes,  and  so,  perhaps,  was  not  overwhelmingly 
reliable  and  satisfactory.  The  outgoing  president,  in  his  last  annual 
message,  as  impressively  as  possible  echoed  back  upon  the  people  the 
weight  and  authority  of  the  indorsement.  The  Supreme  Court  met  again ; 
did  not  announce  their  decision,  but  ordered  a  re-argument.  The  presi 
dential  inauguration  came,  and  still  no  decision  of  the  court;  but  the 
incoming  President,  in  his  inaugural  address,  fervently  exhorted  the 
people  to  abide  by  the  forthcoming  decision,  whatever  it  might  be. 
Then,  in  a  few  days,  came  the  decision. 

The  reputed  author  of  the  Nebraska  bill  finds  an  early  occasion  to  make 
a  speech  at  this  capital,  indorsing  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  vehemently 
denouncing  all  opposition  to  it.  The  new  president,  too,  seizes  the  earlv 


54  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

occasion  of  the  Silliman  letter  to  indorse  and  strongly  construe  that 
decision,  and  to  express  his  astonishment  that  any  different  view  had 
ever  been  entertained. 

At  length  a  squabble  springs  up  between  the  President  and  the  author 
of  the  Nebraska  bill,  on  the  mere  question  of  fact,  whether  the  Leconip- 
ton  Constitution  was  or  was  not,  in  any  just  sense,  made  by  the  people 
of  Kansas ;  and  in  that  quarrel  the  latter  declares  that  all  he  wants  is  a 
fair  vote  for  the  people,  and  that  he  cares  not  whether  slavey  be  voted 
down  or  voted  up.  I  do  not  understand  his  declaration  that  he  cares  not 
whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up,  to  be  intended  by  him  other 
than  as  an  api  definition  of  the  policy  he  would  impress  upon  the  public 
mind — the  principle  for  which  he  declares  he  has  suffered  so  much,  and 
is  ready  to  suffer  to  the  end.  And  well  may  he  cling  to  that  principle.  If 
he  has  any  parental  feeling,  well  may  he  cling  to  it.  That  principle  is  the 
only  shred  left  of  his  original  Nebraska  doctrine.  Under  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  "  squatter  sovereignty"  squatted  out  of  existence,  tumbled  down, 
like  temporary  scaffolding — like  the  mould  at  the  foundry  served  through 
one  blast  and  fell  back  into  loose  sand — helped  to  carry  an  election,  and 
then  was  kicked  to  the  winds.  His  late  joint  struggle  with  the  Republi 
cans,  against  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  involves  nothing  of  the  origi 
nal  Nebraska  doctrine.  That  struggle  was  made  on  a  point — the  right  of 
a  people  to  make  their  own  constitution — upon  which  he  and  the  Repub 
licans  have  never  differed. 

The  several  points  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in  connection  with  Sena 
tor  Douglas's  "care  not"  policy,  constitute  the  piece  of  machinery,  in  its 
present  state  of  advancement.  This  was  the  third  point  gained.  The 
working  points  of  that  machinery  are: — 

First.  That  no  negro  slave,  imported  as  such  from  Africa,  and  no 
descendant  of  such  slave,  can  ever  be  a  citizen  of  any  State,  in  the  sense  of 
that  term  as  used  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  This  point  is 
made  in  order  to  deprive  the  negro,  in  every  possible  event,  of  the  benefit 
of  that  provision  of  the  United  States  Constitution,  which  declares  that 
uThe  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immuni 
ties  of  citizens  in  the  several  States." 

Secondly.  That,  "subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States," 
neither  Congress  nor  a  Territorial  Legislature  can  exclude  slavery  from 
any  United  States  territory.  This  point  is  made  in  order  that  individual 
men  may  fill  up  the  Territories  with  slaves  without  danger  of  losing  them 
as  property,  and  thus  to  enhance  the  chances  of  permanency  to  the  insti 
tution  through  all  the  future. 

Thirdly.  That  whether  the  holding  a  negro  in  actual  slavery  in  a  free 
.State  makes  him  free,  as  against  the  holder,  the  United  States  courts  will 
not  decide,  but  will  leave  to  be  decided  by  the  courts  of  any  slave  State 
the  negro  may  be  forced  into  by  the  master.  This  point  is  made,  not  to 
t»e  pressed  immediately  ;  but,  if  acquiesced  in  for  awhile,  and  apparently 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  55 

indorse*!  by  the  people  nt  an  election,  then  to  sustain  the  logical  conclu 
sion  that  what  Dred  Scott's  master  might  lawfully  do  with  Dred  Scott, 
in  the  free  State  of  Illinois,  every  other  master  may  lawfully  do  with 
any  othei  one,  or  one  thousand  slaves,  in  Illinois,  or  in  any  other  free 
State. 

Auxiliary  to  all  this,  and  working  hand  in  hand  with  it,  the  Nebraska 
doctrine,  or  what  is  left  of  it,  is  to  educate  and  mould  public  opinion,  at 
^east  Northern  public  opinion,  not  to  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  down 
or  voted  up.  This  shows  exactly  where  we  now  are;  and  partially,  also, 
whither  we  are  tending. 

It  will  throw  additional  light  on  the  latter,  to  go  back,  and  run  the 
mind  over  the  string  of  historical  facts -already  stated.  Several  things 
will  now  appear  less  dark  and  mysterious  than  they  did  when  they  were 
transpiring.  The  people  were  to  be  left  "perfectly  free,"  "subject  only 
to  the  Constitution."  What  the  Constitution  had  to  do  with  it,  outsiders 
could  not  then  see.  Plainly  enough  now,  it  was  an  exactly  fitted  niche 
for  the  Dred  Scott  decision  to  afterward  come  in,  and  declare  the  perfect 
freedom  of  the  people  to  be  just  no  freedom  at  all.  Why  was  the  amend 
ment,  expressly  declaring  the  right  of  the  people,  voted  down?  Plainly 
enough  no\v :  the  adoption  of  it  would  have  spoiled  the  niche  for  tho 
Dred  Sec tt  decision.  AYhy  was  the  court  decision  held  up?  Why  even 
u  Senator's  individual  opinion  withheld  till  after  the  presidential  election? 
Plainly  enough  now:  the  speaking  out  then  would  have  damaged  the 
perfectly  free  argument  upon  which  the  election  was  to  be  carried.  Why 
the  outgoing  President's  felicitation  on  the  indorsement?  Why  the  delay 
of  a  re-argument?  Why  the  incoming  President's  advance  exhortation  in 
favor  of  the  decision  ?  These  things  look  like  the  cautious  putting  and 
petting  of  a  spirited  horse  preparatory  to  mounting  him,  when  it  is 
dreaded  that  he  may  give  the  rider  a  fall.  And  why  the  hasty  after- 
mdorsemcnt  of  the  decision  by  the  President  and  others? 

We  cannot  absolutely  know  that  all  these  exact  adaptations  are  the 
result  of  preconcert.  But  when  we  see  a  lot  of  framed  timbers,  different 
portions  of  which  we  know  have  been  gotten  out  at  different  times  and 
places,  and  by  different  workmen— Stephen,  Franklin,  Roger,  and  James, 
for  instance — and  when  we  see  these  timbers  joined  together,  and  see 
they  exactly  make  the  frame  of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the  tenons  and 
mortices  exactly  fitting,  and  all  the  lengths  and  proportions  of  the  differ 
ent  pieces  exactly  adapted  to  their  respective  places,  and  not  a  piece  too 
many  or  too  few  —not  omitting  even  scaffolding — or,  if  a  single  piece  be 
lacking,  we  see  the  place  in  the  frame  exactly  fitted  and  prepared  yet  to 
bring  such  piece  in — in  such  a  case,  we  find  it  impossible  not  to  believe 
that  Stephen  and  Franklin  and  Roger  and  James  all  understood  one 
another  from  the  beginning,  and  all  worked  upon  a  common  plan  or 
draft  drawn  up  before  the  first  blow  was  struck. 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that,  by  the  Nebraska  bill,  the  people  of  a 


56  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

State,  as  well  as  Territory,  were  to  be  left  "perfectly  free,"  "subject 
only  to  the  Constitution."  Why  mention  a  State  ?  They  were  legislating 
for  Territories,  and  not  for  or  about  States.  Certainly,  the  people  of  a 
State  are  and  ought  to  be  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States ;  but  why  is  mention  of  this  lugged  into  this  merely  territorial 
law?  Why  are  the  people  of  a  Territory  and  the  people  of  a  State 
therein  lumped  together,  and  their  relation  to  the  Constitution  therein 
treated  as  being  precisely  the  same?  While  the  opinion  of  the  court,  by 
Chief-Justice  Taney,  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  the  separate  opinions  of 
all  the  concurring  Judges,  expressly  declare  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  neither  permits  Congress  nor  a  territorial  legislature  to 
exclude  slavery  from  any  United  States  Territory,  they  all  omit  to  declare 
whether  or  not  the  same  Constitution  permits  a  State,  or  the  people  of  a 
State,  to  exclude  it.  Possibly,  this  is  a  mere  omission ;  but  who  can  be 
quite  sure,  if  McLean  or  Curtis  had  sought  to  get  into  the  opinion  a 
declaration  of  unlimited  power  in  the  people  of  a  State  to  exclude  slavery 
from  their  limits,  just  as  Chase  and  Mace  sought  to  get  such  declara 
tion,  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  a  Territory,  into  the  Nebraska  bill; — ] 
ask,  who  can  be  quite  sure  that  it  would  not  have  been  voted  down  in 
the  one  case,  as  it  had  been  in  the  other?  The  nearest  approach  to  the 
point  of  declaring  the  power  of  a  State  over  slavery,  is  made  by  Judge 
Nelson.  He  approaches  it  more  than  once,  using  the  precise  idea,  and 
almost  the  language,  too,  of  the  Nebraska  act.  On  one  occasion,  his 
exact  language  is,  "  except  in  cases  where  the  power  is  restrained  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  law  of  the  State  is  supreme  over 
the  subject  of  slavery  within  its  jurisdiction."  In  what  cases  the  power 
of  the  States  is  so  restrained  by  the  United  States  Constitution,  is  left  an 
open  question,  precisely  as  the  same  question,  as  to  the  restraint  on  the 
power  of  the  Territories,  was  left  open  in  the  Nebraska  act.  Put  this 
and  that  together,  and  we  have  another  nice  little  niche,  which  we  may, 
ere  long,  see  filled  with  another  Supreme  Court  decision,  declaring  that 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  does  not  permit  a  State  to  exclude 
slavery  from  its  limits.  And  this  may  especially  be  expected,  if  the  doc 
trine  of  "care  not  whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up,"  shall 
gain  upon  the  public  mind  sufficiently  to  give  promise  that  such  a  decision 
can  be  maintained  when  made. 

Such  a  decision  is  all  that  slavery  noAv  lacks  of  being  alike  lawful  in 
all  the  States.  Welcome  or  unwelcome,  such  decision  is  probably 
coming,  and  will  soon  be  upon  us,  unless  the  power  of  the  present  politi 
cal  dynasty  shall  be  met  and  overthrown.  We  shall  lie  down  pleasantly 
dreaming  that  the  people  of  Missouri  are  on  the  verge  of  making  their 
State  free,  and  we  shall  awake  to  the  reality  instead,  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  made  Illinois  a  slave  State.  To  meet  and  overthrow  the  power 
of  that  dynasty,  is  the  work  now  before  all  those  who  would  prevent 
that  consummation.  That  is  what  we  have  to  do.  How  can  we  best  do  it  ? 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  57 

There  are  those  who  denounce  us  openly  to  their  own  friends,  and  yet 
whisper  us  softly,  that  Senator  Douglas  is  the  aptest  instrument  there  is 
with  which  to  effect  that  object.  They  wish  us  to  infer  all,  from  the 
fact  that  he  now  has  a  little  quarrel  with  the  present  head  of  the  dynasty  ; 
and  that  he  has  regularly  voted  with  us  on  a  single  point,  upon  which  he 
and  we  have  never  differed.  They  remind  us  that  he  is  a  great  man,  and 
that  the  largest  of  us  are  very  small  ones.  Let  this  be  granted.  But  "a 
living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead  lion."  Judge  Douglas,  if  not  a  dead  lion, 
for  this  work,  is  at  least  a  caged  and  toothless  one.  How  can  he  oppose 
the  advances  of  slavery  ?  He  don't  care  any  thing  about  it.  His  avowed 
mission  is  impressing  the  "public  heart"  to  care  nothing  about  it.  A 
leading  Douglas  democratic  newspaper  thinks  Douglas's  superior  talent 
will  be  needed  to  resist  the  revival  of  the  African  slave-trade.  Does 
Douglas  believe  an  effort  to  revive  that  trade  is  approaching?  lie 
has  riot  said  so.  Does  he  really  think  so?  But  if  it  is,  how  can  he  resist 
it  ?  For  years  he  has  labored  to  prove  it  a  sacred  right  of  white  men  to 
take  negro  slaves  into  the  new  Territories.  Can  he  possibly  show  that  it 
is  less  a  sacred  right  to  buy  them  where  they  can  be  bought  cheapest? 
And  unquestionably  they  can  be  bought  cheaper  in  Africa  than  in  Vir 
ginia.  He  has  done  all  in  his  power  to  reduce  the  whole  question  of 
slavery  to  one  of  a  mere  right  of  property ;  and  as  such,  how  can  he  op 
pose  the  foreign  slave-trade — how  can  he  refuse  that  trade  in  that  "  prop 
erty"  shall  be  "  perfectly  free" — unless  he  does  it  as  a  protection  to  the 
home  production  ?  And  as  the  home  producers  will  probably  not  ask  the 
protection,  he  will  be  wholly  without  a  ground  of  opposition. 

Senator  Douglas  holds,  we  know,  that  a  man  may  rightfully  be  wiser 
to-day  than  he  was  yesterday — that  he  may  rightfully  change  when  he 
finds  himself  wrong.  But  can  we,  for  that  reason,  run  ahead,  and  infer 
that  he  will  make  any  particular  change,  of  which  he  himself  has  given 
no  intimation?  Can  we  safely  base  our  action  upon  any  such  vague  in 
ference?  Now,  as  ever,  I  wish  not  to  misrepresent  Judge  Douglas's 
position,  question  his  motives,  or  do  aught  that  can  be  personally  offen 
sive  to  him.  Whenever,  if  ever,  he  and  we  can  come  together  on  princi 
ple,  so  that  our  cause  may  have  assistance  from  his  great  ability,  I  hope 
to  have  interposed  no  adventitious  obstacle.  But,  clearly,  he  is  not  now 
with  us — he  does  not  pretend  to  be — he  does  not  promise  ever  to  be. 

Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to,  and  conducted  by,  its  own 
undoubted  friends — those  whose  hands  are  free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the 
work — who  do  care  for  the  result.  Two  years  ago,  the  Republicans  of 
the  nation  mustered  over  thirteen  hundred  thousand  strong.  TTe  did 
this  under  the  single  impulse  of  resistance  to  a  common  danger,  with 
every  external  circumstance  against  us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and 
even  hostile  elements,  we  gathered  from  the  four  winds,  and  formed  and 
fought  the  battle  through,  under  the  constant  hot  fire  of  a  disciplined, 
proud,  and  pampered  enemy.  Did  we  brave  all  then,  to  falter  now? — 


5S  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

now,  when  that  same  enemy  *s  wavering,  dissevered,  and  belligerent? 
The  result  is  not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail— if  we  stand  firm,  we  shall 
not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may  accelerate,  or  mistakes  delay  it;  but,  soonei 
or  later,  the  victory  is  sure  to  come. 

The  first  paragraph  of  this  speech  has  become  famous 
in  our  political  history,  and  the  whole  address,  with  its 
bold  utterance  of  truths  which  many,  even  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  supporters,  did  not  at  that  time  care  to  face,  was  a 
fitting  prelude  to  the  great  contest  which,  was  to  follow. 
Although,  as  its  author  admitted,  it  had  been  carefully 
prepared,  he  had  not  consulted  with  any  of  his  friends 
regarding  it,  and  none  of  them,  even  those  with  whom  he 
was  the  most  intimate,  knew  of  the  positions  which  he 
intended  to  take,  until  they  heard  them  enunciated  from 
the  platform  in  Springfield,  on  that  memorable  June  17. 
Three  weeks  later  (July  9),  Senator  Douglas  arrived  in 
Chicago,  where  his  friends  welcomed  him  with  the  most 
ostentatious  demonstrations.  On  the  same  day  he  made 
a  speech,  reviewing  Mr.  Lincoln's  address  to  the  Spring 
field  Convention.  He  spoke  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  "a  kind) 
amiable,  and  intelligent  gentleman,  a  good  citizen  and  an 
honorable  opponent,"  and  then  proceeded  to  reply  to 
the  speech  in  question,  assuming  a  tone  of  superiority 
almost  amounting  to  superciliousness.  He  was  especially 
severe  upon  the  introductory  passage  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
address,  in  which  he  asserted  his  belief  that  the  Govern 
ment  could  not  endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  himself  present  daring  the  delivery  of 
Senator  Douglas's  speech,  and  on  the  next  evening  took 
occasion  to  reply  to  it  before  an  immense  assemblage, 
specially  convened  for  that  purpose.  After  a  few  intro 
ductory  remarks,  Mr.  Lincoln  thus  alluded  to  the  famous 
phrase  which  had  become  the  watch- word  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  for  the  campaign  :— 

Popular  sovereignty!  everlasting  popular  sovereignty!  Let  us  fora 
moment  inquire  into  this  vast  matter  of  popular  sovereignty.  What  is 
popular  sovereignty?  We  recollect  that  at  an  early  period  in  the  history 
of  Iliis  struggle,  there  was  another  name  for  the  same  thing — Squatter 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  59 

Sovereignty.  It  was  not  exactly  Popular  Sovereignty,  but  Squatter 
Sovereignty.  What  do  those  terms  mean  ?  What  do  those  terms  meat 
when  used  now?  And  vast  credit  is  taken  by  our  friend,  the  Judge,  in 
regard  to  his  support  of  it,  when  he  declares  the  last  years  of  his  life  Lava 
been  and  all  the  future  years  of  his  life  shall  be,  devoted  to  this  matter 
of  popular  sovereignty.  What  is  it?  Why,  it  is  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people!  What  was  Squatter  Sovereignty?  I  suppose,  if  it  had  any  sig 
nificance  at  all,  it  was  the  right  of  the  people  to  govern  themselves,  to  bb 
sovereign  in  their  own  affairs,  while  they  were  squatted  down  in  a 
country  not  their  own-while  they  had  squatted  on  a  Territory  that  did 
not  belong  to  them,  in  the  sense  that  a  State  belongs  to  the  people  who 
inhabit  it-when  it  belonged  to  the  nation— such  right  to  govern  them 
selves  was  called  "  Squatter  Sovereignty." 

Now  I  wish  you  to  mark.     What  has  become  of  that  Squatter  Sover 
cignty?     What  has  become  of  it?     Can  you  get  anybody  to  tell  you  now 
that  the  people  of  a  Territory  have  any  authority  to  govern  themselves, 
in  regard  to  this  mooted  question  of  slavery,  before  they  form  a  State 
Constitution?     No  such  thing  at  all,  although  there  is  a  general  running 
fire,  and  although  there  has  been  a  hurrah  made  in  every  speech  on  that 
side,  assuming  that  policy  had  given  the  people  of  a  Territory  the  right 
to  govern   themselves  upon  this  question  ;  yet  the  point  is  dodged, 
day  it  has  been  decided— no  more  than  a  year  ago  it  was  decided  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  is  insisted  upon  to-day,  that  tho 
people  of  a  Territory  have  no  right  to  exclude  slavery  from  a  Territory, 
that  if  any  one  man  chooses  to  take  slaves  into  a  Territory,  all  the  rest 
of  the  people  have  no  right  to  keep  them  out.     This  being  so,  and  this 
decision  being  made  one  of  the  points  that  the  Judge  approved,  and  one 
in  the  approval  of  which  he  says  he  means  to  keep  me  down— put  me 
down  I  should  not  say,  for  I  have  never  been  up.     lie  says  he  is  in  favor 
of  it,  and  sticks  to  it,  and  expects  to  win  his  battle  on  that  decision, 
which  says  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  Squatter  Sovereignty ;  but  that 
any  one  man  may  take  slaves  into  a  Territory,  and  all  the  other  inen^  in 
the  Territory  may  be  opposed  to  it,  and  yet  by  reason  of  the  Constitution 
they  cannot  prohibit  it.     When  that  is  so,  how  much  is  left  of  this  vast 
matter  of  Squatter  Sovereignty,  I  should  like  to  know  ? 

The  Lecompton  Constitution  and  its  fate  were  next  dis 
cussed,  and  then -Mr.  Lincoln  proceeded  to  reply  to  the 
inferences  which  his  opponent  had  so  characteristically 
but  unwarrantably  drawn  from  the  introductory  para 
graph  of  his  Spring-field  speech.  He  said : 

In  this  paragraph  which  I  have  quoted  in  your  hearing,  and  to  which  I 
ask  the  attention  of  all,  Judge  Douglas  thinks  lie  discovers  great  political 


60  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

heresy.  I  want  your  attention  particularly  to  what  he  has  icferred  from 
it.  He  says  I  am  in  favor  of  making  all  the  States  of  this  Union  uniform 
in  all  their  internal  regulations ;  that  in  all  their  domestic  concerns  I  am 
in  favor  of  making  them  entirely  uniform.  He  draws  this  inference  from 
the  language  I  have  quoted  to  you.  He  says  that  I  am  in  favor  of  making 
war  by  the  North  upon  the  South  for  the  extinction  of  slavery ;  that  I  am 
also  in  favor  of  inviting  (as  he  expresses  it)  the  South  to  a  war  upon  the 
North,  for  the  purpose  of  nationalizing  slavery.  Now,  it  is  singular  enough, 
if  you  will  carefully  read  that  passage  over,  that  I  did  not  say  that  I  was  in 
favor  of  any  thing  in  it.  I  only  said  what  I  expected  would  take  place.  I 
made  a  prediction  only — it  may  have  been  a  foolish  one,  perhaps.  I  did 
not  even  say  that  I  desired  that  slavery  should  be  put  in  course  of  ulti 
mate  extinction.  I  do  say  so  now,  however,  so  there  need  be  no  longer 
any  difficulty  about  that.  It  may  be  written  down  in  the  great  speech. 

Gentlemen,  Judge  Douglas  informed  you  that  this  speech  of  mine  was 
probably  carefully  prepared.  I  admit  that  it  was.  I  am  not  master  of 
language  ;  I  have  not  a  fine  education ;  I  am  not  capable  of  entering  into 
a  disquisition  upon  dialectics,  as  I  believe  you  call  it ;  but  I  do  *  i  believe 
the  language  I  employed  bears  any  such  construction  as  Judge  Douglas 
puts  upon  it.  But  I  don't  care  about  a  quibble  in  regard  to  words.  I 
know  what  I  meant,  and  I  will  not  leave  this  crowd  in  doubt,  if  I  can 
explain  it  to  them,  what  I  really  meant  in  the  use  of  that  paragraph. 

I  am  not,  in  the  first  place,  unaware  that  this  Government  has  endured 
eighty-two  years  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  know  that.  I  am  tolerably 
well  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  country,  and  I  know  that  it  has 
endured  eighty-two  years,  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  believe — and  that  is 
what  I  meant  to  allude  to  there — I  believe  it  has  endured,  because  during 
all  that  time,  until  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  the  public  mind 
did  rest  all  the  time  in  the  belief  that  slavery  was  in  course  of  ultimate 
extinction.  That  was  what  gave  us  the  rest  that  we  had  through  that 
period  of  eighty-two  years;  at  least,  so  I  believe.  I  have  always  hated 
slavery,  I  think,  as  much  as  any  Abolitionist — I  have  been  an  Old  Line 
Whig — I  have  always  hated  it,  but  I  have  always  been  quiet  about  it  un 
til  this  new  era  of  the  introduction  of  the  Nebraska  bill  began.  I  always 
believed  that  everybody  was  against  it,  and  that  it  was  in  course  of  ulti 
mate  extinction.  [Pointing  to  Mr.  Browning,  who  stood  near  by.] 
Browning  thought  so;  the  great  mass  of  the  nation  have  rested  in  the 
belief  that  slavery  was  in  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  They  had 
reason  so  to  believe. 

The  adoption  of  the  Constitution  and  its  attendant  history  led  the 
people  to  believe  so ;  and  that  such  was  the  belief  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  itself,  why  did  those  old  men,  about  the  time  of  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution,  decree  that  slavery  should  not  go  into  the  new  Terri 
tory,  where  it  had  not  already  gone  ?  Why  declare  that  within  twenty 
years  the  African  Slave  Trade,  by  which  slaves  are  supplied,  might  be  cut 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  61 

off  by  Congress  ?  Why  were  all  these  acts  ?  I  might  enumerate  moro 
of  these  acts — but  enough.  "What  were  they  but  a  clear  indication  that 
the  trainers  of  the  Constitution  intended  and  expected  the  ultimate  ex 
tinction  of  that  institution?  And  now,  when  I  say,  as  I  said  in  my  speech 
that  Judge  Douglas  has  quoted  from,  when  I  say  that  I  think  the  oppo 
nents  of  slavery  will  resist  the  farther  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the 
public  mind  shall  rest  with  the  belief  that  it  is  in  course  of  ultimate  ex 
tinction,  I  only  mean  to  say,  that  they  will  place  it  where  the  founders 
of  this  Government  originally  placed  it. 

I  have  said  a  hundred  times,  and  I  have  now  no  inclination  to  take  it 
back,  that  I  believe  there  is  no  right,  and  ought  to  be  no  inclination  in 
the  people  of  the  free  States  to  enter  into  the  slave  States,  and  interfere 
with  the  question  of  slavery  at  all.  I  have  s.Jd  that  always;  Judge 
Douglas  has  heard  me  say  it — if  not  quite  a  hundred  times,  at  least  as 
good  as  a  hundred  times;  and  when  it  is  said  that  I  am  in  favor  of 
interfering  with  slavery  where  it  exists,  I  know  it  is  unwarranted  by 
anything  I  have  ever  intended,  and,  as  I  believe,  by  any  thing  I  have  ever 
said.  If,  by  any  means,  I  have  ever  used  language  which  could  fairly  be 
so  construed  (as,  however,  I  believe  I  never  have),  I  now  correct  it. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  inference  that  Judge  Douglas  draws,  that  I  am 
in  favor  of  setting  the  sections  at  war  with  one  another.  I  know  that 
I  never  meant  any  such  thing,  and  I  believe  that  no  fair  mind  can  infer 
any  such  thing  from  any  thing  I  have  ever  said. 


•fhese  speeches  in  Chicago  and  those  that  had  preceded 
them  made  it  evident  that  the  struggle  was  to  take  the 
shape  of  a  personal  contest  between  the  two  men,  and  in 
every  respect, — physically,  mentally,  and  politically,— 
they  were  thoroughly  antagonistic  to  each  other.  Each, 
moreover,  recognized  the  other  as  the  embodiment  of 
principles  to  which  he  was  in  deadly  hostility.  Judge 
Douglas  was  the  champion  of  all  sympathizers  with 
slavery  at  the  North — of  those  who  openly  advocated  it, 
and  still  more  of  those  who  took  the  more  plausible  and 
dangerous  part  of  not  caring  whether  it  c '  was  voted  down 
or  up."  Mr.  Lincoln's  soul  was  on  fire  with  love  for 
freedom  and  for  humanity,  and  with  reverence  for  the 
Fathers  of  the  country,  and  for  the  principles  of  freedom 
for  all,  under  the  light  of  which  they  marched.  He  felt 
that  the  contest  was  no  mere  local  one  ;  that  it  was  com 
paratively  of  little  consequence  which  man  succeeded  in 


62  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  fight,  but  that  it  was  all-important  that  the  banner  of 
freedom  should  be  borne  with  no  faltering  step,  but  "full 
high  advanced."  And  thus  through  the  whole  campaign 
he  sought  with  all  his  power  to  press  home  to  the  hearts 
of  the  people  the  principles,  the  example,  and  the  teach 
ings  of  the  men  of  the  Revolution. 

At  the  time  of  the  delivery  of  the  speeches  in  Chicago, 
to  which  we  have  already  alluded,  there  was  no  under 
standing  regarding  joint  discussions.  One  week  later, how 
ever,  both  spoke  in  Springfield  on  the  same  day,  but  be 
fore  different  audi  Alices ;  and  one  week  later,  Mr.  Lincoln 
addressed  a  letter  i.o  Douglas,  challenging  him  to  a  series 
of  debates  during  the  campaign. 

The  challenge  was  accepted,  and  arrangements  were  at 
once  made  for  the  meetings.  The  terms  proposed  by  Mr. 
Douglas — whether  intentionally  or  unintentionally  does 
not  appear — were  such  as  to  give  him  the  decided  advan 
tage  of  having  four  opening  and  closing  speeches  to  Mr, 
Lincoln's  three  ;  but  Mr.  Lincoln,  while  noticing  the  in 
equality,  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  them. 

The  seven  joint  debates  were  held  as  follows  : — at  Ot 
tawa,  on  August  21st;  at  Freeport,  on  August  27th;  at 
Jonesboro,  on  September  15th ;  at  Charleston,  on  Septem 
ber  18th ;  at  Galesburg,  on  October  7th ;  at  Quincy,  on  Oc 
tober  13th  ;  at  Alton,  on  October  15th.  These  seven  tour 
naments  raised  the  greatest  excitement  throughout  the 
State.  They  were  held  in  all  quarters  of  the  State,  from 
Freeport  in  the  north  to  Jonesboro  in  the  extreme  south. 
Everywhere  the  different  parties  turned  out  to  do  honor 
to  their  champions.  Processions  and  cavalcades,  bands  of 
music  and  cannon-firing,  made  every  day  a  day  of  excite 
ment.  But  far  greater  was  the  excitement  of  such  orator 
ical  contests  between  two  such  skilled  debaters,  before 
mixed  audiences  of  friends  and  foes,  to  rejoice  over  every 
keen  thrust  at  the  adversary,  to  be  cast  down  by  each 
failure  to  parry  the  thrust  so  aimed.  It  is  impossible  to 
present  here  any  thing  more  than  the  barest  sketch  of 
these  great  efforts  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  They  are,  and  always 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  63 

will  be,  to  those  who  are  interested  in  the  history  of  the 
slavery  contest,  most  valuable  and  important  documents, 
y    In  the  lirst  of  these  joint  debates,  which  took  place  at 
Ottawa,  Mr.  Douglas  again  rung  the  changes  upon  the 
introductory  passage  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Springfield  speech, 
"  a  house  divided  against  itself,"  etc.  Mr.  Lincoln  reitera 
ted  his  assertion,   and  defended  it  in  effect,   as  he  did 
in  his  speech  at  Chicago.     Then  lie  took  up  the  charge 
which  he  had  previously  made,  of  the  existence  of  a  con 
spiracy  to  extend  slavery  over  the  Northern  States,  and 
pressed   it  home,   citing  as  proof  a  speech  which  Mr. 
Douglas  himself  had  made    on  the  Lecompton  bill^  in 
which  he  had  substantially  made  the  same  charge  against 
Buchanan  and    others.      He  then   showed    again,    that 
all  that  was  necessary  for  the  accomplishment  of  the 
scheme  was  a  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  that  no 
State  could  exclude  slavery,  as  the  court  had  already  de 
cided  that  no  Territory  could  exclude  it,  and  the  acquies 
cence  of  the  people  in  such  a  decision ;  and  he  told  his 
hearers  that  Douglas  was  doing  all  in  his  power  to  bring 
about  such  acquiescence  in  advance,  by  declaring  that 
the  true  position  was,  not  to  care  whether  slavery  "  was 
voted  down  or  up,"  and  by  announcing  himself  in  favor 
of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  not  because  it  was  right,  but 
because  a  decision  of  the  court  is  to  him  a  "  Thus  saith 
the  Lord,"  and  thus  committing  himself  to  the  next  de 
cision  just  as  firmly  as  to  this.    He  closed  his  speech  with 
the  following  eloquent  words  :— 

Henry  Clay,  my  bean-ideal  of  a  statesman,  the  man  for  whom  I  fought 
all  my  humble  life— Henry  Clay  once  said  of  a  class  of  men  who  would 
repress  all  tendencies  to  liberty  and  ultimate  emancipation,  that  they 
must,  if  they  would  do  this,  go  back  to  the  era  of  our  independence,  and 
muzzle  the  cannon  which  thunders  its  annual  joyous  return  ;  they  must 
blow  out  the  moral  lights  around  us ;  they  must  penetrate  the  human 
soul,  and  eradicate  there  the  love  of  liberty ;  and  then,  and  not  till  then, 
could  they  perpetuate  slavery  in  this  country  !  To  my  thinking,  Judge- 
Douglas  is,  by  his  example  and  vast  influence,  doing  that  very  thing  in 
this  community,  when  he  says  that  the  negro  has  nothing  in  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence.  Henry  Clay  plainly  understood  the  contrary 


64  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Judge  Douglas  is  going  back  to  the  era  of  our  Revolution,  and,  to  the  ex 
tent  of  liis  ability,  muzzling  the  cannon  which  thunders  its  annual  joyous 
return.  When  he  invites  any  people,  willing  to  have  slavery,  to  establish 
it,  he  is  blowing  out  the  moral  lights  around  us.  When  he  says,  he  "  cares 
not  whether  slavery  is  voted  down  or  voted  up," — that  it  is  a  sacred 
right  of  self-government, — he  is,  in  my  judgment,  penetrating  the  human 
soul,  and  eradicating  the  light  of  reason  and  the  love  of  liberty  in  this 
American  people.  And  now  I  will  only  say,  that  when,  by  all  these 
means  and  appliances,  Judge  Douglas  shall  succeed  in  bringing  public  sen 
timent  to  an  exact  accordance  with  his  own  views — when  these  vast  as 
semblages  shall  echo  back  all  these  sentiments — when  they  shall  come  to 
repeat  his  views  and  to  avow  his  principles,  and  to  say  all  that  he  says  on 
these  mighty  questions — then  it  needs  only  the  formality  of  the  second 
Dred  Scott  decision,  which  he  indorses  in  advance,  to  make  slavery  alike 
lawful  in  all  the  States — old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South. 

The  debate  at  Freeport — the  second  of  the  series — took 
place  August  27,  and  was  marked  by  Mr.  Lincoln  answer 
ing  a  series  of  seven  questions  proposed  by  his  opponent. 
We  give  the  interrogatories  and  the  replies,  as  follows  : 

Question  1.  I  desire  to  know  whether  Lincoln  to-day  stands,  as  he  did 
in  1854,  in  favor  of  the  unconditional  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law  ? 

Answer.  I  do  not  now,  nor  ever  did,  stand  in  favor  of  the  uncondi 
tional  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  law. 

Q.  2.  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands  pledged  to-day,  as  he 
did  in  1854,  against  the  admission  of  any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union, 
even  if  the  people  want  them  ? 

A.  I  do  not  now,  or  ever  did,  stand  pledged  against  the  admission  of 
any  more  slave  States  into  the  Union. 

Q.  3.  I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged  against  the  admis 
sion  of  a  new  State  into  the  Union  with  such  a  Constitution  as  the  people 
of  that  State  may  see  n't  to  make  ? 

A.  I  do  not  stand  pledged  against  the  admission  of  a  new  State  into 
the  Union,  with  such  a  Constitution  as  the  people  of  that  State  may  see 
fit  to  make. 

Q.  4.  I  want  to  know  whether  he  stands  to-day  pledged  to  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  ? 

A.  I  do  not  stand  to-day  pledged  to  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  tlw 
District  of  Columbia. 

Q.  5.  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  stands  pledged  to  the  pro 
hibition  of  the  slave-trade  between  the  different  States  ? 

A.  I  do  not  stand  pledged  to  the  prohibition  of  the  slave-trade  bo 
tween  the  different  States. 

Q.  6.     1  desire  to  know  whether  he  stands  pledged  to  prohibit  slavery 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  65 

in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United  States,  North  as  well  as  South  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  line  ? 

A.  I  am  impliedly,  if  not  expressly,  pledged  to  a  belief  in  the  right 
and  duty  of  Congress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  all  the  United  States  Terri 
tories. 

Q.  7.  I  desire  him  to  answer  whether  he  is  opposed  to  the  acquisition 
of  any  new  territory  unless  slavery  is  first  prohibited  therein  ? 

A.  I  am  not  generally  opposed  to  honest  acquisition  of  territory;  and, 
in  any  given  case,  I  would  or  would  not  oppose  such  acquisition,  accord 
ingly  as  I  might  think  such  acquisition  would  or  would  not  aggravate  the 
slavery  question  among  ourselves. 

Before  answering  these  questions,  Mr.  Lincoln  notified 
Mr.  Douglas  that  he  should  insist  upon  the  right  to  pro 
pound  an  equal  number  to  him,  if  he  desired  to  do  so, 
and  before  closing  submitted  these  four  interrogatories  : 

Question  1.  If  the  people  of  Kansas  shall,  by  means  entirely  unob 
jectionable  in  all  other  respects,  adopt  a  State  Constitution,  and  ask 
admission  into  the  Union  under  it,  before  they  have  the  requisite  number 
of  inhabitants  according  to  the  English  bill— some  ninety-three  thousand 
—will  you  vote  to  admit  them  ? 

Q.  2.  Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory,  in  any  lawful  way, 
against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the  United  States,  exclude  slavery  from 
its  limits  prior  to  the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution  ? 

"Q.  3.  If  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  shall  decide  that 
States  cannot  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  arc  you  in  favor  of  ac 
quiescing  in,  adopting,  and  following  such  decision  as  a  rule  of  political 
action  ? 

Q.  4.  Are  you  in  favor  of  acquiring  additional  territory,  in  disregard 
of  how  such  acquisition  may  affect  the  nation  on  the  slavery  question  ? 

To  these  questions  he  received,  as  he  undoubtedly  ex 
pected,  only  evasive  replies.  He  also,  in  the  course  of 
the  debate,  pressed  home  upon  his  opponent  a  charge  of 
quoting  resolutions  as  having  been  adopted  at  a  Repub 
lican  State  Convention  which  were  never  so  adopted,  and 
again  called  Douglas's  attention  to  the  conspiracy  to 
nationalize  slavery,  and  showed  that  his  pretended  desire 
to  leave  the  people  of  a  Territory  free  to  establish  slavery 
or  exclude  it,  was  really  only  a  desire  to  allow  them  to 
establish  it,  as  was  shown  by  his  voting  against  Mr. 

6 


66  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Chase's  amendment  to  the  Nebraska  bill,  which  gave 
the  leave  to  exclude  it. 

In  the  third  debate,  which  took  place  at  Jonesboro,  Mr. 
Lincoln  showed  that  Douglas  and  his  friends  were  trying 
to  change  the  position  of  the  country  on  the  slavery 
question  from  what  it  was  when  the  Constitution  was 
adopted,  and  that  the  disturbance  of  the  country  had 
arisen  from  this  pernicious  effort.  He  then  cited  from 
Democratic  speeches  and  platforms  of  former  days  to 
prove  that  they  occupied  then  the  very  opposite  ground 
on  the  question  from  that  which  was  taken  at  the  time  he 
was  speaking.  He  also  brought  out  in  strong  relief  the 
evasive  character  of  Douglas' s  answers  to  the  questions 
which  he  had  proposed,  especially  the  subterfuge  of  "  un 
friendly  legislation,"  which  he  had  set  forth  as  the  means 
by  which  the  people  of  a  Territory  could  exclude  slavery 
from  its  limits  in  spite  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was  pre 
paring  these  questions  for  Douglas,  he  was  urged  by  some 
of  his  friends  not  to  corner  him  on  this  last  point,  because 
he  would  surely  stand  by  his  doctrine  of  Squatter  Sov 
ereignty  in  defiance  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  "and 
that,"  said  they,  "will  make  him  Senator."  " That  may 
be,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  "  but  if 
he  takes  that  shoot  he  never  can  be  President." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  sagacity  did  not  fail  him  here.  This  posi 
tion  which  Douglas  took  of  "unfriendly  legislation," 
was  a  stumbling-block  which  he  was  never  able  to  get 
over  ;  and  if  the  contest  between  them  had  brought  out 
no  other  good  result,  the  compelling  Douglas  to  take  this 
ground  was  a  most  important  point  gained. 

In  the  fourth  joint  debate  at  Charleston,  Mr.  Lincoln 
brought  forward  and  spoke  at  length  upon  the  evidence 
of  a  charge  previously  made  by  Judge  Trumbull  against 
Douglas,  of  being  himself  reponsible  for  a  clause  in  the 
Kansas  bill  which  would  have  deprived  the  people  of 
Kansas  of  the  right  to  vote  upon  their  own  Constitution. 

He  stated  this  point  as  follows  : 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  G7 

The  bill  that  went  into  his  (Mr.  Douglas's)  hands  had  the  provision  in  it 
for  a  submission  of  the  Constitution  to  the  people  ;  and  I  say  its  language 
amounts  to  an  express  provision  for  a  submission,  and  that  lie  took  the 
provision  out.  He  says  it  was  known  that  the  bill  was  silent  in  this 
particular;  but  I  say,  Judge  Douglas,  it  icas  not  silent  when  you  got  it. 
It  was  vocal  with,  the  declaration,  when  you  got  it,  for  a  submission  of 
the  Constitution  to  the  people.  And  now,  my  direct  question  to  Judge 
Douglas  is,  to  answer  why,  if  he  deemed  the  bill  silent  on  this  point,  he 
found  it  necessary  to  strike  out  those  particular  harmless  words.  If  he 
had  found  the  bill  silent  and  without  this  provision,  he  might  say  what 
he  dt/es  now.  If  he  supposes  it  was  implied  that  the  Constitution  would 
be  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  how  could  these  two  lines  so  en 
cumber  the  statute  as  to  make  it  necessary  to  strike  them  out  ?  How 
could  he  infer  that  a  submission  was  still  implied,  after  its  express  provi 
sion  had  been  stricken  from  the  bill  ?  I  find  the  bill  vocal  with  the  pro 
vision,  \v  hile  he  silenced  it.  He  took  it  out,  and  although  he  took  out 
the  other  provision  preventing  a  submission  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  I  ask, 
why  did  you  first  put  it  in?  I  ask  him  whether  he  took  the  original 
provision  out,  which  Trumbull  alleges  was  in  the  bill  ?  If  he  admits  that  he 
did  take  it  out,  /  ask  him  what  he  did  it  for  f  It  looks  to  us  as  if  he  had 
altered  the  bill.  If  it  looks  differently  to  him — if  he  has  a  different  reason 
for  his  action  from  the  one  we  assign  him — he  can  tell  it.  I  insist  upon 
knowing  why  he  made  the  bill  silent  upon  that  point,  when  it  was  vocal 
before  he  put  his  hands  upon  it. 

Mr.  Douglas,  it  is  needless  to  say,  could  not  parry  this 
home  thrust.  In  his  efforts  to  do  so  (for  Mr.  Lincoln  gave 
him  several  opportunities  subsequently  to  explain  his 
position),  he  invariably  lost  his  temper. 

In  view  of  the  discussions  now  in  progress  in  many 
parts  of  the  country,  the  following  passage  from  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  final  rejoinder  to  Mr.  Douglas,  in  this  debate  at 
Charleston,  possesses  peculiar  interest. 

Judge  Douglas  has  said  to  you  that  he  has  not  been  able  to  get  from 
me  an  answer  to  the  question  whether  I  am  in  favor  of  negro  citizenship. 
So  far  as  I  know,  the  Judge  never  asked  me  the  question  before.  He 
shall  have  no  occasion  to  ever  ask  it  again,  for  I  tell  him  very  frankly 
that  I  am  not  in  favor  of  negro  citizenship.  This  furnishes  me  an  occa 
sion  for  saying  a  few  words  upon  the  subject.  I  mentioned  in  a  certain 
speech  of  mine  which  has  been  printed,  that  the  Supreme  Court  had 
decided  that  a  negro  could  not  possibly  be  made  a  citizen;  and  with 
out  saying  what  was  ray  ground  of  complaint  in  regard  to  that,  or 
whether  I  had  any  ground  of  complaint,  Judge  Douglas  has  from  that 


68  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

thing  manufactured  nearly  every  thing  that  he  ever  says  about  my  dispo 
sition  to  produce  an  equality  between  the  negroes  and  the  white  people. 
If  any  one  will  read  my  speech,  he  will  find  I  mentioned  that  as  one  of 
the  points  decided  in  the  course  of  the  Supreme  Court  opinions,  but  I  did 
not  state  what  objection  I  had  to  it.  But  Judge  Douglas  tells  the  people 
what  my  objection  was,  when  I  did  not  tell  them  myself.  Now  my  opinion 
is  that  the  different  States  have  the  power  to  make  a  negro  a  citizen  under 
the  Constitution  of  tho  United  States,  if  they  choose.  The  Dred  Scott 
decision  decides  that  they  have  not  that  power.  If  the  State  of  Illinois 
had  that  power  I  should  be  opposed  to  the  exercise  of  it.  That  is  all  I 
have  to  say  about  it. 

In  the  fifth  joint  debate,  that  at  Galesburg,  Mr.  Lincoln 
defended  the  Republican  party  from  the  charge  of  being 
sectional,  and  in  the  course  of  his  speech  he  thus  pointedly 
sketched  the  difference  between  the  supporters  of  Mr. 
Douglas  and  their  opponents,  as  regarded  the  manner  in 
which  they  respectively  looked  upon  the  free  and  slave 
States  :— 

The  Judge  tells,  in  proceeding,  that  he  is  opposed  to  making  any  odious 
distinctions  between  free  and  slave  States.  I  am  altogether  unaware  that 
the  Republicans  are  in  favor  of  making  any  odious  distinctions  between 
the  free  and  slave  States.  But  there  still  is  a  difference,  I  think,  between 
Judge  Douglas  and  the  Republicans  in  this.  I  suppose  that  the  real  dif 
ference  between  Judge  Douglas  and  his  friends,  and  the  Republicans  on 
the  contrary,  is,  that  the  Judge  is  not  in  favor  of  making  any  difference 
between  slavery  and  liberty — that  he  is  in  favor  of  eradicating,  of  pressing 
out  of  view,  the  questions  of  preference  in  this  country  for  free  or  slave 
institutions;  and  consequently  every  sentiment  he  utters  discards  the  idea 
that  there  is  any  wrong  in  slavery.  Every  thing  that  emanates  from  him 
or  his  coadjutors  in  their  course  of  policy,  carefully  excludes  the  thought 
that  there  is  any  thing  wrong  in  slavery.  All  their  arguments,  if  you 
will  consider  them,  will  be  seen  to  exclude  the  thought  that  there  is  any 
thing  whatever  wrong  in  slavery.  If  you  will  take  the  Judge's  speeches, 
and  select  the  short  and  pointed  sentences  expressed  by  him — as  his 
declaration  that  he  "don't  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  down"- 
you  will  see  at  once  that  this  is  perfectly  logical,  if  you  do  not  admit  that 
slavery  is  wrong.  If  you  do  admit  that  it  is  wrong,  Judge  Douglas  cannot 
logically  say  he  don't  care  whether  a  wrong  is  voted  up  or  voted  down. 
Judge  Douglas  declares  that  if  any  community  want  slavery  they  have  a 
right  to  have  it.  He  can  say  that  logically,  if  he  says  that  there  is  no 
wrong  in  slavery  ;  but  if  you  admit  that  there  is  a  wrong  in  it,  he  cannot 
logically  say  that  anybody  has  a  right  to  do  wrong.  He  insists  that, 
upon  the  score  of  equality,  the  owners  of  slaves  and  the  owners  of  property 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  69 

—of  horses  and  every  other  sort  of  property— should  be  alike,  and  hold 
them  alike  in  a  new  Territory.  That  is  perfectly  logical,  if  the  two 
species  of  property  are  alike,  and  are  equally  founded  in  right.  But  if  you 
admit  that  one  of  them  is  wrong,  you  cannot  institute  any  equality  be 
tween  right  and  wrong.  And  from  this  difference  of  sentiment— the  belief 
on  the  part  of  one  that  the  institution  is  wrong,  and  a  policy  springing 
from  that  belief  which  looks  to  the  arrest  of  the  enlargement  of  that 
wrong;  and  this  other  sentiment,  that  it  is  no  wrong,  and  a  policy  sprung 
from  that  sentiment  which  will  tolerate  no  idea  of  preventing  that  wrong 
from  growing  larger,  and  looks  to  there  never  being  an  end  of  it  through 
all  the  existence  of  things— arises  the  real  difference  between  Judge 
Douglas  and  his  friends  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Republicans  on  the 
other.  Now,  I  confess  myself  as  belonging  to  that  class  in  the  country 
who  contemplate  slavery  as  a  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,  having  due 
regard  for  its  actual  existence  amongst  us,  and  the  difficulties  of  getting 
rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  and  to  all  the  Constitutional  obligations 
which  have  been  thrown  about  it ;  but,  nevertheless,  desire  a  policy  that 
looks  to  the  prevention  of  it  as  a  wrong,  and  looks  hopefully  to  the  time 
when,  as  a  wrong,  it  may  come  to  an  end. 

Mr.  Lincoln  also,  after  again  calling  attention  to  the 
fraudulent  resolutions,  and  giving  strong  proof  that  Doug 
las  himself  was  a  party  to  the  imposition,  showed  that  he 
had  failed  to  answer  his  question  about  the  acceptance 
of  the  new  Dred  Scott  decision,  which,  he  said,  was  "  just 
as  sure  to  be  made  as  to-morrow  is  to  come,  if  the  Demo 
cratic  party  shall  be  sustained"  in  the  elections.  He  then 
discussed  the  policy  of  acquiring  more  territory,  and  the 
importance  of  deciding  upon  any  such  acquisition,  by  the 
effect  which  it  would  have  upon  the  Slavery  question 
among  ourselves. 

In  the  next  debate,  at  Quincy,  besides  making  some 
personal  points  as  to  the  mode  in  which  Douglas  had  con 
ducted  the  previous  discussions,  he  stated  clearly  and 
briefly  what  were  the  principles  of  the  Republican  party, 
what  they  proposed  to  do,  and  what  they  did  not  propose 
to  do. 

This  exposition  is  at  once  so  lucid  and  succinct  that 
we  give  the  passage  at  length.  Mr.  Lincoln  alluded  to  the 
assertion  made  by  Judge  Douglas  at  Galesburg,  that  he 
(Mr.  Lincoln)  desired  to  avoid  the  responsibility  attach- 


70  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ing  to  the  "enormity"  of  the  principles  he  advocated,  and 
said  that  he  would  heartily  state  those  principles,  as  well 
as  it  was  in  his  power  to  do,  "in  all  their  enormity," 
which  lie  did  as  follows  : 

We  have  in  this  nation  this  element  of  domestic  slavery.  It  is  a  matter 
of  absolute  certainty  that  it  is  a  disturbing  element.  It  is  the  opinion  of 
all  the  great  men  who  have  expressed  an  opinion  upon  it,  that  it  is  a  dan 
gerous  element.  We  keep  up  a  controversy  in  regard  to  it.  That  contro 
versy  necessarily  springs  from  difference  of  opinion,  and  if  we  can  learn 
exactly — can  reduce  to  the  lowest  elements — what  that  difference  of  opinion 
is,  we  perhaps  shall  be  better  prepared  for  discussing  the  different  systems 
of  policy  that  we  would  propose  in  regard  to  that  disturbing  element. 
I  suggest  that  the  difference  of  opinion,  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms,  is  no 
other  than  the  difference  between  the  men  who  think  slavery  a  wrong 
and  those  who  do  not  think  it  wrong.  The  Republican  party  think  it 
a  wrong — we  think  it  is  a  moral,  a  social,  and  a  political  wrong.  We 
think  it  is  a  wrong  not  confining  itself  merely  to  the  persons  or  the  states 
where  it  exists,  but  that  it  is  a  wrrong  in  its  tendency,  to  say  the  least,  that 
extends  itself  to  the  existence  of  the  whole  nation.  Because  we  think  it 
wrong,  we  propose  a  course  of  policy  that  shall  deal  with  it  as  a  wrong. 
We  deal  with  it  as  with  any  other  wrong,  in  so  far  as  we  can  prevent  its 
growing  any  larger,  and  so  deal  with  it  that  in  the  run  of  time  there  may 
be  some  promise  of  an  end  to  it.  We  have  a  due  regard  to  the  actual 
presence  of  it  amongst  us,  and  the  difficulties  of  getting  rid  of  it  in  any 
satisfactory  way,  and  all  the  Constitutional  obligations  throwrn  about  it. 
I  suppose  that  in  reference  both  to  its  actual  existence  in  the  nation,  and 
to  our  Constitutional  obligations,  we  have  no  right  at  all  to  disturb  it  in 
the  States  where  it  exists,  and  we  profess  that  we  have  no  more  inclina 
tion  to  disturb  it  than  we  have  the  right  to  do  it.  We  go  further  than 
that;  we  don't  propose  to  disturb  it  where,  in  one  instance,  we  think  the 
Constitution  would  permit  us.  We  think  the  Constitution  would  permit 
us  to  disturb  it  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Still  we  do  not  propose  to 
do  that,  unless  it  should  be  in  terms  which  I  don't  suppose  the  nation  is 
very  likely  soon  to  agree  to — the  terms  of  making  the  emancipation 
gradual,  and  compensating  the  unwilling  owners.  Where  we  suppose  we 
have  the  Constitutional  right,  we  restrain  ourselves  in  reference  to  the 
actual  existence  of  the  institution  and  the  difficulties  thrown  about  it. 
We  also  oppose  it  as  an  evil,  so  far  as  it  seeks  to  spread  itself.  We  insist 
on  the  policy  that  shall  restrict  it  to  its  present  limits.  We  don't  suppose 
that  in  doing  this  we  violate  any  thing  due  to  the  actual  presence  of  the 
institution,  or  an/  thing  due  to  the  Constitutional  guaranties  thrown 
around  it. 

We  oppose  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  a  certain   way,   upon  which  I 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  71 

ought  perhaps  to  address  you  a  few  words.  We  do  not  propose  that 
when  Dred  Scott  has  been  decided  to  he  a  slave  by  the  court,  we,  as  a 
mob,  will  decide  him  to  be  free.  We  do  not  propose  that,  when  any 
other  one,  or  one  thousand,  shall  be  decided  by  that  court  to  be  slaves, 
we  will  in  any  violent  way  disturb  the  rights  of  property  thus  settled ; 
but  we  nevertheless  do  oppose  that  decision  as  a  political  rule,  which 
shall  be  binding  on  the  voter  to  vote  for  nobody  who  thinks  it  wrong, 
which  shall  be  binding  on  the  members  of  Congress  or  the  President  to 
favor  no  measure  that  does  not  actually  concur  with  the  principles  of  that 
decision.  We  do  not  propose  to  be  bound  by  it  as  a  political  rule  in  that 
way,  because  we  think  it  lays  the  foundation  not  merely  of  enlarging 
and  spreading  out  what  we  consider  an  evil,  but  it  lays  the  foundation  for 
spreading  that  evil  into  the  States  themselves.  We  propose  so  resisting 
it  as  to  have  it  reversed  if  wo  can,  and  a  new  judicial  rule  established 
upon  this  subject. 

I  will  add  this,  that  if  there  be  any  man  who  does  not  believe  that 
slavery  is  wrong  in  the  three  aspects  which  I  have  mentioned,  or  in  any 
one  of  them,  that  man  is  misplaced,  and  ought  to  leave  us.  While,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  there  be  any  man  in  the  Republican  party  who  is  impa 
tient  over  the  necessity  springing  from  its  actual  presence,  and  is  impa 
tient  of  the  Constitutional  guaranties  thrown  around  it,  and  would  act  in 
disregard  of  these,  he  too  is  misplaced,  standing  with  us.  He  will  find  his 
place  somewhere  else  ;  for  we  have  a  due  regard,  so  far  as  we  are  capable 
of  understanding  them,  for  all  these  things.  This,  gentlemen,  as  well  as 
I  can  give  it,  is  a  plain  statement  of  our  principles  in  all  their  enormity. 

Mr.  Douglas  replied  to  Mr.  Lincoln  in  a  manner  winch 
proved  that  lie  felt  the  arguments  which  his  antagonist 
had  adva  aced  to  be  actually  unanswerable,  and  in  open 
ing  his  rejoinder  Mr.  Lincoln  used  this  language  :— 

I  wish  to  return  to  Judge  Douglas  my  profound  thanks  for  his  public 
annunciation  here  to-day,  to  be  put  on  record,  that  his  system  of  policy 
in  regard  to  the  institution  of  slavery  contemplates  that  it  shall  last  for 
ever.  We  are  getting  a  little  nearer  the  true  issue  of  this  controversy,  and 
I  am  profoundly  grateful  for  this  one  sentence.  Judge  Douglas  asks  you, 
"  Why  cannot  the  institution  of  slavery,  or  rather,  why  cannot  the  nation, 
part  slave  and  part  free,  continue  as  our  fathers  made  it  forever  .*"  In  the 
first  place,  I  insist  that  our  fathers  did  not  make  this  nation  half  slave 
and  half  free,  or  part  slave  and  part  free.  I  insist  that  they  found  the  in 
stitution  of  slavery  existing  here.  They  did  not  make  it  so,  but  they  left 
it  so,  because  they  knew  of  no  way  to  get  rid  of  it  at  that  time.  When 
Judge  Douglas  undertakes  to  say  that,  as  a  matter  of  choice,  the  fathers 
of  the  Government  made  this  nation  part  slave  and  part  free,  he  assume* 
what  i*  historically  a  falsehood.  More  than  that :  when  the  fathers 


72  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

of  the  Government  cut  off  the  source  of  slavery  by  the  abolition  of 
the  slave-trade,  and  adopted  a  system  of  restricting  it  from  the  new 
Territories  where  it  had  not  existed,  I  maintain  that  they  placed  it 
where  they  understood,  and  all  sensible  men  understood,  it  was  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction ;  and  when  Judge  Douglas  asks  me  why  it 
cannot  continue  as  our  fathers  made  it,  I  ask  him  why  he  and  his  friends 
could  not  let  it  remain  as  our  fathers  made  it  ? 

It  is  precisely  all  I  ask  of  him  in  relation  to  the  institution  of  slavery, 
that  it  shall  be  placed  upon  the  basis  that  our  fathers  placed  it  upon.  Mr. 
Brooks,  of  South  Carolina,  once  said,  and  truly  said,  that  when  this  Gov 
ernment  was  established,  no  one  expected  the  institution  of  slavery  to 
last  until  this  day  ;  and  that  the  men  who  formed  this  Government  were 
wiser  and  better  than  the  men  of  these  days;  but  the  men  of  these  days 
had  experience  which  the  fathers  had  not,  and  that  experience  had  taught 
them  the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin,  and  this  had  made  the  perpetuation 
of  the  institution  of  slavery  a  necessity  in  this  country.  Judge  Douglas 
could  not  let  it  stand  upon  the  basis  on  which  our  fathers  placed  it,  but 
removed  it,  and  put  it  upon  the  cotton-gin  lasu.  It  is  a  question,  there 
fore,  for  him  and  his  friends  to  answer — why  they  could  not  let  it  remain 
where  the  fathers  of  the  Government  originally  placed  it. 

The  seventh  and  last  joint  debate  took  place  at  Alton, 
October  15.  According  to  the  schedule  previously  agreed 
upon,  Mr.  Douglas  had  the  opening  speech.  Mr.  Lincoln, 
in  his  rejoinder,  made  a  thorough  and  exhaustive  review 
of  the  slavery  question  in  its  relations  to  the  Democratic 
party.  He  showed  that  the  doctrines  of  that  party,  with 
reference  to  this  question,  were  not  those  held  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution  ;  traced  the  development  of  the  agita 
tion  which  had  resulted  from  the  efforts  of  the  Democracy 
to  put  slavery  upon  a  different  footing,  and  sketched  the 
dangers  and  difficulties  in  which  this  attempt  had  in 
volved  the  country.  He  thus  expressed  his  opinion  of 
the  way  in  which  this  agitation  might  be  terminated  :— 

I  have  intimated  that  I  thought  the  agitation  would  not  cease  until  a 
crisis  should  have  been  reached  and  passed.  I  have  stated  in  what  way  I 
thought  it  would  be  reached  and  passed.  I  have  said  that  it  might  go 
one  way  or  the  other.  We  might,  by  arresting  the  further  spread  of  it, 
and  placing  it  where  the  fathers  originally  placed  it,  put  it  where  Jae  pub 
lic  mind  should  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  ex 
tinction.  Thus  the  agitation  may  cease.  It  may  be  pushed  forward  until 
it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as 
well  as  South.  I  have  said,  and  I  repeat,  my  wish  is  that  the  further 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  73 

epread  of  it  may  be  arrested,  and  that  it  may  be  placed  where  the  public 
mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction. 
I  have  expressed  that  as  my  wish.  I  entertain  the  opinion,  upon  evidence 
sufficient  to  my  mind,  that  the  fathers  of  this  Government  placed  that  in 
stitution  wThere  the  public  mind  did  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the 
course  of  ultimate  extinction.  Let  me  ask  why  they  made  provision  that 
ihe  source  of  slavery — the  African  slave-trade — should  be  cut  off  at  the 
end  of  twenty  years?  Why  did  they  make  provision  th&t  in  all  the  new 
territory  we  owned  at  that  time,  slavery  should  be  forever  inhibited? 
Why  stop  its  spread  in  one  direction  and  cut  off  its  source  in  another,  if 
they  did  not  look  to  its  being  placed  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction  ? 

Mr.  Lincoln  then  demonstrated  that  the  whole  contro 
versy  turned  upon  the  vital  question  whether  slavery 
was  wrong  or  not,  and  proved  that  the  sentiment  of  the 
Democratic  party,  as  it  then  existed,  was  that  it  was  not 
wrong,  and  that  Douglas  and  those  who  sympathized 
with  him  did  not  desire  or  ever  expect  to  see  the  country 
freed  from  this  gigantic  evil.  Upon  this  point  he  said  : 

The  sentiment  that  contemplates  the  institution  of  slavery  in  this  coun 
try  as  a  wrong  is  the  sentiment  of  the  Republican  party.  It  is  the  senti 
ment  around  which  all  their  actions — all  their  arguments  circle — from 
which  all  their  propositions  radiate.  They  look  upon  it  as  being  a  moral, 
social,  and  political  wrong ;  and  while  they  contemplate  it  as  such,  they 
nevertheless  have  due  regard  for  its  actual  existence  among  us,  and  the 
difficulties  of  getting  rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  and  to  all  the  con 
stitutional  obligations  thrown  about  it.  Yet,  having  a  due  regard  for 
these,  they  desire  a  policy  in  regard  to  it  that  looks  to  its  not  creating 
any  more  danger.  They  insist  that  it  should,  as  far  as  may  be,  be  treated 
as  a  \vrong,  and  one  of  the  methods  of  treating  it  as  a  wrong  is  to  make 
provision  that  it  shall  grow  no  larger.  They  also  desire  a  policy  that 
looks  to  a  peaceful  end  of  slavery  at  some  time,  as  being  wrong.  These 
are  the  views  they  entertain  in  regard  to  it,  as  I  understand  them  ;  and  all 
their  sentiments — all  their  arguments  and  propositions  are  brought  within 
this  range.  I  have  said,  and  I  repeat  it  here,  that  if  there  be  a  man  amongst 
us  wrho  does  not  think  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  wrong,  in  any  one 
of  the  aspects  of  which  I  have  spoken,  he  is  misplaced,  and  ought  not  to  be 
with  us.  And  if  there  be  a  man  amongst  us  who  is  so  impatient  of  it  as  a 
wrong  as  to  disregard  its  actual  presence  among  us,  and  the  difficulty  of 
getting  rid  of  it  suddenly  in  a  satisfactory  wray,  and  to  disregard  the  con 
stitutional  obligations  thrown  about  it,  that  man  is  misplaced,  if  he  is  on 
our  platform.  We  discl.aim  sympathy  with  him  in  practical  action.  He 
is  not  placed  properly  with  us. 


74  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

On  this  subject  of  treating  it  as  a  wrong,  and  limiting  its  spread,  let 
me  say  a  word.  Has  any  thing  ever  threatened  the  existence  of  this  Union, 
save  and  except  this  very  institution  of  slavery?  What  is  it  that  we  hold 
most  dear  amongst  us  ?  Our  own  liherty  and  prosperity.  What  has  ever 
threatened  our  liberty  and  prosperity,  save  and  except  this  institution  of 
slavery  ?  If  this  is  true,  how  do  you  propose  to  improve  the  condition  of 
things  by  enlarging  slavery — by  spreading  it  out  and  making  it  bigger? 
You  may  have  a  wen  or  cancer  upon  your  person  and  not  be  able  to  cut 
it  out  lest  you  bleed  to  death ;  but  surely  it  is  no  way  to  cure  it,  to  en 
graft  it  and  spread  it  over  your  whole  body.  That  is  no  proper  way  of 
treating  what  you  regard  a  wrong.  You  see  this  peaceful  way  of  dealing 
with  it  as  a  wrong — restricting  the  spread  of  it,  and  not  allowing  it  to  go 
into  new  countries  where  it  has  not  already  existed.  That  is  the  peaceful 
way,  the  old-fashioned  way,  the  way  in  which  the  fathers  themselves  set 
as  the  example. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  have  said  there  is  a  sentiment  which  treats  it  as 
not  being  wrong.  That  is  the  Democratic  sentiment  of  this  day.  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  every  man  who  stands  within  that  range  positively 
asserts  that  it  is  right.  That  class  will  include  all  who  positively  assert 
that  it  is  right,  and  all  who,  like  Judge  Douglas,  treat  it  as  indifferent,  and 
do  not  say  it  is  either  right  or  wrong.  These  two  classes  of  men  fall 
within  the  general  class  of  those  who  do  not  look  upon  it  as  a  wrong. 
And  if  there  be  among  you  anybody  who  supposes  that  he,  as  a  Demo 
crat,  can  consider  himself  "as  much  opposed  to  slavery  as  anybody,"  I 
would  like  to  reason  with  him.  You  never  treat  it  as  a  wrong.  What 
other  thing  that  you  consider  as  a  wrong,  do  you  deal  with  as  you  deal 
with  that?  Perhaps  you  say  it  is  wrong,  but  your  leader  never  does,  and 
you  quarrel  with  anybody  who  says  it  is  wrong.  Although  you  pretend 
to  say  so  yourself,  you  can  find  no  fit  place  to  deal  with  it  as  a  wrong. 
You  must  not  say  any  thing  about  it  in  the  free  States,  because  it  is  not 
here.  You  must  not  say  any  thing  about  it  in  the  sluve  States,  because  it 
is  there.  You  must  not  say  any  thing  about  it  iu  the  pulpit,  because  that 
is  religion,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  You  must  not  say  any  thing 
about  it  in  politics,  because  that  will  disturb  the  security  of  "  my  place." 
There  is  no  place  to  talk  about  it  as  being  a  wrong,  although  you  say 
yourself  it  is  a  wrong.  But,  finally,  you  will  screw  yourself  up  to  the  be 
lief  that  if  the  people  of  the  slave  States  should  adopt  a  system  of  grad 
ual  emancipation  on  the  slavery  question,  you  would  be  in  favor  of  it. 
You  would  be  in  favor  of  it.  You  say  that  is  getting  it  in  the  right  place, 
and  you  would  be  glad  to  see  it  succeed.  But  you  are  deceiving  yourself. 
You  all  know  that  Frank  Blair  and  Gratz  Brown,  down  there  in  St.  Louis, 
undertook  to  introduce  that  system  into  Missouri.  They  fought  as  vali 
antly  as  they  could  for  the  system  of  gradual  emancipation  which  you 
pretend  you  would  be  glad  to  see  succeed.  Now  I  will  bring  you  to  the 
test.  After  a  hard  fight  they  were  beaten,  and  when  the  news  came  over 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  75 

here  you  threw  up  your  hats  and  hurrahed  for  Democracy.  More  than 
that ;  take  all  the  arguments  made  in  favor  of  the  system  you  have  pro 
posed,  and  it  carefully  excludes  the  idea  that  there  is  any  thine:  wrong  in 
the  institution  of  slavery.  The  arguments  to  sustain  that  policy  carefully 
excluded  it.  Even  here  to-day  you  heard  Judge  Douglas  quarrel  with  me 
because  I  uttered  a  wish  that  it  might  sometime  come  to  an  end.  Al 
though  Henry  Clay  could  say  be  wished  every  slave  in  the  United  States 
was  in  the  country  of  his  ancestors,  I  am  denounced  by  those  pretending 
to  respect  Henry  Clay  for  uttering  a  wish  that  it  might  sometime,  in  some 
peaceful  way,  come  to  an  end.  The  Democratic  policy  in  regard  to  that 
institution  will  not  tolerate  the  merest  breath,  the  slightest  hint,  of  the 
least  degree  of  wrong  about  it. 

Besides  the  speeches  made  in  the  course  of  these  seven 
joint  debates,  Mr.  Lincoln  delivered  at  least  fifty  other 
addresses  to  the  people,  in  all  parts  of  the  State,  during 
the  canvass,  everywhere  expounding  his  views  and  de 
claring  his  sentiments  with  the  same  frankness  and  man 
liness.     The  chief  interest  of  the  contest,  however,  cen 
tred  in  their  joint  debates,    and  with  every   succeed 
ing   encounter  the  feeling   in  the   State,    and    through 
out    the   country,  became    more  intense.      As  the   day 
for    final    decision    approached,    Illinois    fairly    blazed 
with  the   excitement.      While  Mr.    Douglas  fully   sus 
tained  his  previous  reputation,  and  justified  the  estimate 
iiis  friends  had  placed  upon  his  abilities,  he  labored  un 
der  the  comparative  disadvantage  of  being  much  better 
known  to  the  country  at  large  than  was  his  antagonist. 
During  his  long  public  career,  people  had  become  par 
tially  accustomed  to  his  manner  of  presenting  arguments 
and  enforcing  them.     The  novelty  and  freshness  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  addresses,  on  the  other  hand,  the  homeliness 
and  force  of  his  illustrations,  their  wonderful  pertinence, 
his  exhaustless  humor,   his  confidence  in  his  own  re 
sources,  engendered  by  his  firm  belief  in  the  justice  of 
the  cause  he  so  ably  advocated,  never  once  rising,  how 
ever,  to  the  point  of  arrogance  or  superciliousness,  fast 
ened  upon  him  the  eyes  of  the  people  everywhere,  friends 
and  opponents  alike.     It  was  not  strange  that  more  than 
once,  during  the  course  of  the  unparalleled  excitement 


76  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

which,  marked  this  canvass,  Mr.  Douglas  should  have 
been  thrown  off  his  guard  by  the  singular  self-possession 
displayed  by  his  antagonist,  and  by  the  imperturbable  firm 
ness  with  which  he  maintained  and  defended  a  posi 
tion  once  assumed.  The  unassuming  confidence  which 
marked  Mr.  Lincoln's  conduct  was  early  imparted  to  his 
supporters,  and  each  succeeding  encounter  added  largely 
to  the  number  of  his  friends,  until  they  began  to  indulge 
the  hope  that  a  triumph  might  be  secured  in  spite  of  the 
adverse  circumstances  under  which  the  struggle  was  com 
menced.  And  so  it  would  have  been,  had  party  lines 
been  more  strictly  drawn.  But  the  action  of  Mr.  Doug 
las  with  reference  to  the  Lecompton  Constitution  when  it 
was  before  the  United  States  Senate,  and  the  bitter  hos 
tility  of  the  southern  wing  of  the  Democratic  party  to 
wards  him,  had  led  very  many  Republicans,  and  some  of 
high  consideration  and  influence  in  other  States,  to  favor 
his  return  to  the  Senate.  They  deemed  this  due  to  the 
zeal  and  efficiency  with  which  he  had  resisted  the  attempt 
to  force  slavery  into  Kansas  against  the  will  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  as  important  in  encouraging  other  Democratic 
leaders  to  imitate  the  example  of  Douglas  in  throwing  off 
the  yoke  of  the  slaveholding  aristocracy.  This  feeling 
proved  to  be  of  much  weight  against  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the 
canvass. 

In  the  election  which  took  place  on  November  2d,  the 
popular  vote  stood  as  follows  : 

Eepublican - 126,084 

Douglas  Democrat 121,940 

Lecompton  Democrat 5,091 

Mr.  Lincoln,  therefore,  had  the  people  been  permitted 
to  decide  the  question  directly,  would  have  been  returned 
to  the  Senate,  since  he  had  a  plurality  of  four  thousand 
one  hundred  and  forty-four  votes  over  Mr.  Douglas  ;  but 
the  State  legislature  was  the  tribunal  that  was  to  pass 
finally  upon  it ;  and  there,  fortunately  for  the  country, 
as  the  future  showed,  but  unfortunately  for  Mr.  Lincoln 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


77 


at  that  time,  the  Democrats  had  secured  an  advantage,  by 
means  of  an  unfair  districting  of  the  State,  which  it  was 
impossible  to  overcome.  Notwithstanding  the  immense 
gains  made  by  the  Republicans,  their  opponents  had,  in 
the  upper  branch  of  this  body,  fourteen  members  to  their 
eleven  while  in  the  lower  House  these  two  parties  stood 
forty  Democrats  to  thirty-live  Republicans.  This  state 
of  affairs  secured  Mr.  Douglas  a  re-election,  although  the 
fact  that  he  was  fairly  beaten  on  the  popular  vote,  robbed 
his  triumph  of  much  of  its  lustre.  An  overruling  Prov 
idence,  the  workings  of  which  can  now  be  clearly  traced, 
but  which  were  then  inscrutable,  by  securing  this  result, 
ultimately  gave  the  nation  for  its  chief  magistrate  the 
man  best  fitted  to  carry  it  safely  through  the  most  trying 
period  of  its  history. 


78  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


CHAPTER  III. 

MR.   LINCOLN  AND  THE   PRESIDENCY. 

THE  CAMPAIGN  or  1859  IN  OHIO. — MR.  LINCOLN'S  SPEECHES  AT  COLUMBUS 
AND  CINCINNATI. — His  VISIT  TO  THE  EAST. — IN  NEW  YOKE  CITY. — THE 
GREAT  SPEECH  AT  COOPER  INSTITUTE. — MR.  LINCOLN  NOMINATED  FOB 
THE  PRESIDENCY. — His  ELECTION. 

CHEERFULLY  resigning  himself  to  the  fortunes  of  politi 
cal  warfare,  Mr.  Lincoln,  upon  the  close  of  this  canvass, 
returned  to  the  practice  of  his  profession.  But  he  was 
not  long  allowed  to  remain  in  retirement.  In  the  autumn 
of  1859  the  Democrats  of  Ohio  nominated  Mr.  Pugh  as 
their  candidate  for  governor,  and  to  repay  the  fidelity 
with  which  he  had  followed  his  standard,  as  well  as  in 
the  hope  of  securing  important  advantages  for  the  democ 
racy,  Mr.  Douglas  was  enlisted  in  the  canvass.  The 
Republicans  at  once  appealed  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to  come  to 
their  assistance.  He  promptly  responded  to  the  invita 
tion  to  meet  his  eld  antagonist,  and  more  than  sustained 
his  great  reputation  by  two  speeches,  one  delivered  at 
Columbus  and  the  other  at  Cincinnati.  Not  fully  satis 
fied  with  the  position  in  which  the  close  of  the  canvass  in 
Illinois  had  left  his  favorite  doctrine  of  Popular  Sover 
eignty,  Mr.  Douglas  had  secured  the  insertion  in  Harper's 
Magazine  of  an  elaborate  and  carefully  prepared  article 
explaining  his  views  at  length.  Mr.  Lincoln's  speech  at 
Columbus  was  a  most  masterly  review  of  this  paper. 
After  replying  briefly  to  the  identically  stale  charges 
which  Mr.  Douglas  had  so  often  repeated  during  the  can 
vass  in  Illinois,  and  which  he  had  reiterated  in  a  speech 
delivered  at  Columbus  a  few  days  previously,  Mr.  Lin 
coln  addressed  himself  to  the  task  lie  had  in  hand,  as  fol 
lows  :— 

The  Republican  party,  as  I  understand  its  principles  and  policy,  believe 
that  there  is  great  danger  of  the  institution  of  slavery  being  spread  ont 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  79 

and  extended,  until  it  is  ultimately  made  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States  of 
this  Union  ;  so  believing,  to  prevent  that  incidental  and  ultimate  consum 
mation,  is  the  original  and  chief  purpose  of  the  Republican  organization. 
I  say  u  chief  purpose"  of  the  Republican  organization;  for  it  is  certainly 
true  that  if  the  National  House  shall  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Republicans, 
they  will  have  to  attend  to  all  the  other  matters  of  national  house-keep 
ing  as  well  as  this.  The  chief  and  real  purpose  of  the  Republican  party 
is  eminently  conservative.  It  proposes  nothing  save  and  except  to  restore 
this  Government  to  its  original  tone  in  regard  to  this  element  of  slavery, 
and  there  to  maintain  it,  looking  for  no  further  change  in  reference  to  it 
than  that  which  the  original  framers  of  the  Government  themselves  ex 
pected  and  looked  forward  to. 

The  chief  danger  to  this  purpose  of  the  Republican  party  is  not  just 
now  the  revival  of  the  African  slave-trade,  or  the  passage  of  a  Congres 
sional  slave-code,  or  the  declaring  of  a  second  Dred  Scott  decision,  making 
slavery  lawful  in  all  the  States.  These  are  not  pressing  us  just  now. 
They  are  not  quite  ready  yet.  The  authors  of  these  measures  know  that 
we  are  too  strong  for  thorn ;  but  they  will  be  upon  us  in  due  time,  and  we 
will  be  grappling  with  them  hand  to  hand,  if  they  are  not  now  headed  off. 
They  are  not  now  the  chief  danger  to  the  purpose  of  the  Republican 
organization ;  but  the  most  imminent  danger  that  now  threatens  that  pur 
pose  is  that,  insidious  Douglas  Popular  Sovereignty.  This  is  the  minei 
and  sapper.  While  it  does  not  propose  to  revive  the  African  slave-trade, 
nor  to  pass  a  slave-code,  nor  to  make  a  second  Dred  Scott  decision,  it  is 
preparing  us  for  the  onslaught  and  charge  of  these  ultimate  enemies  when 
they  shall  be  ready  to  come  on,  and  the  word  of  command  for  them  to 
advance  shall  be  given.  I  say  this  Douglas  Popular  Sovereignty— for 
there  is  a  broad  distinction,  as  I  now  understand  it,  between  that  article 
and  a  genuine  Popular  Sovereignty. 

I  believe  there  is  a  genuine  popular  sovereignty.  I  think  a  definition 
of  genuine  popular  sovereignty,  in  the  abstract,  would  be  about  this: 
That  each  man  shall  do  precisely  as  he  pleases  with  himself,  Mid  with  all 
those  things  which  exclusively  concern  him.  Applied  to  Government, 
this  principle  would  be,  that  a  General  Government  shall  do  all  those 
things  which  pertain  to  it,  and  all  the  local  Governments  shall  do  pre 
cisely  as  they  please  in  respect  to  those  matters  which  exclusively  concern 
them.  I  understand  that  this  Government  of  the  United  States,  under 
which  we  live,  is  based  upon  this  principle;  and  I  am  misunderstood  if 
it  is  supposed  that  I  have  any  war  to  make  upon  that  principle. 

Now,  what  is  Judge  Douglas's  Popular  Sovereignty?  It  is,  as  a  prin 
ciple,  nc  other  than  that,  if  one  man  chooses  to  make  a  slave  of  another 
man,  neither  that  other  man  nor  anybody  else  has  a  right  to  object. 
Applied  in  Government,  as  he  seeks  to  apply  it,  it  is  this :  If,  in  a  new 
Territory  into  which  a  few  people  are  beginning  to  enter  for  the  purpose 
oi"  making  their  homes,  they  choose  to  either  exclude  slavery  from  their 


80  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

limits  or  to  establish  it  there,  however  one  or  the  other  may  affect  the 
persons  to  be  enslaved,  or  the  infinitely  greater  number  of  persons  whc 
are  afterward  to  inhabit  that  Territory,  or  the  other  members  of  the  fami 
lies  of  communities,  of  which  they  are  but  an  incipient  member,  or  the 
general  head  of  the  family  of  States,  as  parent  of  all — however  their  action 
may  affect  one  or  the  other  of  these,  there  is  no  power  or  right  to  inter 
fere.  That  is  Douglas's  Popular  Sovereignty  applied. 

He  has  a  good  deal  of  trouble  with  Popular  Sovereignty.  His  explaiia 
tions  explanatory  of  explanations  explained  are  interminable.  The  most 
lengthy,  and,  as  I  suppose,  the  most  maturely  considered  of  his  long  series 
of  explanations,  is  his  great  essay  in  Harper1s  Magazine. 

This  exordium  was  followed  by  a  speech  which  will 
rank  among  the  ablest  efforts  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  In  an 
argument  in  which  great  sarcasm  and  humor  were  charac 
teristically  intermingled,  he  thoroughly  exposed  the 
fallacy  of  the  positions  taken  by  Mr.  Douglas,  and  in 
conclusion,  after  again  warning  his  hearers  against  the 
insidious  dangers  of  this  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty, 
said  :— 

Did  you  ever,  five  years  ago,  hear  of  anybody  in  the  world  saying  that 
the  negro  had  no  share  in  the  Declaration  of  National  Independence ;  that 
it  did  not  mean  negroes  at  all ;  and  when  "  all  men "  were  spoken  of, 
negroes  were  not  included  ? 

I  am  satisfied  that  five  years  ago  that  proposition  was  not  put  upon 
paper  by  any  living  being  anywhere.  I  have  been  unable  at  any  time 
to  find  a  man  in  an  audience  who  would  declare  that  he  had  ever  known 
of  anybody  saying  so  five  years  ago.  But  last  year  there  was  not  a 
Douglas  popular  sovereign  in  Illinois  who  did  not  say  it.  Is  there  one  in 
Ohio  but  declares  his  firm  belief  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  did 
not  mean  negroes  at  all?  I  do  not  know  how  this  is;  I  have  not  been 
here  much ;  but  I  presume  you  are  very  much  alike  everywhere.  Then 
I  suppose  that  all  now  express  the  belief  that  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  never  did  mean  negroes.  I  call  upon  one  of  them  to  say  that 
he  said  it  five  years  ago. 

If  you  think  that  now,  and  did  not  think  it  then,  the  next  thing  that 
strikes  me  is  to  remark  that  there  has  been  a  change  wrought  in  you,  and 
a  very  significant  change  it  is,  being  no  less  than  changing  the  negro,  in 
your  estimation,  from  the  rank  of  a  man  to  that  of  a  brute.  They  are 
taking  him  down,  and  placing  him,  when  spoken  of,  among  reptiles  and 
crocodiles,  as  Judge  Douglas  himself  expresses  it. 

Is  not  this  change  wrought  in  your  minds  a  very  important  change? 
Public  opinion  in  this  country  is  every  thing.  In  a  nation  like  ours,  this 
popular  sovereignty  and  squatter  sovereignty  have  already  wrought  a 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  83 

change  in  the  public  mind  to  tho  extent  I  have  stated.  There  is  no  man 
in  this  crowd  who  can  contradict  it. 

Now,  if  you  are  opposed  to  slavery  honestly,  as  much  as  anybody,  j 
aak  yon  to  note  that  fact,  and  the  like  of  which  is  to  follow,  to  be 
plastered  on,  layer  after  layer,  until  very  soon  you  are  prepared  to 
deal  with  the  negro  everywhere  as  with  the  brute.  If  public  sen 
timent  has  not  been  debauched  already  to  this  point,  a  new  turn  of 
the  screw  in  that  direction  is  all  that  is  wanting ;  and  this  is  con 
stantly  being  done  by  the  teachers  of  this  insidious  popular  sovereignty. 
You  need  but  one  or  two  turns  further  until  your  minds,  now  ripening 
under  these  teachings,  will  be  ready  for  all  these  things,  and  you  will  re 
ceive  and  support,  or  submit  to,  the  slave-trade,  revived  with  all  its 
horrors,  a  slave-code  enforced  in  our  Territories,  and  a  new  Dred  Scott 
decision  to  bring  slavery  up  into  the  very  heart  of  the  free  North.  This, 
[  must  say,  is  but  carrying  out  those  words  prophetically  spoken  by  Mr. 
Clay,  many,  many  years  ago — I  believe  more  than  thirty  years,  when  he 
told  an  audience  that  if  they  would  repress  all  tendencies  to  liberty  and 
ultimate  emancipation,  they  must  go  back  to  the  era  of  our  independence, 
and  muzzle  the  cannon  which  thundered  its  annual  joyous  return  on  the 
Fourth  of  July ;  they  must  blow  out  the  moral  lights  around  us ;  they 
must  penetrate  the  human  soul  and  eradicate  the  love  of  liberty ;  but  until 
they  did  these  things,  and  others  eloquently  enumerated  by  him,  they 
could  not  repress  all  tendencies  to  ultimate  emancipation. 

I  ask  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  a  pre-eminent  degree  these  popular 
sovereigns  are  at  this  work;  blowing  out  the  moral  lights  around  us; 
teaching  that  the  negro  is  no  longer  a  man,  but  a  brute ;  that  the  Declara 
tion  has  nothing  to  do  with  him ;  that  he  ranks  with  the  crocodile  and 
the  reptile ;  that  man,  with  body  and  soul,  is  a  matter  of  dollars  and 
cents.  I  suggest  to  this  portion  of  the  Ohio  Republicans,  or  Democrats, 
if  there  be  any  present,  the  serious  consideration  of  this  fact,  that  there  is 
now  going  on  among  you  a  steady  process  of  debauching  public  opinion 
on  this  subject.  "With  this,  my  friends,  I  bid  you  adieu. 

Ill  Ms  speech  at  Cincinnati,  Mr.  Lincoln  addressed  him 
self  particularly  to  the  Kentuckians  whom  he  supposed 
to  be  among  his  hearers,  and  after  advising  them  to  nom 
inate  Mr.  Douglas  as  their  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
at  the  approaching  Charleston  Convention,  showed  them 
how  by  so  doing  they  would  the  most  surely  protect  their 
cherished  institution  of  slavery.  In  the  course  of  his 
argument  he  expressed  this  shrewd  opinion,  which  may 
now  be  classed  as  a  prophecy  :— 

It  is  but  my  opinion ;  I  give  it  to  you  without  a  fee.     It  is  my  opinion 


82  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

that  it  is  for  you  to  take  him  [Mr.  Douglas]  or  bo  defeated  ;  and  that  if 
you  do  take  him,  you  may  be  beaten.  You  will  surely  be  beaten  if  you 
do  not  take  him.  We,  the  Republicans  and  others  forming  the  opposition 
of  the  country,  intend  to  "  standby  our  guns,"  to  be  patient  and  firm,  and 
in  the  long  run  to  beat  you,  whether  you  take  him  or  not.  We  know  that 
before  we  fairly  beat  you,  we  have  to  beat  you  both  together.  We  know 
that  you  are  "  all  of  a  feather,"  and  that  we  have  to  beat  you  altogether, 
and  we  expect  to  do  it.  We  don't  intend  to  be  very  impatient  about  it. 
We  mean  to  be  as  deliberate  and  calm  about  it  as  it  is  possible  to  be,  but 
as  firm  and  resolved  as  it  is  possible  for  men  to  be.  When  we  do  as  we 
say,  beat  you,  you  perhaps  want  to  know  what  we  will  do  with  yon. 

I  will  tell  you,  so  far  as  I  am  authorized  to  speak  for  the  opposition, 
what  we  mean  to  do  with  you.  We  mean  to  treat  you,  as  near  as  we 
possibly  can,  as  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison  treated  you.  We 
mean  to  leave  you  alone,  and  in  no  way  to  interfere  with  your  institution  ; 
to  abide  by  all  and  every  compromise  of  the  Constitution,  and,  in  a  word, 
coming  back  to  the  original  proposition,  to  treat  you,  so  far  as  degener 
ated  men  (if  we  have  degenerated)  may,  according  to  the  examples  of 
those  noble  fathers — Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison.  We  mean  to 
remember  that  you  are  as  good  as  we ;  that  there  is  no  difference  between 
us  other  than  the  difference  of  circumstances.  We  mean  to  recognize  and 
bear  in  mind  always  that  you  have  as  good  hearts  in  your  bosoms  as  other 
people,  or  as  we  claim  to  have,  and  treat  you  accordingly.  We  mean  to 
Tnarry  your  girls  when  we  have  a  chance — the  white  ones,  I  mean,  and  I 
have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  I  once  did  have  a  chance  in  that  way. 

I  have  told  you  what  we  mean  to  do.  I  want  to  know,  now,  when 
that  thing  takes  place,  what  do  you  mean  to  do  ?  I  often  hear  it  inti 
mated  that  you  mean  to  divide  the  Union  whenever  a  Republican,  or  any 
*hing  like  it,  is  elected  President  of  the  United  States.  [A  voice—"  That 
is  so."]  u  That  is  so,"  one  of  them  says ;  I  wonder  if  he  is  a  Kentuckian  ? 
f  A.  voice—1'  He  is  a  Douglas  man."]  Well,  then,  I  want  to  know  what 
you  are  going  to  do  with  your  half  of  it  ?  Are  you  going  to  split  the 
Ohio  down  through,  and  push  your  half  off  a  piece  ?  Or  are  you  going  to 
keep  it  right  alongside  of  us  outrageous  fellows  ?  Or  are  you  going  to 
build  up  a  wall  some  way  between  your  country  and  ours,  by  which  that 
movable  property  of  yours  can't  come  over  here  any  more,  to  the  danger 
of  your  losing  it?  Do  you  think  you  can  better  yourselves  on  that  sub 
ject,  by  leaving  us  here  under  no  obligation  whatever  to  return  those 
specimens  of  your  movable  property  that  come  hither  ?  You  have  divided 
the  Union  because  we  would  not  do  right  with  you,  as  you  think,  upon 
that  subject ;  when  we  cease  to  be  under  obligations  to  do  any  thing  for 
you,  how  much  better  off  do  you  think  you  will  be  ?  Will  you  make  war 
upon  us  and  kill  us  all?  Why,  gentlemen,  I  think  you  are  as  gallant  and 
i.a  brave  men  as  live ;  that  you  can  fight  as  bravely  in  a  good  cause,  man 
foi  man,  as  any  other  people  living;  that  you  have  shown  yourselves 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  S3 

capable  of  this  upon  various  occasions ;  but,  man  for  man,  you  are  not 
better  than  we  are,  and  there  are  not  so  many  of  you  as  there  are  of  us. 
You  will  never  make  much  of  a  hand  at  whipping  us.  If  we  were  fewer 
in  numbers  than  you,  I  think  that  you  could  whip  us ;  if  we  were  equal, 
it  would  likely  be  a  drawn  battle  ;  but,  being  inferior  in  numbers,  you  will 
make  nothing  by  attempting  to  master  us. 

But  perhaps  I  have  addressed  myself  as  long,  or  longer,  to  the  Ken- 
tuckians  than  I  ought  to  have  done,  inasmuch  as  I  have  said  that  what 
ever  course  you  take,  we  intend  in  the  end  to  beat  you. 

The  rest  of  this  address  was  mainly  occupied  with  a 
discussion  of  the  policy  which  the  Republican  party 
should  pursue  in  the  Presidential  campaign  then  about  to 
open.  The  following  passage  from  this  part  of  the  speech 
is  among  the  most  notable  of  Mr.  Lincoln' s  many  noble 
utterances : 

In  order  to  beat  our  opponents,  I  think  we  want  and  must  have  a 
national  policy  in  regard  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  that  acknowledges 
and  deals  with  that  institution  as  being  wrong.  Whoever  desires  tjie  pre 
vention  of  the  spread  of  slavery,  and  the  nationalization  of  that  institution, 
yields  all  when  he  yields  to  any  policy  that  either  recognizes  slavery  as 
being  right,  or  as  being  an  indifferent  thing.  Nothing  will  make  you  suc 
cessful  but  setting  up  a  policy  which  shall  treat  the  thing  as  being  wrong. 
When  I  say  this,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  this  General  Government  is 
charged  with  the  duty  of  redressing  or  preventing  all  the  wrongs  in  the 
world ;  but  do  think  that  it  is  charged  with  preventing  and  redressing 
all  wrongs  which  are  wrongs  to  itself.  This  Government  is  expressly 
charged  with  the  duty  of  providing  for  the  general  welfare.  We  believe 
that  the  spreading  out  and  perpetuity  of  the  institution  of  slavery  impairs 
the  general  welfare.  We  believe — nay,  we  know,  that  that  is  the  only 
thing  that  has  ever  threatened  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union  itself.  The 
only  thing  which  has  ever  menaced  the  destruction  of  the  government 
under  which  we  live,  is  this  very  thing. 

To  repress  this  thing,  we  think,  is  providing  for  the  general  welfare. 
Our  friends  in  Kentucky  differ  from  us.  We  need  not  make  our  argu 
ment  for  them,  but  we  who  think  it  is  wrong  in  all  its  relations,  or  in 
some  of  them  at  least,  must  decide  as  to  our  own  actions,  and  our  own 
course,  upon  our  own  judgment. 

I  say  that  we  must  not  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the 
States  where  it  exists,  because  the  Constitution  forbids  it,  and  the  general 
welfare  does  not  require  us  to  do  so.  "We  must  not  withhold  an  efficient 
Fugitive  Slave  law,  because  the  Constitution  requires  us,  as  I  understand 
it,  not  to  withhold  such  a  law.  But  we  must  prevent  the  outspreading 
of  the  institution,  because  neither  the  Constitution  nor  the  general  welfare 


84  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

requires  us  to  extend  it.  We  must  prevent  the  revival  of  the  African  slave- 
trade,  and  the  enacting  by  Congress  of  a  Territorial  slave-code.  We  must 
prevent  each  of  these  things  being  done  by  either  Congresses  or  courts. 
The  people  of  these  United  States  are  the  rightful  masters  of  both  Con 
gresses  and  courts,  not  to  overthrow  the  Constitution,  but  to  overthrow 
the  men  who  pervert  the  Constitution. 

To  do  these  things  we  must  employ  instrumentalities.  We  must  hold 
conventions ;  we  must  adopt  platforms,  if  we  conform  to  ordinary  custom ; 
we  must  nominate  candidates,  and  we  must  carry  elections.  In  all  these 
things,  I  think  that  we  ought  to  keep  in  view  our  real  purpose,  and  in 
none  do  any  thing  that  stands  adverse  to  our  purpose.  If  we  shall  adopt 
a  platform  that  fails  to  recognize  or  express  our  purpose,  or  elect  a  man 
that  declares  himself  inimical  to  our  purpose,  we  not  only  take  nothing 
by  oar  success,  but  we  tacitly  admit  that  we'  act  upon  no  other  principle 
than  a  desire  to  have  "  the  loaves  and  fishes,"  by  which,  in  the  end,  our 
apparent  success  is  really  an  injury  to  us. 

During  the  latter  part  of  that  year  (1859)  Mr.  Lincoln  also 
visited  Kansas,  and  was  greeted  with  enthusiastic  cordial 
ity  by  the  people,  whose  battles  he  had  fought  with  such 
masterly  ability  and  skill.  In  February,  1860,  in  response 
to  an  invitation  from  the  Young  Men' s  Republican  Club, 
he  came  to  New  York,  to  deliver  an  address  upon  some 
topic  appropriate  to  the  crisis  which  it  was  evident  was  ap 
proaching.  Tuesday  evening,  February  27th,  was  the  hour, 
and  Cooper  Institute  was  the  place,  selected  for  the  first 
appearance  of  the  future  President  before  the  New  York 
public  ;  and  a  curiosity  to  see  the  man  who  had  so  ably 
combated  the  "Little  Giant"  of  the  West,  as  well  as  an 
earnest  desire  to  hear  an  expression  of  his  views  upon  the 
questions  which  were  then  so  rapidly  developing  in  im 
portance,  and  beginning  to  agitate  the  public  mind  so 
deeply,  filled  the  large  hall  named  to  overflowing,  with 
an  audience  which  comprised  many  ladies.  William 
Cullen  Bryant  presided,  assisted  by  numerous  prominent 
politicians.  He  presented  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  audience 
with  a  few  appropriate  remarks.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  quite 
warmly  received,  and  delivered  an  address  which  at  times 
excited  uncontrollable  enthusiasm.  It  was  at  once  accepted 
as  one  of  the  most  important  contributions  to  the  current 
political  literature  of  the  day,  and  now  stands  among  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  85 

enduring  monuments  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  memory      We  ap 
pend  it  in  full : 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  NEW  YORK:  : — The  facts  with 
which  I  shall  deal  this  evening  are  mainly  old  and  familiar ;  nor  is  there 
any  thing  new  in  the  general  use  I  shall  make  of  them.  If  there  shall  be 
any  novelty,  it  will  he  in  the  mode  of  presenting  the  facts,  and  the  infer 
ences  and  observations  following  that  presentation. 

In  his  speech  last  autumn,  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  as  reported  in  the  "New 
York  Times,"  Senator  Douglas  said: 

"  Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live, 
understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better  than  we  do  now." 

I  fully  indorse  this,  and  I  adopt  it  as  a  text  for  this  discourse.  I  so  adopt 
it  because  it  furnishes  a  precise  and  an  agreed  starting-point  for  a  discus 
sion  between  ^Republicans  and  that  wing  of  the  Democracy  headed  by 
Senator  Douglas.  It  simply  leaves  the  inquiry :  "  What  was  the  under 
standing  those  fathers  had  of  the  question  mentioned  ?" 

What  is  the  frame  of  Government  under  which  we  live  ? 

The  answer  must  be  :  "  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States."  That 
Constitution  consists  of  the  original,  framed  in  1787  (a*nd  under  which  the 
present  government  first  went  into  operation),  and  twelve  subsequently 
framed  amendments,  the  first  ten  of  which  were  framed  in  1789. 

Who  were  our  fathers  that  framed  the  Constitution  ?  I  suppose  the 
"  thirty-nine  "  who  signed  the  original  instrument  may  be  fairly  called 
our  fathers  who  framed  that  part  of  the  present  Government.  It  is  almost 
exactly  true  to  say  they  framed  it,  and  it  is  altogether  true  to  say  they  fair 
ly  represented  the  opinion  and  sentiment  of  the  whole  nation  at  that  time. 

Their  names,  being  familiar  to  nearly  all,  and  accessible  to  quite  all, 
need  not  now  be  repeated. 

I  take  these  "thirty-nine,"  for  the  present,  as  being  our  "fathers  who 
framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live." 

What  is  the  question  which,  according  to  the  text,  those  fathers  under  • 
stood  "just  as  well,  and  even  better  than  we  do  now  ?" 

It  is  this :  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from  federal  authority,  or 
any  thing  in  the  Constitution,  forbid  our  Federal  Government  to  control 
as  to  slavery  in  our  Federal  Territories  ? 

Upon  this  Senator  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative,  and  Eepublicans  the 
negative.  This  affirmation  and  denial  form  an  issue,  and  this  issue — this 
question — is  precisely  what  the  text  declares  our  fathers  understood  "  bet 
ter  than  we." 

Let  us  now  inquire  whether  the  "thirty-nine,"  or  any  of  them, 
acted  upon  this  question ;  and  if  they  did,  how  they  acted  upon  it — how 
they  expressed  that  better  understanding  ? 

In  1784,  three  years  before  the  Constitution — the  United  States  then 
owning  the  Northwestern  Territory,  and  no  other— the  Congress  of  the  COD- 


86  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

federation  had  before  them  the  question  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  that  Ter 
ritory  ;  and  four  of  the  "  thirty-nine,"  who  afterward  framed  the  Consti 
tution,  were  in  that  Congress  and  voted  on  that  question.  Of  these, 
Roger  Sherman,  Thomas  Mifflin,  and  Hugh  Williamson  voted  for  the  pro 
hibition,  thus  showing  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line  dividing  local 
from  Federal  authority,  nor  any  thing  else,  properly  forbade  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory.  The  other  of 
the  four— James  M'Henry — voted  against  the  prohibition,  showing  that, 
for  some  cause,  he  thought  it  improper  to  vote  for  it. 

In  1787,  still  before  the  Constitution,  but  while  the  Convention  was  in 
session  framing  it,  and  while  the  Northwestern  Territory  still  was  the  only 
territory  owned  by  the  United  States,  the  same  question  of  prohibiting 
slavery  in  the  territory  again  came  before  the  Congress  of  the  Confedera 
tion  ;  and  two  more  of  the  "  thirty-nine  "  who  afterward  signed  the  Con 
stitution  were  in  that  Congress,  and  voted  on  the  question.  They  were 
William  Blount  and  William  Few ;  and  they  both  voted  for  the  prohibi 
tion — thus  showing  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line  dividing  local 
from  Federal  authority,  nor  any  thing  else,  properly  forbade  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory.  This  time  the 
prohibition  became  a  law,  being  part  of  what  is  now  well  known  as  the 
Ordinance  of  '87. 

The  question  of  Federal  control  of  slavery  in  the  territories,  seems  not 
to  have  been  directly  before  the  Convention  which  framed  the  original 
Constitution  ;  and  hence  it  is  not  recorded  that  the  "thirty-nine,"  or  any 
of  them,  while  engaged  on  that  instrument,  expressed  any  opinion  on  that 
precise  question. 

In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the  Constitution,  an  act 
was  passed  to  enforce  the  Ordinance  of  '87,  including  the  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  the  Northwestern  Territory.  The  bill  for  this  act  was  reported 
by  one  of  the  "  thirty-nine,"  Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  then  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  from  Pennsylvania.  It  went  through  all  its 
stages  without  a  word  of  opposition,  and  finally  passed  both  branches  with 
out  yeas  and  nays,  which  is  equivalent  to  a  unanimous  passage.  In  this 
Congress  there  were  sixteen  of  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed  the 
original  Constitution.  They  were  John  Langdon,  Nicholas  Gilman,  Wm. 
S.  Johnson,  Roger  Sherman,  Robert  Morris,  Thos.  Fitzsimmons,  William 
Few,  Abraham  Baldwin,  Rufus  King,  William  Paterson,  George  Clymer, 
Richard  Bassett,  George  Read,  Pierce  Butler,  Daniel  Carroll,  James  Madi 
son. 

This  shows  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from  Fed 
eral  authority,  nor  any  thing  in  the  Constitution,  properly  forbade  Con 
gress  to  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Federal  territory ;  else  both  their  fidelity 
to  correct  principles,  and  their  oath  to  support  the  Constitution,  would 
have  constrained  them  to  oppose  the  prohibition. 

Again:  George  Washington,  another  of  the   "thirty-nine,"  was  then 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  87 

President  of  the  United  States,  and,  as  such,  approved  and  signed  the  bill ; 
thus  completing  its  validity  as  a  law,  aiid  thus  showing  that,  in  his  under 
standing,  no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  any  thing  in 
the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery 
in  Federal  territory. 

No  great  while  after  the  adoption  of  the  original  Constitution,  North 
Carolina  ceded  to  the  Federal  Government  the  country  now  constituting 
the  State  of  Tennessee ;  and,  a  few  years  later,  Georgia  ceded  that  which 
now  constitutes  the  States  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama.  In  both  deeds  of 
cession  it  was  made  a  condition  by  the  ceding  States  that  the  Federal 
Government  should  not  prohibit  slavery  in  the  ceded  country.  Besides 
this,  slavery  was  then  actually  in  the  ceded  country.  Under  these  cir 
cumstances,  Congress,  on  taking  charge  of  these  countries,  did  not  abso 
lutely  prohibit  slavery  within  them.  But  they  did  interfere  with  it— take 
control  of  it— even  there,  to  a  certain  extent.  In  1798,  Congress  organ 
ized  the  Territory  of  Mississippi.  In  the  act  of  organization,  they  prohib 
ited  the  bringing  of  slaves  into  the  Territory,  from  Any  place  without  the 
United  States,  by  fine,  and  giving  freedom  to  slaves  so  brought.  This  act 
passed  both  branches  of  Congress  without  yeas  and  nays.  In  that  Con 
gress  were  three  of  the  "thirty-nine"  who  framed  the  original  Constitu 
tion.  They  were  John  Langdon,  George  Read,  and  Abraham  Baldwin. 
They  all,  probably,  voted  for  it.  Certainly  they  would  have  placed  their 
opposition  to  it  upon  record,  if,  in  their  understanding,  any  line  dividing 
local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any  thing  in  the  Constitution,  properly  for 
bade  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory. 

In  1803,  the  Federal  Government  purchased  the  Louisiana  country. 
Our  former  territorial  acquisitions  came  from  certain  of  our  own  States ; 
but  this  Louisiana  country  was  acquired  from  a  foreign  nation.  In  1804, 
Congress  gave  a  territorial  organization  to  that  part  of  it  which  now  con 
stitutes  the  State  of  Louisiana.  New  Orleans,  lying  within  that  part,  waa 
an  old  and  comparatively  large  city.  There  were  other  considerable 
towns  and  settlements,  and  slavery  was  extensively  and  thoroughly  inter 
mingled  with  the  people.  Congress  did  not,  in  the  Territorial  Act,  pro  • 
hibit  slavery ;  but  they  did  interfere  with  it — take  control  of  it — in  a 
more  marked  and  extensive  way  than  they  did  in  the  case  of  Mississippi. 
The  substance  of  the  provision  therein  made  in  relation  to  slaves  was: 

First.  That  no  slave  should  be  imported  into  the  territory  from  foreign 
parts. 

Second.  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it  who  had  been  imported 
into  the  United  States  since  the  first  day  of  May,  1798. 

Third.  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it  except  by  the  owner, 
and  for  his  own  use  as  a  settler ;  the  penalty  in  all  the  cases  being  a  fine 
upon  the  violator  of  the  law,  and  freedom  to  the  slave. 

This  act  also  was  passed  without  yeas  and  nays.  In  the  Congress 
which  passed  it,  there  were  two  of  the  "thirty -nine."  They  were  Abra- 


THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ham  Baldwin  and  Jonathan  Dayton.  As  stated  in  the  case  of  Mississippi, 
it  is  probable  they  both  voted  for  it.  They  would  not  have  allowed  it  to 
pass  without  recording  their  opposition  to  it,  if,  in  their  understanding, 
it  violated  either  the  line  properly  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority, 
or  any  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

In  1819-20,  came  and  passed  the  Missouri  question.  Many  votes  were 
taken,  by  yeas  and  nays,  in  both  branches  of  Congress,  upon  the  various 
phases  of  the  general  question.  Two  of  the  "  thirty-nine" — Kufus  King 
and  Charles  Pinckney — were  members  of  that  Congress.  Mr.  King 
steadily  voted  for  slavery  prohibition  and  against  all  compromises,  while 
Mr.  Pinckney  as  steadily  voted  against  slavery  prohibition,  and  against 
all  compromises.  By  this,  Mr.  King  showed  that,  in  his  understanding, 
no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  any  thing  in  the  Consti 
tution,  was  violated  by  Congress  prohibiting  slavery  in  Federal  territory ; 
while  Mr.  Pinckney,  by  his  vote,  showed  that,  in  his  understanding,  there 
was  some  sufficient  reason  for  opposing  such  prohibition  in  that  case. 

The  cases  I  have  mentioned  are  the  only  acts  of  the  "thirty-nine,"  or 
of  any  of  them,  upon  the  direct  issue,  which  I  have  been  able  to  discover. 

To  enumerate  the  persons  who  thus  acted,  as  being  four  in  1784,  two 
in  1787,  seventeen  in  1789,  three  in  1798,  two  in  1804,  and  two  in  1819- 
20 — there  would  be  thirty  of  them.  But  this  would  be  counting  John 
Langdon,  Eoger  Sherman,  William  Few,  Eufus  King,  and  George  Eead, 
each  twice,  and  Abraham  Baldwin,  three  times.  The  true  number  of 
those  of  the  "  thirty -nine  "  whom  I  have  shown  to  have  acted  upon  the 
question  which,  by  the  text,  they  understood  better  than  we,  is  twenty- 
three,  leaving  sixteen  not  shown  to  have  acted  upon  it  in  any  way. 

Here,  then,  we  have  twenty-three  out  of  our  thirty-nine  fathers  "  who 
framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live,"  who  have,  upon  their 
official  responsibility  and  their  corporal  oaths,  acted  upon  the  very  ques 
tion  which  the  text  affirms  they  "  understood  just  as  well,  and  even  bet 
ter  than  we  do  now;"  and  twenty -one  of  them — a  clear  majority  of  the 
whole  "thirty-nine" — so  acting  upon  it  as  to  make  them  guilty  of  gross 
political  impropriety  and  wilful  perjury,  if,  in  their  understanding,  any 
proper  division  between  local  and  Federal  authority,  or  any  thing  in  the 
Constitution  they  had  made  themselves,  and  sworn  to  support,  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories. 
Thus  the  twenty-one  acted  ;  and,  as  actions  speak  louder  than  words,  so 
actions,  under  such  responsibility,  speak  still  louder. 

Two  of  the  twenty-three  voted  against  Congressional  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  the  Federal  territories,  in  the  instances  in  which  they  acted 
npon  the  question.  But  for  what  reasons  they  so  voted  is  not  known. 
They  may  have  done  so  because  they  thought  a  proper  division  of  local 
from  Federal  authority,  or  some  provision  or  principle  of  the  Constitution, 
stood  in  the  way ;  or  they  may,  without  any  such  question,  have  voted 
against  the  prohibition  on  what  appeared  to  them  to  be  sufficient  grounds 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  89 

of  expediency.  No  one  who  lias  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution,  can 
conscientiously  vote  for  what  he  understands  to  be  an  unconstitutional 
measure,  however  expedient  he  may  think  it;  but  one  may  and  ought  to 
vote  against  a  measure  which  he  deems  constitutional,  if,  at  the  same  time, 
ho  deems  it  inexpedient.  It  therefore  would  be  unsafe  to  set  down  even 
the  two  who  voted  against  the  prohibition,  as  having  done  so  because,  in 
their  understanding,  any  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority, 
or  any  thing  in  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  con 
trol  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory. 

The  remaining  sixteen  of  the  "  thirty -nine,"  so  far  as  I  have  discovered, 
have  left  no  record  of  their  understanding  upon  the  direct  question  of 
Federal  control  on  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories.  But  there  is  much 
reason  to  believe  that  their  understanding  upon  that  question  would  not 
have  appeared  different  from  that  of  their  twenty-three  compeers,  had  it 
been  manifested  at  all. 

For  the  purpose  of  adhering  rigidly  to  the  text,  I  have  purposely  omit 
ted  whatever  understanding  may  have  been  manifested  by  any  person, 
however  distinguished,  other  than  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed  the 
original  Constitution ;  and,  for  the  same  reason,  I  have  also  omitted  what 
ever  understanding  may  have  been  manifested  by  any  of  the  "  thirty- 
nine  "  even,  on  any  other  phase  of  the  general  question  of  slavery.  If  we 
should  look  into  their  acts  and  declarations  on  those  other  phases,  as  the 
foreign  slave-trade,  and  the  morality  and  policy  of  slavery  generally,  it 
would  appear  to  us  that  on  the  direct  question  of  Federal  control  of  sla 
very  in  Federal  territories,  the  sixteen,  if  they  had  acted  at  all,  would 
probably  have  acted  just  as  the  twenty-three  did.  Among  that  sixteen- 
were  several  of  the  most  noted  anti-slavery  men  of  those  times — as  Dr. 
Franklin,  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  Gouverneur  Morris — while  there  was 
not  one  now  known  to  have  been  otherwise,  unless  it  may  be  John  Eut- 
ledge,  of  South  Carolina. 

The  sum  of  the  whole  is,  that  of  our  thirty-nine  fathers  who  framed 
the  original  Constitution,  twenty-one — a  clear  majority  of  the  whole — 
certainly  understood  that  no  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  au 
thority,  nor  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  to  control  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories  ;  whilst  all  the  rest  prob 
ably  had  the  same  understanding.  Such,  unquestionably,  was  the  under 
standing  of  our  fathers  who  framed  the  original  Constitution ;  and  the 
text  affirms  that  they  understood  the  question  "better  than  we." 

But,  so  far,  I  have  been  considering  the  understanding  of  the  question 
manifested  by  the  framers  of  the  original  Constitution.  In  and  by  the 
original  instrument,  a  mode  was  provided  for  amending  it ;  and,  as  I  have 
already  stated,  the  present  frame  of  "the  Government  under  which  we 
live  "  consists  of  that  original,  and  twelve  amendatory  articles  framed 
and  adopted  since.  Those  who  now  insist  that  Federal  control  of  slavery 
in  Federal  territories  violates  the  Constitution,  point  us  to  the  provisions 


90  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

which  they  suppose  it  thus  violates  ;  and,  as  I  understand,  they  all  hi 
upon  provisions  in  these  amendatory  articles,  and  not  in  the  original  in 
strument.  The  Supreme  Court,  in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  plant  themselves 
upon  the  fifth  amendment,  which  provides  that  no  person  shall  be  de 
prived  of  "life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of  law;"  while 
Senator  Douglas  and  his  peculiar  adherents  plant  themselves  upon  the 
tenth  amendment,  providing  that  "the  powers  not  delegated  to  the 
United  States  by  the  Constitution,1'  "  are  reserved  to  the  States  respect 
ively,  or  to  the  people." 

Now,  it  so  happens  that  these  amendments  were  framed  by  the  first 
Congress  which  sat  under  the  Constitution — the  identical  Congress  which 
passed  the  act  already  mentioned,  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery  iL 
the  Northwestern  Territory.  Not  only  was  it  the  same  Congress,  but 
they  were  the  identical  same  individual  men  who,  at  the  same  session, 
and  at  the  same  time  within  the  session,  had  under  consideration,  and  in 
progress  toward  maturity,  these  Constitutional  amendments,  and  this  act 
prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territory  the  nation  then  owned.  The  Con 
stitutional  amendments  were  introduced  before,  and  passed  after  the  act 
enforcing  the  Ordinance  of  '87 ;  so  that,  during  the  whole  pendency  of 
the  act  to  enforce  the  Ordinance,  the  Constitutional  amendments  were 
also  pending. 

The  seventy-six  members  of  that  Congress,  including  sixteen  of  the 
framers  of  the  original  Constitution,  as  before  stated,  were  pre-eminently 
our  fathers  who  framed  that  part  of  "  the  Government  under  which  we 
live,"  which  is  now  claimed  as  forbidding  the  Federal  Government  to 
control  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories. 

Is  it  not  a  little  presumptuous  in  any  one  at  this  day  to  affirm  that  the 
two  things  which  that  Congress  deliberately  framed,  and  carried  to  ma 
turity  at  the  same  time,  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  each  other? 
And  does  not  such  affirmation  become  impudently  absurd  when  coupled 
with  the  other  affirmation  from  the  same  mouth,  that  those  who  did  the 
two  things  alleged  to  be  inconsistent,  understood  whether  they  really 
were  inconsistent  better  than  we — better  than  he  who  affirms  that  they 
are  inconsistent  ? 

It  is  surely  safe  to  assume  that  the  thirty-nine  framers  of  the  original 
Constitution,  and  the  seventy-six  members  of  the  Congress  which  framed 
the  amendments  thereto,  taken  together,  do  certainly  include  those  who 
may  be  fairly  called  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  Government  under 
which  we  live."  And,  so  assuming,  I  defy  any  man  to  show  that  any  one 
of  them  ever,  in  his  whole  life,  declared  that,  in  his  understanding,  any 
proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Con 
stitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  territories.  I  go  a  step  further.  I  defy  any  one  to  show  that  any 
living  man  in  the  whole  world  ever  did,  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century  (and  I  might  almost  say  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  91 

last  half  of  the  present  century),  declare  that,  in  his  understanding,  an} 
proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Consti 
tution,  forbade  the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  territories.  To  those  who  now  so  declare,  I  give  not  only  "  our 
fathers  who  framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live,"  but  with  them 
all  other  living  men  within  the  century  in  which  it  was  framed,  among 
whom  to  search,  and  they  shall  not  bo  able  to  find  the  evidence  of  a  single 
man  agreeing  with  them. 

Now,  and  here,  let  me  guard  a  little  against  being  misunderstood.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  we  are  bound  to  follow  implicitly  in  whatever  our 
fathers  did.  To  do  so,  would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of  current  ex 
perience — to  reject  all  progress — all  improvement.  What  I  do  say  is,  that 
if  we  would  supplant  the  opinions  and  policy  of  our  fathers  in  any  case, 
we  should  do  so  upon  evidence  so  conclusive,  and  argument  so  clear,  that 
even  their  great  authority,  fairly  considered  and  weighed,  cannot  stand ; 
and  most  surely  not  in  a  case  whereof  we  ourselves  declare  they  under 
stood  the  question  better  than  we. 

If  any  man  at  this  day  sincerely  believes  that  proper  division  of  local 

from  Federal  authority,  or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the  Federal 

Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories,  he  is  right 

to  say  so,  and  to  enforce  his  position  by  all  truthful  evidence  and  fair 

argument  which  he  can.     But  he  has  no  right  to  mislead  others,  who 

have  lesa  access  to  history,  and  less  leisure  to  study  it,  into  the  false  belief 

that  "  our  fathers,  who  framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live," 

were  of  the  same  opinion — thus  substituting  falsehood  and  deception  for 

truthful  evidence  and  fair  argument.     If  any  man  at  this  day  sincerely 

believes  "  our  fathers,  who  framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live," 

used  and  applied  principles,  in  other  cases,  which  ought  to  have  led  them 

to  understand  that  a  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or 

some  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the  Federal  Government  to  control 

as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  territories,  he  is  right  to  say  so.     But  he 

should,  at  the  same  time,  brave  the  responsibility  of  declaring  that,  in  his 

opinion,  he  understands  their  principles  better  than  they  did  themselves  ; 

and  especially  should  he  not  shirk  that  responsibility  by  asserting  that  they 

"  understood  the  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better  than  we  do  now." 

But  enough !     Let  all  who  believe  that  "  our  fathers,  who  framed  the 

Government  under  which  we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as  well,  and 

even  better  than  we  do  now,"  speak  as  they  spoke,  and  act  as  they  acted 

upon  it.     This  is  all  Republicans  ask — all  Republicans  desire — in  relation 

to  slavery.     As  those  fathers  marked  it,  so  let  it  be  again  marked,  as  an 

evil  not  to  be  extended,  but  to  be  tolerated  and  protected  only  because  of.  and 

so  far  as,  its  actual  presence  among  us  makes  that  toleration  and  protection 

a  necessity.     Let  all  the  guaranties  those  fathers  gave  it  be  not  grudgingly, 

but  fully  and  fairly  maintained.     For  this  Republicans  contend,  and  with 

this,  so  far  as  I  know  or  believe,  they  will  be  content. 


92  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

And  now,  if  they  would  listen— as  I  suppose  they  will  not— I  would 
address  a  few  words  to  the  Southern  people. 

I  would  say  to  them  : — You  consider  yourselves  a  reasonable  and  a  just 
people ;  and  I  consider  that  in  the  general  qualities  of  reason  and  justice 
you  are  not  inferior  to  any  other  people.  Still,  when  you  speak  of  us 
Republicans,  you  do  so  only  to  denounce  us  as  reptiles,  or,  at  the  best,  as 
no  better  than  outlaws.  You  will  grant  a  hearing  to  pirates  or  murderers, 
but  nothing  like  it  to  "  Black  Republicans."  In  all  your  contentions  with 
one  another,  each  of  you  deems  an  unconditional  condemnation  of  "Black 
Republicanism "  as  the  first  thing  to  be  attended  to.  Indeed,  such  con 
demnation  of  us  seems  to  be  an  indispensable  prerequisite— license,  so  to 
speak — among  you,  to  be  admitted  or  permitted  to  speak  at  all.  Now, 
can  you,  or  not,  be  prevailed  upon  to  pause,  and  to  consider  whether  this 
is  quite  just  to  us,  or  even  to  yourselves  ?  Bring  forward  your  charges  and 
specifications,  and  then  be  patient  long  enough  to  hear  us  deny  or 
justify. 

You  say  we  are  sectional.  We  deny  it.  That  makes  an  issue ;  and  the 
burden  of  proof  is  upon  you.  You  produce  your  proof;  and  what  is  it? 
Why,  that  our  party  has  no  existence  in  your  section— gets  no  votes  in 
your  section.  The  fact  is  substantially  true;  but  does  it  prove  the  issue? 
If  it  does,  then  in  case  we  should,  without  change  of  principle,  begin  to 
get  votes  in  your  section,  we  should  thereby  cease  to  be  sectional.  You 
cannot  escape  this  conclusion ;  and  yet,  are  you  willing  to  abide  by  it  ? 
If  you  are,  you  will  probably  soon  find  that  we  have  ceased  to  be  sectional, 
for  we  shall  get  votes  in  your  section  this  very  year.  You  will  then  begin 
to  discover,  as  the  truth  plainly  is,  that  your  proof  does  not  touch  the 
issue.  The  fact  that  we  get  no  votes  in  your  section,  is  a  fact  of  your 
making,  and  not  of  ours.  And  if  there  be  fault  in  that  fact,  that  fault  is 
primarily  yours,  and  remains  so  until  you  show  that  we  repel  you  by  some 
wrong  principle  or  practice.  If  we  do  repel  you  by  any  wrong  principle 
or  practice,  the  fault  is  ours  ;  but  this  brings  you  to  where  you  ought  to 
have  started — to  a  discussion  of  the  right  or  wrong  of  our  principle.  If 
our  principle,  put  in  practice,  would  wrong  your  section  for  the  bene 
fit  of  ours,  or  for  any  other  object,  then  our  principle,  and  we  with  it, 
are  sectional,  and  are  justly  opposed  and  denounced  as  such.  Meet  us, 
then,  on  the  question  of  whether  our  principle,  put  in  practice,  would 
wrong  your  section ;  and  so  meet  us  as  if  it  were  possible  that  something 
may  be  said  on  our  side.  Do  you  accept  the  challenge  ?  No !  Then  you 
really  believe  that  the  principle  which  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  Gov 
ernment  under  which  we  live"  thought  so  clearly  right  as  to  adopt  it, 
and  indorse  it  again  and  again,  upon  their  official  oaths,  is  in  fact  so 
clearly  wrong  as  to  demand  your  condemnation  without  a  moment's  con 
sideration. 

Some  of  you  delight  to  flaunt  in  our  faces  the  warning  against  sectional 
parties  given  by  Washington  in  his  Farewell  Address.     Les3  than  eight 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  93 

years  bffore  Washington  gave  that  warning,  he  had,  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  approved  and  signed  an  act  of  Congress  enforcing  the  pro 
hibition  of  slavery  in  the  Northwestern  Territory,  which  act  embodied 
the  policy  of  the  Government  upon  that  subject  up  to,  and  at,  the  very 
moment  he  penned  that  warning  ;  and  about  one  year  after  he  penned  it, 
he  wrote  La  Fayette  that  he  considered  that  prohibition  a  wise  measure, 
expressing  in  the  same  connection  his  hope  that  we  should  at  some  time 
have  a  confederacy  of  free  States. 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  and  seeing  that  sectionalism  has  since  arisen  upon 
this  same  subject,  is  that  warning  a  weapon  in  your  hands  against  us,  or 
in  our  hands  against  you  ?  Could  Washington  himself  speak,  would  he 
cast  the  blame  of  that  sectionalism  upon  us,  who  sustain  his  policy,  or 
upon  you,  who  repudiate  it?  We  respect  that  warning  of  Washington,  and 
we  commend  it  to  you,  together  with  his  example  pointing  to  the  right 
application  of  it. 

But  you  say  you  are  conservative — eminently  conservative—  while  we 
are  revolutionary,  destructive,  or  something  of  the  sort.  What  is  con 
servatism?  Is  it  not  adherence  to  the  old  and  tried,  against  a  new  and 
untried?  We  stick  to,  contend  for,  the  identical  old  policy  on  the  point 
in  controversy  which  was  adopted  by  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  Gov 
ernment  under  which  we  live ;"  while  you  with  one  accord  reject,  and 
scout,  and  spit  upon  that  old  policy,  and  insist  upon  substituting  something 
new.  True,  you  disagree  among  yourselves  as  to  what  that  substitute 
shall  be.  You  are  divided  on  new  propositions  and  plans,  but  you  are 
unanimous  in  rejecting  and  denouncing  the  old  policy  of  the  fathers. 
Some  of  you  are  for  reviving  the  foreign  slave-trade ;  some  for  a  Con 
gressional  Slave-Code  for  the  Territories;  some  for  Congress  forbidding 
the  Territories  to  prohibit  Slavery  within  their  limits ;  some  for  maintain 
ing  Slavery  in  the  Territories  through  the  judiciary;  some  for  the  "gur- 
reat  pur-rinciple"  that  "if  one  man  would  enslave  another,  no  third  man 
should  object,"  fantastically  called  "Popular  Sovereignty ;"  but  never  a 
man  among  you  in  favor  of  Federal  prohibition  of  slavery  in  Federal  terri 
tories,  according  to  the  practice  of  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  Govern 
ment  under  which  we  live."  Not  one  of  all  your  various  plans  can  show  a 
precedent  or  an  advocate  in  the  century  within  which  our  Government 
originated.  Consider,  then,  whether  your  claim  of  conservatism  for  your 
selves,  and  your  charge  of  destructiveness  against  us,  are  based  on  the 
most  clear  and  stable  foundations. 

Again :  you  say  we  have  made  the  slavery  question  more  prominent  than 
it  formerly  was.  We  deny  it.  We  admit  that  it  is  more  prominent,  but 
we  deny  that  we  made  it  so.  It  was  not  we,  but  you,  who  discarded  the 
old  policy  of  the  fathers.  We  resisted,  and  still  resist  your  innovation ; 
and  thence  comes  the  greater  prominence  of  the  question.  Would  you 
have  that  question  reduced  to  its  former  proportions  ?  Go  back  to  that 
old  policy.  What  has  been  will  be  again,  under  the  same  conditions.  If 


94  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

you  would  have  the  peace  of  the  old  times,  readopt  the  precepts  and  policy 
of  the  old  times. 

You  charge  that  we  stir  up  insurrections  among  your  slaves.  We  deny 
it ;  and  what  is  your  proof?  Harper's  Ferry !  John  Brown ! !  John 
Brown  was  no  Kepublican  ;  and  you  have  failed  to  implicate  a  single  Re- 
publican  in  his  Harper's  Ferry  enterprise.  If  any  member  of  our  party  is 
guilty  in  that  matter,  you  know  it  or  you  do  not  know  it.  If  you  do  know 
it,  you  are  inexcusable  for  not  designating  the  man  and  proving  the  fact. 
If  you  do  not  know  it,  you  are  inexcusable  for  asserting  it,  and  especially 
for  persisting  in  the  assertion  after  you  have  tried  and  failed  to  make  the 
proof.  You  need  not  be  told  that  persisting  in  a  charge  which  one  doea 
not  know  to  be  true  is  simply  malicious  slander. 

Some  of  you  admit  that  no  Republican  designedly  aided  or  encouraged 
the  Harper's  Ferry  affair ;  but  still  insist  that  our  doctrines  and  declara 
tions  necessarily  lead  to  such  results.  "We  do  not  believe  it.  We  know 
we  hold  to  no  doctrine,  and  make  no  declaration,  which  were  not  held  to 
and  made  by  "  our  fathers  who  framed  the  Government  under  which  we 
live."  You  never  dealt  fairly  by  us  in  relation  to  this  aifair.  When  it 
occurred,  some  important  State  elections  were  near  at  hand,  and  you  were 
in  evident  glee  with  the  belief  that,  by  charging  the  blame  upon  us,  you 
could  get  an  advantage  of  us  in  those  elections.  The  elections  came,  and 
your  expectations  were  not  quite  fulfilled.  Every  Republican  man  knew 
that,  as  to  himself  at  least,  your  charge  was  a  slander,  and  he  was  not 
much  inclined  by  it  to  cast  his  vote  in  your  favor.  Republican  doctrines 
and  declarations  are  accompanied  with  a  continued  protest  against  any 
interference  whatever  with  your  slaves,  or  with  you  about  your  slaves. 
Surely,  this  does  not  encourage  them  to  revolt.  True,  we  do,  in  common 
with  "  our  fathers,  who  framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live," 
declare  our  belief  that  slavery  is  wrong ;  but  the  slaves  do  not  hear  us 
declare  even  this.  For  any  thing  we  say  or  do,  the  slaves  would  scarcely 
know  there  is  a  Republican  party.  I  believe  they  would  not,  in  fact, 
generally  know  it  but  for  your  misrepresentations  of  us  in  their  hearing. 
In  your  political  contests  among  yourselves,  each,  faction  charges  the 
other  with  sympathy  with  Black  Republicanism ;  and  then,  to  give  point 
to  the  charge,  defines  Black  Republicanism  to  simply  be  insurrection, 
blood,  and  thunder  among  the  slaves. 

Slave  insurrections  are  no  more  common  now  than  they  were  be 
fore  the  Republican  party  was  organized.  What  induced  the  Southamp 
ton  insurrection,  twenty-eight  years  ago,  in  which,  at  least,  three  times  as 
many  lives  were  lost  MS  at  Harper's  Ferry?  You  can  scarcely  stretch 
your  very  elastic  fanoj-  to  the  conclusion  that  Southampton  was  "got  up 
by  Black  Republicanism."  In  the  present  state  of  things  in  the  United 
States,  I  do  not  think  a  general  or  even  a  very  extensive  slave  insurrec 
tion  is  possible.  The  indispensable  concert  of  action  cannot  be  attained. 
The  slaves  have  no  means  of  rapid  communication ;  nor  can  incendiary 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  95 

freemen,  black  or  white,  supply  it.  The  explosive  materials  are  every 
where  in  parcels;  but  there  neither  are,  nor  can  be  supplied,  the  indis 
pensable  connecting-trains. 

Much  is  said  by  Southern  people  about  the  affection  of  slaves  for  their 
masters  and  mistresses;  and  a  part  of  it,  at  least,  is  true.  A  plot  for  an 
uprising  could  scarcely  be  devised  and  communicated  to  twenty  individ 
uals  before  some  one  of  them,  to  save  the  life  of  a  favorite  master  or  mis 
tress,  would  divulge  it.  This  is  the  rule ;  and  the  slave  revolution  in 
Hayti  was  not  an  exception  to  it,  but  a  case  occurring  under  peculiar  cir 
cumstances.  The  gunpowder  plot  of  British  history,  though  not  connect 
ed  with  slaves,  was  more  in  point.  In  that  case,  only  about  twenty  were 
admitted  to  the  secret ;  and  yet  one  of  them,  in  his  anxiety  to  save  a 
friend,  betrayed  the  plot  to  that  friend,  and,  by  consequence,  averted  the 
calamity.  Occasional  poisonings  from  the  kitchen,  and  open  or  stealthy 
assassinations  in  the  field,  and  local  revolts,  extending  to  a  score  or  so, 
will  continue  to  occur  as  the  natural  results  of  slavery ;  but  no  general 
insurrection  of  slaves,  as  I  think,  can  happen  in  this  country  for  a  long 
time.  Whoever  much  fears  or  much  hopes  for  such  an  event  will  be  alike 
disappointed. 

In  the  language  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  uttered  many  years  ago,  •'  It  is  still  in 
our  power  to  direct  the  process  of  emancipation  and  deportation  peace 
ably,  and  in  such  slow  degrees,  as  that  the  evil  will  wear  off  insensibly; 
and  their  places  be,  pari  passu,  filled  up  by  free  white  laborers.  If,  on 
the  contrary,  it  is  left  to  force  itself  on,  human  nature  must  shudder  at 
the  prospect  held  up." 

Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  mean  to  say,  nor  do  I,  that  the  power  of  emanci 
pation  is  in  the  Federal  Government,  He  spoke  of  Virginia  ;  and,  as  to 
the  power  of  emancipation,  I  speak  of  the  slaveholding  States  only.  The 
Federal  Government,  however,  as  we  insist,  has  the  power  of  restraining 
the  extension  of  the  institution— the  power  to  insure  that  a  slave  insur 
rection  shall  never  occur  on  any  American  soil  which  is  now  free  from 
slavery. 

John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a  slave  insurrection.  It 
was  an  attempt  by  white  men  to  get  up  a  revolt  among  slaves,  in  which 
the  slaves  refused  to  participate.  In  fact,  it  Avas  so  absurd  that  the  slaves, 
with  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough  it  could  not  succeed.  That 
affair,  in  its  philosophy,  corresponds  with  the  many  attempts  related  in 
history  at  the  assassination  of  kings  and  emperors.  An  enthusiast  broods 
over  the  oppression  of  a  people  till  he  fancies  himself  commissioned  by 
Heaven  to  liberate  them.  He  ventures  the  attempt,  which  ends  in  little 
else  than  his  own  execution.  Orsini's  attempt  on  Louis  Napoleon  and 
lohn  Brown's  attempt  at  Harper's  Ferry  were,  in  their  philosophy,  pre 
cisely  the  same.  The  eagerness  to  cast  blame  on  old  England  in  the  one 
case,  and  on  New  England  in  the  other,  does  not  disprove  the  sameness 
of  the  two  things. 


96  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

And  how  much  would  it  avail  you,  if  you  could,  by  the  use  of  John 
Brown,  Helper's  Book,  and  the  like,  break  up  the  Republican  organiza 
tion  ?  Human  action  can  be  modified  to  some  extent,  but  human  nature 
cannot  be  changed.  There  is  a  judgment  and  a  feeling  against  slavery  in 
this  nation,  which  cast  at  least  a  million  and  a  half  of  votes.  You  cannot 
destroy  that  judgment  and  feeling— that  sentiment— by  breaking  up  the 
political  organization  which  rallies  around  it.  You  can  scarcely  scatter 
and  disperse  an  army  which  has  been  formed  into  order  in  the  face  of 
your  heaviest  fire ;  but  if  you  could,  how  much  would  you  gain  by  forcing 
the  sentiment  which  created  it  out  of  the  peaceful  channel  of  the  ballot- 
box,  into  some  other  channel?  What  would  that  other  channel  probably 
be  ?  Would  the  number  of  John  Browns  be  lessened  or  enlarged  by  the 
operation  ? 

But  you  will  break  up  the  Union  rather  than  submit  to  a  denial  of  your 
Constitutional  rights. 

That  has  a  somewhat  reckless  sound ;  but  it  would  be  palliated,  if  not 
fully  justified,  were  we  proposing,  by  the  mere  force  of  numbers,  to  de 
prive  you  of  some  right  plainly  written  down  in  the  Constitution.  But 
we  are  proposing  no  such  thing. 

When  you  make  these  declarations,  you  have  a  specific  and  well-under 
stood  allusion  to  an  assumed  Constitutional  right  of  yours  to  take  slaves 
into  the  Federal  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as  property.  But  no 
such  right  is  specifically  written  in  the  Constitution.  That  instrument  is 
literally  silent  about  any  such  right.  We,  on  the  contrary,  deny  that 
such  a  right  has  any  existence  in  the  Constitution,  even  by  implication. 

Your  purpose,  then,  plainly  stated,  is,  that  you  will  destroy  the  Gov 
ernment  unless  you  be  allowed  to  construe  and  enforce  the  Constitution 
as  you  please  on  all  points  in  dispute  between  you  and  us.  You  will  rule 
or  ruin,  in  all  events. 

This,  plainly  stated,  is  your  language.  Perhaps  you  will  say  the  Su 
preme  Court  has  decided  the  disputed  Constitutional  question  in  your 
favor.  Not  quite  so.  But,  waiving  the  lawyer's  distinction  between  dic 
tum  and  decision,  the  Court  have  decided  the  question  for  you  in  a  sort 
of  way.  The  Court  have  substantially  said,  it  is  your  Constitutional  right 
to  take  slaves  into  the  Federal  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as 
property.  When  I  say  the  decision  was  made  in  a  sort  of  way,  I  mean  it 
was  made  in  a  divided  Court,  by  a  bare  majority  of  the  judges,  and  they 
not  quite  agreeing  with  one  another  in  the  reasons  for  making  it;  that  it 
is  so  made  as  that  its  avowed  supporters  disagree  with  one  another  about 
its  meaning,  and  that  it  was  mainly  based  upon  a  mistaken  statement  of 
fact — the  statement  in  the  opinion  that  "  the  right  of  property  in  a  slave 
is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution." 

An  inspection  of  the  Constitution  will  show  that  the  right  of  property 
in  a  slave  is  not  "distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  "  in  it.  Bear  in  mind, 
the  judges  do  not  pledge  their  judicial  opinion  that  such  right  is  implied 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  97 

ly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution  ;  but  they  pledge  their  veracity  that  it  is 
'''distinctly  and  expressly'1'1  affirmed  there — "distinctly,"  that  is,  not 
mingled  with  any  thing  else — "expressly,"  that  is,  in  words  meaning  just 
that,  without  the  aid  of  any  inference,  and  susceptible  of  no  other  meaning. 

If  they  had  only  pledged  their  judicial  opinion  that  such  right  is 
affirmed  in  the  instrument  by  implication,  it  would  be  open  to  others  to 
show  that  neither  the  word  "slave"  nor  "slavery"  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Constitution,  nor  the  word  "  property"  even,  in  any  connection  with  Ian 
guage  alluding  to  the  things  slave  or  slavery,  and  that  wherever  in  that 
instrument  the  slave  is  alluded  to,  he  is  called  a  "  person  ;" — and  wher 
ever  his  master's  legal  right  in  relation  to  him  is  alluded  to,  it  is  spoken 
of  as  "  service  or  labor  which  may  be  due," — as  a  debt  payable  in  service 
or  labor.  Also,  it  would  be  open  to  show,  by  contemporaneous  history, 
that  this  mode  of  alluding  to  slaves  and  slavery,  instead  of  speaking  of 
them,  was  employed  on  purpose  to  exclude  from  the  Constitution  the 
idea  that  there  could  be  property  in  man. 

To  show  all  this,  is  easy  and  certain. 

When  this  obvious  mistake  of  the  judges  shall  be  brought  to  their  no 
tice,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  expect  that  they  will  withdraw  the  mistaken 
statement,  and  reconsider  the  conclusion  based  upon  it  ? 

And  then  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  "  our  fathers,  who  framed  the 
Government  under  which  we  live" — the  men  who  made  the  Constitution 
— decided  this  same  Constitutional  question  in  our  favor,  long  ago — 
decided  it  without  division  among  themselves,  when  making  the  decision  ; 
without  division  among  themselves  about  the  meaning  of  it  after  it  was 
made,  and,  so  far  as  any  evidence  is  left,  without  basing  it  upon  any  mis 
taken  statement  of  facts. 

Under  all  these  circumstances,  do  you  really  feel  yourselves  justified  to 
break  up  this  Government,  unless  such  a  court  decision  as  yours  is  shall 
be  at  once  submitted  to  as  a  conclusive  and  final  rule  of  political  action  ? 
But  you  will  not  abide  the  election  of  a  Republican  president !  In  that 
supposed  event,  you  say,  you  will  destroy  the  Union ;  and  then,  you  say, 
the  great  crime  of  having  destroyed  it  will  be  upon  us !  That  is  cool.  A 
highwayman  holds  a  pistol  to  my  ear,  and  mutters  through  his  teeth, 
"  Stand  and  deliver,  or  I  shall  kill  you,  and  then  you  will  be  a  murderer  1" 

To  be  sure,  what  the  robber  demanded  of  me — my  money — was  my 
own ;  and  I  had  a  clear  right  to  keep  it ;  but  it  was  no  more  my  own 
than  my  vote  is  rny  own ;  and  the  threat  of  death  to  me,  to  extort  my 
money,  and  the  threat  of  destruction  to  the  Union,  to  extort  iny  "vote, 
can  scarcely  be  distinguished  in  principle. 

A  few  words  now  to  Republicans.  It  is  exceedingly  desirable  that  all 
parts  of  this  great  Confederacy  shall  le  at  peace,  and  in  harmony  one 
with  another.  *  Let  us  Republican*  do  our  part  to  have  it  so.  Even  though 
much  provoked,  let  us  do  nothing  through  passion  and  ill  temper.  Even 
though  the  southern  people  will  not  so  much  as  listen  to  vs,  let  us  calmly 


98  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

coxsiJer  their  demands,  and  yield  to  them  if,  in  our  deliberate  view  of  our 
duty,  we  possibly  can.  Judging  by  all  they  say  and  do,  and  by  the  sub 
ject  and  nature  of  their  controversy  with  us,  let  us  determine,  if  we  can, 
what  will  satisfy  them. 

Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  Territories  be  unconditionally  surrendered 
to  them?  We  know  they  will  not.  In  all  their  present  complaints 
against  us,  the  Territories  are  scarcely  mentioned.  Invasions  and  insur 
rections  are  the  rage  now.  Will  it  satisfy  them  if,  in  the  future,  we  have 
nothing  to  do  with  invasions  and  insurrections?  We  know  it  will  not. 
We  so  know,  because  wo  know  we  never  had  any  thing  to  do  with  in 
vasions  and  insurrections;  and  yet  this  total  abstaining  does  not  exempt 
us  from  the  charge  and  the  denunciation. 

The  question  recurs,  what  will  satisfy  them  ?  Simply  this:  We  must 
not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we  must,  somehow,  convince  them  that  we 
do  let  them  alone.  This,  we  know  by  experience,  is  no  easy  task.  We 
have  been  so  trying  to  convince  them  from  the  very  beginning  of  our  or 
ganization,  but  with  no  success.  In  all  our  platforms  and  speeches  we 
have  constantly  protested  our  purpose  to  let  them  alone  ;  but  this  has  had 
no  tendency  to  convince  them.  Alike  unavailing  to  convince  them  is  the 
fact  that  they  have  never  detected  a  man  of  us  in  any  attempt  to  disturb 
them. 

These  natural  and  apparently  adequate  means  all  failing,  what  will  con 
vince  them  ?  This,  and  this  only :  cease  to  call  slavery  wrong,  and  join 
them  in  calling  it  right.  And  this  must  be  done  thoroughly — done  in 
acts  as  well  as  in  words.  Silence  will  not  be  tolerated — we  must  place 
ourselves  avowedly  with  them.  Senator  Douglas's  new  sedition  law  must 
be  enacted  and  enforced,  suppressing  all  declarations  that  slavery  is 
wrong,  whether  made  in  politics,  in  presses,  in  pulpits,  or  in  private. 
We  must  arrest  and  return  their  fugitive  slaves  with  greedy  pleasure. 
We  must  pull  down  our  Free  State  constitutions.  The  whole  atmosphere 
must  be  disinfected  from  all  taint  of  opposition  to  slavery,  before  they 
will  cease  to  believe  that  all  their  troubles  proceed  from  us. 

I  am  quite  aware  they  do  not  state  their  case  precisely  in  this  way. 
Most  of  them  would  probably  say  to  us,  "  Let  us  alone,  do  nothing  to  us, 
smd  say  what  you  please  about  slavery."  But  we  do  let  them  alone — 
have  never  disturbed  them — so  that,  after  all,  it  is  what  we  say  which 
dissatisfies  them.  They  will  continue  to  accuse  us  of  doing,  until  we 
cease  saying. 

I  am  also  aware  they  have  not  as  yet,  in  terms,  demanded  the  over 
throw  of  our  Free  State  Constitutions.  Yet  those  Constitutions  declare 
the  wrong  of  slavery,  with  more  solemn  emphasis  than  do  all  other 
sayings  against  it;  and  when  all  these  other  sayings  shall  have  been 
silenced,  the  overthrow  of  these  Constitutions  will  be  demanded,  and 
nothing  be  left  to  resist  the  demand.  It  is  nothing  to  the  contrary,  that 
they  do  not  demand  the  whole  of  this  just  now.  Demanding  what  they 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLJN.  99 

do,  and  for  the  reason  they  do,  they  can  voluntarily  stop  nowhere  short 
of  this  consummation.  Holding,  as  they  do,  that  slavery  is  morally 
right,  and  socially  elevating,  they  cannot  cease  to  demand  a  full  national 
recognition  of  it,  as  a  legal  right  and  a  social  blessing. 

Nor  can  we  justifiably  withhold  this  on  any  ground  save  our  conviction 
that  slavery  is  wrong.  If  slavery  is  right,  all  words,  acts,  laws,  and  con 
stitutions  against  it  are  themselves  wrong,  and  should  be  silenced  and 
swept  away.  If  it  is  right,  we  cannot  justly  object  to  its  nationality — its 
universality  ;  if  it  is  wrong,  they  cannot  justly  insist  upon  its  extension — 
its  enlargement.  All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we  thought 
slavery  right ;  all  we  ask  they  could  as  readily  grant,  if  they  thought  it 
wrong.  Their  thinking  it  right,  and  our  thinking  it  wrong,  is  the  precise 
fact  upon  which  depends  the  whole  controversy.  Thinking  it  right,  as 
they  do,  they  are  not  to  blame  for  desiring  its  full  recognition,  as  being 
right ;  but,  thinking  it  wrong,  as  we  do,  can  we  yield  to  them  ?  Can  we 
cast  our  votes  with  their  view,  and  against  our  own?  In  view  of  our 
moral,  social,  and  political  responsibilities,  can  we  do  this? 

Wrong  as  we  think  slavery  is,  we  can  yet  afford  to  let  it  alone  where  it 
is,  because  that  much  is  due  to  the  necessity  arising  from  its  actual  pres 
ence  in  the  nation ;  but  can  we,  while  our  votes  will  prevent  it,  allow  it 
to  spread  into  the  National  Territories,  and  to  overrun  us  here  in  these 
Free  States?  If  our  sense  of  duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand  by  our 
duty,  fearlessly  and  effectively.  Let  us  be  diverted  by  none  of  those  so 
phistical  contrivances  wherewith  we  are  so  industriously  plied  and  bela 
bored — contrivances  such  as  groping  for  some  middle  ground  between  the 
right  and  the  wrong,  vain  as  the  search  for  a  man  who  should  be  neither 
a  living  man  nor  a  dead  man — such  as  a  policy  of  u  don't  care"  on  a 
question  about  which  all  true  men  do  care — such  as  Union  appeals  be 
seeching  true  Union  men  to  yield  to  Disunionists,  reversing  the  divine 
rule,  and  calling,  not  the  sinners,  but  the  righteous  to  repentance — such 
as  invocations  to  Washington,  imploring  men  to  unsay  what  Washington 
said,  and  undo  what  Washington  did. 

Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by  false  accusations  against 
us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by  menaces  of  destruction  to  the  Government 
nor  of  dungeons  to  ourselves.  LET  us  HAVE  FAITH  THAT  RIGHT  MAKES 
MIGHT,  AND  IN  THAT  FAITH  LET  us,  TO  THE  END,  DARE  TO  DO  OUR  DUTY  AS 

WE  UNDERSTAND  IT. 

The  pre-eminent  ability  displayed  in  this  address,  com 
pelled  the  people  of  the  Middle  and  Eastern  States  to 
acknowledge  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  only  one  of  the 
foremost  men  of  the  West,  but  of  the  whole  country,  and 
this  estimate  was  confirmed  by  the  speeches  which  he 
subsequently  delivered  in  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and 


100  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

New  Hampshire.  Indeed,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  state 
that  the  joint  effect  of  these  efforts — more  particularly  his 
speech  at  Cooper  Institute— and  of  his  debates  with  Mr. 
Douglas,  was  to  make  Mr.  Lincoln  decidedly  the  second 
choice  of  the  great  body  of  the  Republicans  of  New 
York,  as  the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party  for  the 
campaign  of  1860. 

Some  incidents  of  this  visit  to  New  York,  illustrate  the 
simplicity  and  earnestness  of  the  character  of  our  late 
President  so  forcibly,  that  they  are  well  deserving  being 
placed  on  record.  A  prominent  member  of  the  Young- 
Men's  Republican  Association,  who  was  thrown  much 
in  Mr.  Lincoln' s  company  during  his  brief  stay,  writes  : 

During  the  day,  before  the  delivery  of  the  address,  a  friend  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  called  at  the  Astor  House,  where  he  was  staying,  and  suggested  that 
the  orator  should  be  taken  up  Broadway  and  shown  the  city,  of  which  he 
knew  but  little,  stating,  I  think,  that  he  had  been  here  but  once  before.  We 
accompanied  him  to  several  large  establishments,  with  all  of  which  he 
seemed  much  amused. 

At  one  place  he  met  an  Illinois  acquaintance  of  former  year.s,  to  whom 
he  said,  in  his  dry,  good-natured  way :  "  Well,  B.,  how  have  you  fared 
since  you  left  Illinois?"  To  which  B.  replied,  u  I  have  made  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  and  lost  it  all ;  how  is  it  with  you,  Mr.  Lincoln  ?"  "  Oh, 
very  well,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln  ;  "  I  have  the  cottage  at  Springfield  and  about 
$3,000  in  money.  If  they  make  me  Vice-President  with  Seward,  as  some 
say  they  will,  I  hope  I  shall  be  able  to  increase  it  to  $20,000,  and  that  is 
as  much  as  any  man  ought  to  want." 

We  visited  a  photographic  establishment  upon  the  corner  of  Broadway 
and  Bleecker  street,  where  he  sat  for  his  picture,  the  first  taken  in  New 
York.  At  the  gallery  he  met  and  was  introduced  to  George  Bancroft, 
and  had  a  brief  conversation  with  that  gentleman,  who  welcomed  him  to 
New  York.  The  contrast  in  the  appearance  of  the  men  was  most  striking 
— the  one  courtly  and  precise  in  his  every  word  and  gesture,  with  the  air 
of  a  trans- Atlantic  statesman  ;  the  other  bluff  and  awkward,  his  every 
utterance  an  apology  for  his  ignorance  of  metropolitan  manners  and  cus 
toms.  "  I  am  on  my  way  to  Massachusetts,"  said  he  to  Mr.  Bancroft, 
"  where  I  have  a  son  at  school,  who,  if  report  be  true,  already  knows 
much  more  than  his  father." 

A  teacher  at  the  Five  Points  House  of  Industry  tells 
this  touching  incident,  which  doubtless  transpired  during 
the  same  visit : 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          101 

Our  Sunday  School  in  the  Five  Points  was  assembled,  one  Sabbath 
morning,  when  I  noticed  a  tall,  remarkabio  looking  man  enter  the  room 
and  take  a  seat  among  us.  He  listened  with  fixed  attention  to  our  exer 
cises,  and  his  countenance  expressed  such  genuine  interest  that  I  ap 
proached,  him  and  suggested  that  he  might  be  willing  to  say  something  to 
the  children.  He  accepted  the  invitation  with  evident  pleasure ;  and, 
coming  forward,  began  a  simple  address,  which  at  once  fascinated  every 
little  hearer  and  hushed  the  room  into  silence.  His  language  was  stri 
kingly  beautiful,  and  his  tones  musical  with  intensest  feeling.  The  little 
faces  around  him  would  droop  into  sad  conviction  as  he  uttered  sentences 
of  warning,  and  would  brighten  into  sunshine  as  he  spoke  cheerful  words 
of  promise.  Once  or  twice  he  attempted  to  close  his  remarks,  but  the 
imperative  shout  of  "Go  on!"  "Oh,  do  go  on!"  would  compel  him  to 
resume.  As  I  looked  upon  the  gaunt  and  sinewy  frame  of  the  stranger, 
and  marked  his  powerful  head  and  determined  features,  now  touched  into 
softness  by  the  impressions  of  the  moment,  I  felt  an  irrepressible  curiosity 
to  learn  something  more  about  him,  and  when  he  was  quietly  leaving  the 
room  I  begged  to  know  his  name.  He  courteously  replied, 4'  It  is  Abraham 
Lincoln,  from  Illinois." 

The  following  letter,  written  during  this  same  period, 
in  reply  to  an  invitation  to  attend  a  festival  in  honor  of 
the  anniversary  of  Jefferson's  birthday,  given  by  the 
Republicans  of  Boston,  is  thoroughly  characteristic  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  quaint  humor  of  its  illustration : 

SPKINGFIKLD,  ILLINOIS,  April  6, 1859. 

GENTLEMEN  : — Your  kind  note  inviting  me  to  attend  a  festival  in  Boston 
on  the  13th  instant,  in  honor  of  the  birthday  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  was 
duly  received.  My  engagements  are  such  that  I  cannot  attend.  .  .  . 

The  Democracy  of  to-day  hold  the  liberty  of  one  man  to  be  absolutely 
nothing,  when  in  conflict  with  another  man's  right  of  property.  Repub 
licans,  on  the  contrary,  are  both  for  the  man  and  the  dollar,  but,  in  case 
of  conflict,  the  man  before  the  dollar. 

I  remember  being  once  much  amused  at  seeing  two  partially  intoxi 
cated  men  engaged  in  a  fight  with  their  great-coats  on,  which  fight,  after 
a  long  and  rather  harmless  contest,  ended  in  each  having  fought  himself 
out  of  his  own  coat,  and  into  that  of  the  other.  If  the  two  leading  par 
ties  of  this  day  are  really  identical  with  the  two  in  the  days  of  Jefferson 
and  Adams,  they  have  performed  the  same  feat  as  the  two  drunken  men. 

But,  soberly,  it  is  now  no  child's  play  to  save  the  principles  of  Jeffer 
son  from  total  overthrow  in  this  nation This  is  a  world  of 

compensations ;  and  he  who  would  l>e  no  slave,  must  consent  to  have  no 
slave.  Those  who  deny  freedom  to  others,  deserve  it  not  for  themselves ; 
and,  under  a  just  God,  cannot  long  retain  it. 


102  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

All  horiur  to  Jefferson ;  to  a  man  who,  in  the  concrete  pressur  j  of  a 
struggle  for  national  independence  by  a  single  people,  had  the  coolness, 
forecast,  and  capacity  to  introduce  into  a  merely  revolutionary  docu 
ment  an  abstract  truth,  applicable  to  all  men  and  all  times,  and  so  to 
embalm  it  there,  that  to-day  and  in  all  corning  days  it  shall  be  a  rebuke 
and  a  stumbling-block  to  the  harbingers  of  reappearing  tyranny  and 
oppression. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Messrs.  H.  L.  PIERCE,  and  others,  etc. 

But  we  turn  from  this  episode  to  resume  the  formal 
record  of  Mr.  Lincoln' s  political  career. 

The  Republican  National  Convention  of  1860  met  on  the 
16th  of  May,  at  Chicago,  in  an  immense  building  which 
the  people  of  that  city  had  put  up  for  the  purpose,  called 
the  Wigwam.  There  were  four  hundred  and  sixty-live 
delegates.  The  city  was  filled  with  earnest  men,  who 
had  come  there  to  press  the  claims  of  their  favorite  can 
didates,  and  the  halls  and  corridors  of  all  the  hotels 
swarmed  and  buzzed  with  an  eager  crowd,  in  and  out  of 
which  darted  or  pushed  or  wormed  their  way  the  various 
leaders  of  party  politics.  Mr.  Chase,  Mr.  Bates,  and  Mr. 
Cameron  were  spoken  of  and  pressed  somewhat  as  candi 
dates,  but  from  the  first  it  was  evident  that  the  contest 
lay  between  Mr.  Seward  and  Mr.  Lincoln. 

Judge  Wilmot,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  chosen  temporary 
Chairman  of  the  Convention,  and  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
first  day  a  permanent  organization  was  effected,  by  the 
choice  of  George  Ashmun,  of  Massachusetts,  as  presi 
dent,  with  twenty- seven  vice-presidents  and  twenty-five 
secretaries.  On  Thursday,  the  17th,  the  Committee  on 
Resolutions  reported  the  platform,  which  was  enthusiasti 
cally  adopted.  /  A  motion  was  made  to  proceed  to  the 
nomination  at  o'nce,  and  if  that  had  been  done  the  result 
of  the  Convention  might  have  proved  very  different,  as 
at  that  time  it  was  thought  that  Mr.  Seward' s  chances 
were  the  best.  But  an  adjournment  was  taken  till  the 
morning,  and  during  the  night  the  combinations  were 
made  which  resulted  in  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 
The  excitement  of  the  Convention  and  of  the  audience  on 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  103 

the  morning  of  Friday  was  intense.     The  Illinoisans  had 
turned  out  in  great  numbers,  zealous  for  Lincoln  ;  and 
though  the  other  States,  near  and  far,  had  sent  many  men 
who  were  equally  zealous  for  Mr.  Seward,  it  was  quite 
clear  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  supporters  were  in  the  majority 
in  the  audience.     The  first  ballot  gave  Mr.  Seward  one 
hundred  and  seventy-three  and  a  half  votes  to  one  hun 
dred  and  two  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  rest  b^ing  scattered. 
On  the  second  ballot  the  first  indication  of  the  result  was 
felt,  when  the  chairman  of  the  Vermont  delegation,  which 
had  been  divided  on  the  previous  ballot,  announced, 
when  the  name  of  that  State  was  called,  that  "Vermont 
casts  her  ten  votes  for  the  young   giant  of   the  West; 
Abraham  Lincoln."      On  the  second  ballot,  Mr.  Seward 
had  one  hundred  and  eighty -four  and  a  half  to  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty-one  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  on  the  third  bal 
lot  Mr.  Lincoln  received  two  hundred  and  thirty  votes,  be 
ing  within  one  and  a  half  of  a  majority.    The  vote  was  not 
announced,  but  so  many  everywhere  had  kept  the  count 
that  it  was  known  throughout  the  Convention  at  once. 
Mr.  Carter,  of  Ohio,  rose  and  announced  a  change  in  the 
vote  of  the  Ohio  delegation  of  four  votes  in  favor  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  the  Convention  at  once  burst  into  a  state 
of  the  wildest  excitement.     The  cheers  of  the  audience 
within  were  answered  by  those  of  a  yet  larger  crowd 
without,  to  whom  the  result  was  announced.     Cannon 
roared,  and  bands  played,  and  banners  waved,  and  the 
excited    Republicans    of    Chicago    cheered    themselves 
hoarse,  while  on  the  wings  of  electricity  sped  all  over 
the  country  the  news  of  Mr.  Lincoln' s  nomination,  to  be 
greeted  everywhere  with  similar  demonstrations.     It  was 
long  before  the  Convention  could  calm  itself  enough  to 
proceed  to  business.     When  it  did,  other  States  changed 
their  votes  in  favor  of  the  successful  nominee,  until  it 
was  announced,  as  the  result  of  the  third  ballot,  that. 
Abraham   Lincoln,   of  Illinois,    had  received  three  hun 
dred  and  fifty -four  votes,  and  was  nominated  by  the  Re 
publican  party  for  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States.     The  nomination  was  then,  on  the  motion  of  Mr. 


104  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Evarts,  of  New  York,  made  unanimous,  and  the  Conven 
tion  adjourned  till  the  afternoon,  when  they  completed 
their  work  by  nominating  Hannibal  Hamlin  for  Vice- 
President. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  at  Springfield  at  the  time.  He  had 
been  in  the  telegraph-office  during  the  casting  of  the  first 
and  second  ballots,  but  then  left,  and  went  over  to  the 
office  of  the  State  Journal,  where  he  was  sitting  convers 
ing  with  friends  while  the  third  ballot  was  being  taken. 
In  a  few  moments  came  across  the  wires  the  announce 
ment  of  the  result.  The  Superintendent  of  the  Telegraph 
Company,  who  was  present,  wrote  on  a  scrap  of  paper, 
4 'Mr.  Lincoln:  You  are  nominated  on  the  third  ballot," 
and  a  boy  ran  with  the  message  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  He 
looked  at  it  in  silence  amid  the  shouts  of  those  around 
him;  then  rising  and  putting  it  in  his  pocket,  he  said 
quietly,  ''There's  a  little  woman  down  at  our  house 
would. like  to  hear  this — I'll  go  down  and  tell  her." 

Next  day  there  arrived  at  Springfield  the  committee 
appointed   by   the    Convention  to  inform  Mr.    Lincoln 
officially  of  his  nomination.     They  waited  upon  him  at 
his  residence,  and  Mr.  Ashmun,  President  of  the  Conven 
tioii,  addressing  Mr.  Lincoln,  said : 

I  have,  sir,  the  honor,  in  behalf  of  the  gentlemen  who  are  present — 
a  Committee  appointed  by  the  Republican  Convention  recently  assembled 
at  Chicago — to  discharge  a  most  pleasant  duty.  We  have  come,  sir, 
under  a  vote  of  instructions  to  that  Committee,  to  notify  you  that  yon 
have  been  selected  by  the  Convention  of  the  Republicans  at  Chicago  for 
President  of  the  United  States.  They  instruct  us,  sir,  to  notify  you  of 
that  selection,  and  that  Committee  deem  it  not  only  respectful  to  yourself, 
but  appropriate  to  the  important  matter  which  they  have  in  hand,  that 
they  should  come  in  person,  and  present  to  you  the  authentic  evidence  of 
the  action  of  that  Convention ;  and,  sir,  without  any  phrase  which  shall 
either  be  considered  personally  plauditory  to  yourself,  or  which  shall  have 
any  reference  to  the  principles  involved  in  the  questions  which  are  con 
nected  with  your  nomination,  I  desire  to  present  to  yon  the  letter  which 
has  been  prepared,  and  which  informs  you  of  your  nomination,  and  with 
it  the  platform  resolutions  and  sentiments  which  the  Convention  adopted. 
Sir  at  your  convenience  we  shall  be  glad  to  receive  from  you  such  a  re 
eponse  as  it  may  be  your  pleasure  to  give  us. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          105 

Mr.  Lincoln  listened  to  this  address  Tvith  a  degree  of 
grave  dignity  that  almost  wore  the  appearance  of  sadness, 
and  after  a  brief  pause,  in  which  he  seemed  to  be  ponder 
ing  the  momentous  responsibilities  of  his  position,  he 
replied : — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  COMMITTEE:— I  tender  to  you, 
and  through  you  to  the  Republican  National  Convention,  and  all  the  people 
represented  in  it,  my  profoundest  thanks  for  the  high  honor  done  me, 
whicli  you  now  formally  announce.  Deeply,  and  even  painfully  sensible 
of  the  great  responsibility  which  is  inseparable  from  this  high  honor— a 
responsibility  which  I  could  almost  wish  had  fallen  upon  some  one  of  the 
far  more  eminent  men  and  experienced  statesmen  whose  distinguished 
names  were  before  the  Convention— I  shall,  by  your  leave,  consider  more 
fully  the  resolutions  of  the  Convention,  denominated  the  platform,  and, 
without  any  unnecessary  or  unreasonable  delay,  respond  to  you,  Mr. 
Chairman,  in  writing,  not  doubting  that  the  platform  will  be  found  satis 
factory,  and  the  nomination  gratefully  accepted. 

And  now  I  will  not  longer  defer  the  pleasure  of  taking  you,  and  each  of 
you,  by  the  hand. 

Tall  Judge  Kelly,  of  Pennsylvania,  who  was  one  of  the 
committee,  and  who  is  himself  a  great  many  feet  high,  had 
meanwhile  been  eying  Mr.  Lincoln's  lofty  form  with  a 
mixture  of  admiration,  and  possibly  jealousy  ;  this  had 
not  escaped  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  as  he  shook  hands  with  the 
judge  he  inquired,  "  What  is  your  height  ?" 

"  Six  feet  three.     What  is  yours,  Mr.  Lincoln  3" 

"  Six  feet  four." 

"Then,"  said  the  judge,   "  Pennsylvania  bows  to  Illi 
nois.     My  dear  man,  for  years  my  heart  has  been  aching 
for  a  President  that  I  could  look  up  to,  and  I've  found  him 
at  last  in  the  land  where  we  thought  there  were  none  bu1 

little  giants." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  formal  reply  to  the  official  announcement 
of  his  nomination  was  as  follows  :— 

SPRINGFIELD,  ILLINOIS,  May  23,  1860. 

SIE  :— I  accept  the  nomination  tendered  me  by  the  Convention  over 
which  you  presided,  of  which  I  am  formally  apprised  in  a  letter  of  your 
self  and  others  acting  as  a  Committee  of  the  Convention  for  that  pur 
pose.  The  declaration  of  principles  and  sentiments  which  accompanies 
your  letter  meets  my  approval,  and  it  shall  be  my  care  not  to  violate  it, 


106  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

or  disregard  it  in  any  part.  Imploring  the  assistance  of  Divine  Provi 
dence,  and  with  due  regard  to  the  views  and  feelings  of  all  who  were 
represented  in  the  Convention,  to  the  rights  of  all  the  States  and  Territories 
and  people  of  the  nation,  to  the  inviolability  of  the  Constitution,  and  the 
perpetual  union,  harmony,  and  prosperity  of  all,  I  am  most  happy  to  co 
operate  for  the  practical  success  of  the  principles  declared  by  the  Con 
vention.  Your  obliged  friend  and  fellow-citizen, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
HON.  GEORGE  ASITMTJN, 

President  of  the  Republican  Convention. 

Mr.  Lincoln' s  nomination  proved  universally  acceptable 
to  the  Republican  party.  Its  members  recognized  in  him 
a  man  of  firm  principles,  of  ardent  love  for  freedom,  of 
strict  integrity  and  truth,  and  they  went  into  the  political 
contest  with  a  zeal  and  enthusiasm  which  was  the  guaran 
tee  of  victory  ;  while  the  doubt  and  uncertainty,  the 
divided  counsels  and  wavering  purposes  of  their  oppo 
nents  were  the  sure  precursors  of  defeat. 

His  nomination  was  the  signal  to  the  leaders  of  the 
slaveholders'  party  for  pressing  upon  the  Democratic  Con 
vention  their  most  ultra  views,  that  by  the  division  of  the 
Democratic  forces  the  victory  of  Mr.  Lincoln  might  be 
assured,  and  the  pretext  afforded  them  for  carrying  into 
execution  the  plot  against  the  liberties  of  the  country 
which  they  had  been  for  so  many  years  maturing.  That 
they  would  dare  to  carry  their  threat  of  rebellion  into  exe 
cution,  was  not  believed  at  the  North.  If  it  had  been, 
while  it  might  have  frightened  away  some  votes  from  Mr. 
Lincoln,  it  would  have  brought  him  substantial  acces 
sions  from  the  ranks  of  those  who,  though  following  the 
Democratic  banner,  had  not  learned  to  disregard  the  good 
old  doctrine  that  the  majority  must  rule,  and  who  would 
have  rushed  to  its  rescue,  if  they  had  believed  that  it  was 
really  threatened.  The  vote  which  he  received  on  Novem 
ber  6,  1860,  was  that  of  a  solid  phalanx  of  earnest  men, 
who  had  resolved  that  freedom  should  henceforth  be 
national,  and  that  slavery  should  remain  as  the  framers  of 
the  Constitution  intended  that  it  should  remain. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  107 


CHAPTER    IY. 

FROM  THE   ELECTION,  NOT.  6,  I860,  TO   THE   INAUGURATION, 
MARCH    4,  1861. 

THE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION. — SECESSION  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. — FORMA 
TION  OF  THE  REBEL  CONFEDERACY. — THE  OBJECTS  OF  SECESSION. — SE 
CESSION  MOVEMENTS  IN  WASHINGTON. — DEBATES  IN  CONGRESS. — THE 
CRITTENDEN  RESOLUTIONS. — CONCILIATORY  ACTION  OF  CONGRESS. — THE 
PEACE  CONFERENCE.— ACTION  OF  CONGRESS.— THE  SECESSION  MOVE 
MENT  UNCHECKED. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  elected  to  Ibe  President  of  the 
United  States  on  the  sixth  day  of  November,  1860.  The 
preliminary  canvass  had  not  been  marked  by  any  very 
extraordinary  features.  Party  lines  were  a  good  deal 
broken  up,  and  four  presidential  candidates  were  in 
the  field  ;  but  this  departure  from  the  ordinary  course  of 
party  contests  had  occurred  more  than  once  in  the  pre 
vious  political  history  of  the  country.  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
put  in  nomination  by  the  Republican  party,  and  repre 
sented  in  his  life  and  opinions  the  precise  aim  and  object 
for  which  that  party  had  been  formed.  He  was  a  native 
of  a  slaveholding  State  ;  and  while  he  had  been  opposed 
to  slavery,  he  had  regarded  it  as  a  local  institution,  the 
creature  of  local  laws,  with  which  the  National  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  had  nothing  whatever  to  do. 
But,  in  common  with  all  observant  public  men,  he  had 
watched  with  distrust  and  apprehension  the  advance  of 
slavery,  as  an  element  of  political  power,  towards  ascend 
ency  in  the  Government  of  the  nation,  and  had  cordially 
co-operated  with  those  who  thought  it  absolutely  neces 
sary  for  the  future  well-being  of  the  country  that  this 
advance  should  be  checked.  He  had,  therefore,  op 
posed  very  strenuously  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the 
Territories,  and  had  asserted  the  right  and  the  duty  of 
Congress  to  exclude  it  by  positive  legislation  there 
from. 


108  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  Chicago  Convention,  which  nominated  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  adopted  a  platform  of  which  this  was  the  cardinal 
feature  ;  but  it  also  took  good  care  to  repel  the  imputa 
tion  of  its  political  opponents,  and  to  remove  the  appre 
hensions  of  the  South,  that  the  party  proposed  to  interfere 
with  slavery  in  the  States  whose  laws  gave  it  support 
and  protection.  It  expressly  disavowed  all  authority 
and  all  wish  for  such  interference,  and  declared  its  pur 
pose  to  protect  the  Southern  States  in  the  free  enjoyment 
of  all  their  constitutional  rights.  The  Democratic  Con 
vention,  originally  assembled  at  Charleston,  was  disposed 
to  make  Mr.  Douglas  its  candidate  in  opposition  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  ;  but  this  purpose  was  thwarted  by  leading  pol 
iticians  of  the  slaveholding  States,  who  procured  the 
nomination  of  Mr.  Breckinridge,  with  full  knowledge  of 
the  fact  that  this  would  divide  the  Democratic  party,  and 
in  all  probability  secure  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Mr. 
Breckinridge  represented  the  pro-slavery  element  of  the 
Democratic  party,  and  asserted  the  duty  of  the  National 
Government,  by  a  positive  exercise  of  its  legislative  and 
executive  power,  to  protect  slavery  in  the  Territories' 
against  any  legislation  either  of  Congress  or  of  the  people 
of  the  Territories  themselves,  which  should  seek  to  impair 
in  any  degree  the  right,  alleged  to  be  recognized  in  the 
Constitution,  of  property  in  slaves.  Mr.  Douglas  sup 
ported  the  theory  that  the  people  of  the  Territories, 
acting  through  their  territorial  legislature,  had  the  same 
right  to  decide  this  question  for  themselves  as  they  had 
to  decide  any  other  ;  and  he  represented  this  principle  in 
opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  one  hand,  and  Mr. 
Breckinridge  on  the  other,  in  the  presidential  canvass. 
John  Bell,  of  Tennessee!  was  also  made  a  candidate  by 
the  action  mainly  of  men  who  were  dissatisfied  with  all 
the  existing  political  parties,  and  who  were  alarmed  at 
the  probable  results  of  a  presidential  election  which 
promised  to  be  substantially  sectional  in  its  character. 
They  put  forth,  therefore,  no  opinions  upon  the  leading 
points  in  controversy ;  and  went  into  the  canvass  with 
''the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  the  enforcement  of  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  109 

laws"  as  their  platform, — one  upon  which  they  could 
easily  have  rallied  all  the  people  of  all  sections  of  the 
country,  but  for  the  fact,  which  they  seemed  to  overlook, 
that  the  widest  possible  differences  of  opinion  prevailed 
among  the  people  as  to  its  meaning. 

All  sections  of  the  country  took  part  in  the  election. 
The  Southern  States  were  quite  as  active  and  quite  as 
zealous  as  the  Northern  in  carrying  on  the  canvass. 
Public  meetings  were  held,  the  newspaper  press,  South 
as  well  as  North,  discussed  the  issues  involved  with 
energy  and  vigor,  and  every  thing  on  the  surface  indi 
cated  the  usual  termination  of  the  contest,  the  triumph  of 
one  party  and  the  peaceful  acquiescence  of  all  others. 
The  result,  however,  showed  that  this  was  a  mistake. 
The  active  and  controlling  politicians  of  the  Southern 
States  had  gone  into  the  canvass  with  the  distinct  and 
well-formed  purpose  of  acquiescing  in  the  result  only  in 
the  event  of  its  giving  them  the  victory.  The  election 
took  place  on  the  6th  of  November.  Mr.  Lincoln  re 
ceived  the  electoral  votes  of  all  the  Free  States  except 
New  Jersey,  which  was  divided,  giving  him  four  votes 
and  Mr.  Douglas  three.  Mr.  Breckinridge  received  the 
electoral  votes  of  all  the  Slave  States  except  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  and  Virginia,  which  voted  for  Bell,  and  Mis 
souri,  which  voted  for  Douglas,  as  did  three  electors  from 
New  Jersey  also.  Of  the  popular  vote,  Lincoln  received 
1,857,610;  Douglas,  1,365,976  ;  Breckinridge,  847,953 ; 
and  Bell,  590,631.  In  the  Electoral  College,  Lincoln 
received  180  votes,  Douglas  12,  Breckinridge  72,  and 
Bell  39. 

As  soon  as  the  result  of  the  election  was  known, 
various  movements  in  the  Southern  States  indicated  their 
purpose  of  resistance ;  and  it  soon  became  evident  that 
this  purpose  had  been  long  cherished,  and  that  members 
of  the  Government  under  the  presidency  of  Mr.  Buchanan 
had  officially  given  it  their  sanction  and  aid.  On  the 
29th  of  October,  General  Scott  sent  to  the  President  and 
John  B.  Floyd,  his  Secretary  of  War,  a  letter  expressing 
apprehensions  lest  the  Southern  people  should  seize  some 


110  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

of  the  Federal  forts  in  the  Southern  States,  and  advising 
that  they  should  be  immediately  garrisoned  by  way  of 
precaution.  The  Secretary  of  War,  according  to  state 
ments  subsequently  made  by  one  of  his  eulogists  in 
Virginia,  "  thwarted,  objected,  resisted,  and  forbade" 
the  adoption  of  those  measures,  which,  according  to  the 
same  authority,  if  carried  into  execution,  would  have 
defeated  the  conspiracy,  and  rendered  impossible  the 
formation  of  a  Southern  Confederacy.  An  official  report 
from  the  Ordnance  Department,  dated  January  16,  1861, 
also  shows  that  during  the  year  1860,  and  previous  to 
the  presidential  election,  one  hundred  and  fifteen  thou 
sand  muskets  had  been  removed  from  Northern  armories 
and  sent  to  Southern  arsenals  by  a  single  order  of  the 
Secretary  of  War,  issued  on  the  30th  of  December,  1859. 
On  the  20th  of  November,  the  Attorney  General,  Hon. 
John  S.  Black,  in  reply  to  inquiries  of  the  President, 
gave  him  the  official  opinion  that  Congress  had  no  right 
to  carry  on  war  against  any  State,  either  to  prevent  a 
threatened  violation  of  the  Constitution  or  to  enforce  an 
acknowledgment  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
is  supreme :  and  it  soon  became  evident  that  the  Presi 
dent  adopted  this  theory  as  the  basis  and  guide  of  his 
executive  action. 

South  Carolina  took  the  lead  in  the  secession  movement. 
Her  legislature  assembled  on  the  4th  of  November,  1860, 
and,  after  casting  the  electoral  vote  of  the  State  for  John 
C.  Breckinridge  to  be  President  of  the  United  States, 
passed  an  act  the  next  day  calling  a  State  Convention,  to 
meet  at  Columbia  on  the  17th  of  December.  On  the  10th, 
F.  W.  Pickens  was  elected  Governor,  and,  in  his  inaugu 
ral,  declared  the  determination  of  the  State  to  secede,  on 
the  ground  that,  "  in  the  recent  election  for  President  and 
Yice-President,  the  North  had  carried  the  election  upon 
principles  that  make  it  no  longer  safe  for  us  to  rely  upon 
the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government  or  the  guarantees 
of  the  Federal  compact.  This,"  he  added,  "is  the  great 
overt  act  of  the  people  of  the  Northern  States,  who  pro 
pose  to  inaugurate  a  chief  magistrate  not  to  preside  over 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  Ill 

the  common  interests  or  destinies  of  all  States  alike,  "but 
upon  issues  of  malignant  hostility  and  uncompromising 
war  to  be  waged  upon  the  rights,  the  interests,  and  the 
peace  of  half  of  the  States  of  this  Union."  The  Conven 
tion  met  on  the  17th  of  December,  and  adjourned  the  next 
day  to  Charleston,  on  account  of  the  prevalence  of  small 
pox  at  Columbia.  On  the  20th  an  ordinance  was  passed 
unanimously  repealing  the  ordinance  adopted  May  23, 
1788,  whereby  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
ratified,  and  "dissolving  the  Union  now  subsisting  be 
tween  South  Carolina  and  other  States  under  the  name  of 
the  United  States  of  America ;"  and  on  the  24th  the  Gov 
ernor  issued  his  proclamation,  declaring  the  State  of 
South  Carolina  to  be  a  "separate,  sovereign,  free,  and 
independent  State." 

This  was  the  first  act  of  secession  passed  by  any  State. 
The  debates  in  the  State  Convention  show  clearly  enough 
that  it  was  not  taken  under  the  impulse  of  resentment  for 
any  sharp  and  remediless  wrong,  nor  in  apprehension  that 
any  such  wrong  would  be  inflicted  ;  but  in  pursuance  of 
a  settled  and  long-cherished  purpose.     In  that  debate  Mr. 
Parker  said  that  the  movement  was  "no  spasmodic  effort 
—it  had  been  gradually  culminating  for  a  long  series  of 
years."     Mr.  Inglis  indorsed  this  remark,  and  added, 
"  Most  of  us  have  had  this  matter  under  consideration  for 
the  last  twenty  years."     Mr.  L.  M.  Keitt  said,   "I  have 
been  engaged  in  this  movement  ever  since  I  entered  polit 
ical  life."     And  Mr.  Rhett,  who  had  been  for  many  years 
in  the  public  service,  declared  that  "the  secession  of 
South  Carolina  was  not  the  event  of  a  day.     It  is  not," 
said  he,   "any  thing  produced  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  election, 
or  by  the  non-execution  of  the  fugitive  slave  law.     It 
is  a  matter  which  has  been  gathering  head  for  thirty  years. 
The  election  of  Lincoln  and  Hamlin  was  the  last  straw  on 
the  back  of  the  camel.    But  it  was  not  the  only  one.    The 
back  was  nearly  broken  before."     So  far  as  South  Caro 
lina  was  concerned,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  her  action 
was  decided  by  men  who  had  been  plotting  disunion  for 
thirty  years,  not  on  account  of  any  wrongs  her  people  had 


112  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

sustained  at  the  hands  of  the  Federal  Government,  but 
from  motives  of  personal  and  sectional  ambition,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  a  government  which  should  be 
permanently  and  completely  in  the  interest  of  slavery. 

But  the  disclosures  which  have  since  been  made,  imper 
fect  comparatively  as  they  are,  prove  clearly  that  the 
whole  secession  movement  was  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
conspirators,  who  had  their  head-quarters  at  the  national 
capital,  and  were  themselves  closely  connected  with  the 
Government  of  the  United  States.  A  secret  meeting  of 
these  men  was  held  at  Washington  on  the  night  of  the 
5th  of  January,  1861,  at  which  the  Senators  from  Georgia, 
Alabama,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Texas,  Mississippi,  and 
Florida  were  present.  They  decided,  by  resolutions,  that 
each  of  the  Southern  States  should  secede  from  the  Union 
as  soon  as  possible  ;  that  a  convention  of  seceding  States 
should  be  held  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  not  later  than 
the  15th  of  February  ;  and  that  the  Senators  and  Members 
of  Congress  from  the  Southern  States  ought  to  remain  in 
their  seats  as  long  as  possible,  in  order  to  defeat  measures 
that  might  be  proposed  at  Washington  hostile  to  the  seces 
sion  movement.  Davis  of  Mississippi,  Slidell  of  Louis 
iana,  and  Mallory  of  Florida,  were  appointed  a  com 
mittee  to  carry  these  decisions  into  effect ;  and,  in  pursuance 
of  them,  Mississippi  passed  an  ordinance  of  secession 
January  9th  ;  Alabama  and  Florida,  January  llth  ;  Louis 
iana,  January  26th,  and  Texas,  February  5th.  All  these 
acts,  as  well  as  all  which  followed,  were  simply  the  execu 
tion  of  the  behests  of  this  secret  conclave  of  conspirators 
who  had  resolved  upon  secession.  In  all  the  conventions 
of  the  seceding  States,  delegates  were  appointed  to  meet 
at  Montgomery.  In  not  one  of  them  was  the  question  of 
secession  submitted  to  a  vote  of  the  people  ;  although  in 
some  of  them  the  legislatures  had  expressly  forbidden 
them  to  pass  any  ordinance  of  secession  without  making 
its  validity  depend  on  its  ratification  by  the  popular  vote. 
The  Convention  met  at  Montgomery  on  the  4th  of  Febru 
ary,  and  adopted  a  provisional  constitution,  to  continue 
in  operation  for  one  year.  Under  this  constitution  Jeffer 


STATE  PAPERS  or  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  11  o 

son  Davis  was  elected  President  of  the  new  Confederacy, 
and  Alex.  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  Vice-President.  Both 
were  inaugurated  on  the  18th.  In  an  address  delivered  on 
his  arrival  at  Montgomery,  Mr.  Davis  declared  that  ' '  the 
time  for  compromise  has  now  passed,  and  the  South  is 
determined  to  maintain  her  position,  and  make  all  who 
oppose  her  smell  Southern  powder  and  feel  Southern 
steel,  if  coercion  is  persisted  in."  He  felt  sure  of  the 
result ;  it  might  be  they  would  "have  to  encounter  incon 
veniences  at  the  beginning,"  but  he  had  no  doubts  of  the 
final  issue.  The  first  part  of  his  anticipation  has  been 
fully  realized  ;  the  end  has  hardly  proved  to  be  as  peace 
ful  and  satisfactory  as  he  predicted. 

The  policy  of  the  new  Confederacy  towards  the  United 
States  was  soon  officially  made  known.  The  government 
decided  to  maintain  the  status  quo  until  the  expiration  of 
Mr.  Buchanan's  term,  feeling  assured  that,  with  his  de 
clared  belief  that  it  would  be  unconstitutional  to  coerce  a 
State,  they  need  apprehend  from  his  administration  no 
active  hostility  to  their  designs.  They  had  some  hope 
that,  by  the  4th  of  March,  their  new  Confederacy  would 
be  so  far  advanced  that  the  new  Administration  might 
waive  its  purpose  of  coercion ;  and  they  deemed  it  wise 
not  to  do  any  thing  which  should  rashly  forfeit  the  favor 
and  support  of  "that  very  large  portion  of  the  North 
whose  moral  sense  was  on  their  side. ' '  Nevertheless,  they 
entered  upon  prompt  and  active  preparations  for  war. 
Contracts  were  made  in  various  parts  of  the  South  for  the 
manufacture  of  powder,  shell,  cannon-balls,  and  other 
munitions  of  war.  Recruiting  was  set  on  foot  in  several 
of  the  States.  A  plan  was  adopted  for  the  organization 
of  a  regular  army  of  the  Confederacy,  and  on  the  6th  of 
March  Congress  passed  an  act  authorizing  a  military  force 
of  one  hundred  thousand  men. 

Thus  was  opened  a  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  Amer 
ica.  Thus  were  taken  the  first  steps  towards  overthrow 
ing  the  Government  and  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  establishing  a  new  nation,  with  a  new  Constitution, 
resting  upon  new  principles,  and  aiming  at  new  results. 


114  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES, 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  ordained  "  in 
order  to  form  a  more  perfect  Union,  establish  justice,  in 
sure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defence, 
promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of 
Liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity."  We  have  the 
clear  and  explicit  testimony  of  A.  H.  Stephens,  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  rebel  Confederacy,  echoing  and  reaffirm 
ing  that  of  the  whole  civilized  world  to  the  fact,  that 
these  high  and  noble  objects — the  noblest  and  the  grandest 
at  which  human  institutions  can  aim — have  been  more 
nearly  attained  in  the  practical  working  of  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  than  anywhere  else  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  i '  I  look  upon  this  country,  with  our  insti 
tutions,"  said  Mr.  Stephens  before  the  legislature  of 
Georgia,  on  the  14th  of  November,  1860,  after  the  result 
of  the  presidential  election  was  known,  ' '  as  the  Eden  of 
the  world,  the  paradise  of  the  universe.  It  may  be  that 
out  of  it  we  may  become  greater  and  more  prosperous, 
but  I  am  candid  and  sincere  in  teiiing  you  that  I  fear,  if 
we  rashly  evince  passion,  and  without  sufficient  cause 
shall  take  that  step,  that  instead  of  becoming  greater,  or 
more  peaceful,  prosperous,  and  happy — instead  of  becom 
ing  gods  we  will  become  demons,  and  at  no  distant  day 
commence  cutting  each  other's  throats."  Mr.  Stephens 
on  that  occasion  went  on,  in  a  strain  of  high  patriotism 
and  common  sense,  to  speak  of  the  proposed  secession  of 
the  State  of  Georgia,  in  language  which  will  forever  stand 
as  a  judicial  condemnation  of  the  action  of  the  rebel  States. 
• '  The  first  question  that  presents  itself, ' '  said  Mr.  Stephens, 
"  is,  shall  the  people  of  the  South  secede  from  the  Union 
in  consequence  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  Presi 
dency  of  the  United  States  ?  My  countrymen,  I  tell  you 
candidly,  frankly,  and  earnestly,  that  I  do  not  think  that 
they  ought.  In  my  judgment  the  election  of  no  man,  con 
stitutionally  chosen  to  that  high  office,  is  sufficient  cause 
for  any  State  to  separate  from  the  Union.  It  ought  to 
stand  by  and  aid  still  in  maintaining  the  Constitution  of 
the  country.  To  make  a  point  of  resistance  to  the  gov 
ernment,  to  withdraw  from  it  because  a  man  has  been 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  115 

constitutionally  elected,  puts  us  in  the  wrong.  *  *  We 
went  into  the  election  with  this  people.  The  result  was 
different  from  what  we  wished  ;  "but  the  election  has  been 
constitutionally  held.  Were  we  to  make  a  point  of  resist 
ance  to  the  Government,  and  go  out  of  the  Union  on  this 
account,  the  record  would  Ibe  made  up  hereafter  against 
us." 

After  the  new  confederacy  had  been  organized,  and  Mr. 
Stephens  had  been  elected  its  Yice-President,  he  made  an 
elaborate  speech  to  the  citizens  of  Savannah,  in  which  he 
endeavored  to  vindicate  this  attempt  to  establish  a  new 
government  in  place  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  and  to  set  forth  the  new  principles  upon  which  it 
was  to  rest,  and  which  were  to  justify  the  movement  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world  and  of  impartial  posterity.  That 
exposition  is  too  important  to  be  omitted  here.  It  is  the 
most  authoritative  and  explicit  statement  of  the  character 
and  objects  of  the  new  government  which  has  ever  been 
made.  Mr.  Stephens  said  :— 

"  The  new  constitution  has  put  at  rest  forever  all  agitating  questions 
relating  to  our  peculiar  institutions — African  slavery,  as  it  exists  among 
us — the  proper  status  of  the  negro  in  our  form  of  civilization.  This  was 
the  immediate  cause  of  the  late  rupture  and  present  revolution.  Jeffer- 
eon,  in  his  forecast,  had  anticipated  this,  as  tne  '.rock  upon  which  the  old 
Union  would  split.'  He  was  right.  What  was  conjecture  with  him,  is 
now  a  realized  fact.  But  whether  he  fully  comprehended  the  great 
truth  upon  which  that  rock  stood  and  stands,  may  he  doubted.  The 
prevailing  ideas  entertained  by  him,  and  most  of  the  leading  statesmen  at 
the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  old  Constitution,  were,  that  the  enslave 
ment  of  the  African  was  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature ;  that  it  was 
wrong  in  principle,  socially,  morally,  and  politically.  It  was  an  evil  they 
knew  not  well  how  to  deal  with  ;  but  the  general  opinion  of  the  men  of 
that  day  was,  that,  somehow  or  other,  in  the  order  of  Providence,  the 
institution  would  be  evanescent  and  pass  away.  This  idea,  though  not 
incorporated  in  the  Constitution,  was  the  prevailing  idea  at  the  time. 
The  Constitution,  it  is  true,  secured  every  essential  guarantee  to  the  insti 
tution  while  it  should  last,  and  hence  no  argument  can  be  justly  used 
against  the  constitutional  guarantees  thus  secured,  because  of  the  com 
mon  sentiment  of  the  day.  Those  ideas,  however,  were  fundamentally 
wrong.  They  rested  upon  the  assumption  of  the  equality  of  races.  This 
was  an  error.  It  was  a  sandy  foundation,  and  the  idea  of  a  govermnen* 


116  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

built  upon  it  was  wrong — when  the  'storm  caine  and  the  wind  blew,  it 
tell.' 

"  Our  new  government  is  founded  upon  exactly  the  opposite  ideas ;  its 
foundations  are  laid,  its  corner-stone  rests,  upon  the  great  truth  that  tli  e 
negro  is  not  equal  to  the  white  man ;  that  slavery,  subordination  to  the 
superior  race,  is  his  natural  and  normal  condition.  This,  our  new  govern 
ment,  is  the  first  in  the  history  of  the  world,  based  upon  this  great  physi 
cal,  philosophical,  and  moral  truth.  This  truth  has  been  slow  in  the  pro 
cess  of  its  development,  like  all  other  truths  in  the  various  departments 
of  science.  It  is  even  so  amongst  us.  Many  who  hear  me,  perhaps,  can 
recollect  well  that  this  truth  was  not  generally  admitted  even  within  their 
day.  The  errors  of  the  past  generation  still  clung  to  many  as  late  as 
twenty  years  ago.  Those  at  the  North  who  still  cling  to  these  errors 
with  a  zeal  above  knowledge,  we  justly  denominate  fanatics.  All  fanat 
icism  springs  from  an  aberration  of  the  mind ;  from  a  defect  in  reasoning. 
It  is  a  species  of  insanity.  One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of 
insanity,  in  many  instances,  is  forming  correct  conclusions  from  fancied 
or  erroneous  premises ;  so  with  the  anti-slavery  fanatics ;  their  conclusions 
are  right  if  their  premises  are.  They  assume  that  the  negro  is  equal,  and 
hence  conclude  that  he  is  entitled  to  equal  privileges  and  rights  with  the 
white  man.  If  their  premises  were  correct,  their  conclusions  would  be 
logical  and  just ;  but  their  premises  being  wrong,  their  whole  argument 
fails.  I  recollect  once  of  having  heard  a  gentleman  from  one  of  the 
Northern  States,  of  great  power  and  ability,  announce  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  with  imposing  effect,  that  we  of  the  South  would  be  com 
pelled,  ultimately,  to  yield  upon  this  subject  of  slavery;  that  it  was  as 
impossible  to  war  successfully  against  a  principle  in  politics,  as  it  was  in 
physics  or  mechanics ;  that  the  principle  would  ultimately  prevail ;  that 
we,  in  maintaining  slavery  as  it  exists  with  us,  were  warring  against  a 
principle — a  principle  founded  in  nature,  the  principle  of  the  equality  of 
man.  The  reply  I  made  to  him  was,  that  upon  his  own  grounds  we 
should  succeed,  and  that  he  and  his  associates  in  their  crusade  against 
our  institutions  would  ultimately  fail.  The  truth  announced,  that  it  wad 
as  impossible  to  war  successfully  against  a  principle  in  politics  as  it  was 
in  physics  or  mechanics,  I  admitted,  but  told  him  that  it  was  he  and 
those  acting  with  him  who  were  warring  against  a  principle.  They 
were  attempting  to  make  things  equal  which  the  Creator  had  made 
unequal. 

"In  the  conflict  thus  far,  success  has  been  on  our  side,  complete 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Confederate  States.  It  is  upon 
this,  as  I  have  stated,  our  social  fabric  is  firmly  planted;  and  I  cannot 
permit  myself  to  doubt  the  ultimate  success  of  a  full  recognition  of  this 
principle  throughout  the  civilized  and  enlightened  world." 

We  have  thus  traced  the  course  of  events  in  the  South 
ern  States  during  the  three  months  that  succeeded  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  117 

election  of  President  Lincoln.     Let  us  now  see  what  took 
place  in  Washington  during  the  same  time.     Congress  met 
on  the  3d  of  December,  and  the  Message  of  President 
Buchanan  was  at  once  sent  in.     That  document  ascribed 
the  discontent  of  the  Southern  States  to  the  alleged  fact 
that  the  violent  agitation  in  the  North  against  slavery  had 
created  disaffection  among  the  slaves,  and  created  appre 
hensions  of  servile  insurrection.    The  President  vindicated 
the  hostile  action  of  the  South,   assuming  that  it  was 
prompted  by  these  apprehensions  ;  but  went  on  to  show 
that  there  was  no  right  on  the  part  of  any  State  to  secede 
from  the  Union,  while  at  the  same  time  he  contended  that 
the  General  Government  had  no  right  to  make  war  on  any 
State  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  it  from  seceding,  and 
closed  this  portion  of  his  Message  by  recommending  an 
amendment  of  the  Constitution  which  should  explicitly 
recognize  the  right  of  property  in  slaves,  and  provide  for 
the  protection  of  that  right  in  all  the  Territories  of  the 
United  States.     The  belief  that  the  people  of  South  Caro 
lina  would  make  an  attempt  to  seize  one  or  more  of  the 
forts  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston,  created  considerable 
uneasiness  at  Washington  ;  and  on  the  9th  of  December 
the  representatives  from  that  State  wrote  to  the  President 
expressing  their  " strong  convictions"  that  no  such  at 
tempt  would  be  made  previous  to  the  action  of  the  State 
Convention,   "provided  that  no  re-enforcements  should 
be  sent  into  those  forts,  and  their  relative  military  status 
shall  remain  as  at  present,"     On  the  10th  of  December 
Howell  Cobb  resigned  his  office  as  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury,  and  on  the  14th  General  Cass  resigned  as  Secretary 
of    State.      The    latter  resigned  because  the    President 
refused  to  re-enforce  the  forts  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston. 
On  the  20th  the  State  of  South  Carolina  passed  the  ordi 
nance  of  secession,  and  on  the  26th  Major  Anderson  trans 
ferred  his  garrison  from  Fort  Moultrie  to  Fort  Sumter. 
On  the  29th  John  B.  Floyd  resigned  his  office  as  Secretary 
of  War,  alleging  that  the  action  of  Major  Anderson  was 
in  violation  of  pledges  given  by  the  Government  that  the 
military  status  of  the  forts  at  Charleston  should  remain 


118  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

unchanged,  and  that  the  President  had  declined  to  allow 
him  to  issue  an  order,  for  which  he  had  applied  on  the 
27th,  to  withdraw  the  garrison  from  the  harbor  of  Charles 
ton.  On  the  29th  of  December,  Messrs.  Barnwell,  Adams, 
and  Orr  arrived  at  Washington,  as  commissioners  from 
the  State  of  South  Carolina,  and  at  once  opened  a  corre 
spondence  with  President  Buchanan,  asking  for  the  deliv 
ery  of  the  forts  and  other  government  property  at  Charles 
ton  to  the  authorities  of  South  Carolina.  The  President 
replied  on  the  30th,  reviewing  the  whole  question — stating 
that  in  removing  from  Fort  Moultrie,  Major  Anderson 
acted  solely  on  his  own  responsibility,  and  that  his  first 
impulse  on  hearing  of  it  was  to  order  him  to  return,  but 
that  the  occupation  of  the  fort  by  South  Carolina  and  the 
seizure  of  the  arsenal  at  Charleston  had  rendered  this 
impossible.  The  commissioners  replied  on  the  1st  of 
January,  1861,  insisting  that  the  President  had  pledged 
himself  to  maintain  the  status  of  affairs  in  Charleston 
harbor  previous  to  the  removal  of  Major  Anderson  from 
Fort  Moultrie,  and  calling  on  him  to  redeem  this  pledge. 
This  communication  the  President  returned. 

On  the  8th  of  January,  the  President  sent  a  message  to 
Congress,  calling  their  attention  to  the  condition  of  public 
affairs,  declaring  that  while  he  had  no  right  to  make  ag 
gressive  war  upon  any  State,  it  was  his  right  and  his 
duty  to  "use  military  force  defensively  against  those  who 
resist  the  Federal  officers  in  the  execution  of  their  lega] 
functions,  and  against  those  who  assail  the  property  of 
the  Federal  Government ;"  —  but  throwing  the  whole  re 
sponsibility  of  meeting  the  extraordinary  emergencies  of 
the  occasion  upon  Congress.  On  the  same  day,  Jacob 
Thompson,  of  Mississippi,  resigned  his  office  as  Secretary 
of  the  Interior,  because  the  Star  of  the  West  had  been 
sent  on  the  5th,  by  order  of  the  Government,  with  sup 
plies  for  Fort  Sumter,  in  violation,  as  he  alleged,  of  the 
decision  of  the  cabinet.  On  the  10th,  P.  F.  Thomas,  of 
Maryland,  who  had  replaced  Howell  Cobb  as  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  resigned,  and  was  succeeded  by  General 
John  A  Dix,  of  New  York. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  119 

The  debates  and  the  action  of  Congress  throughout  the 
session  related  mainly  to  the  questions  at  issue  between 
the  two  sections.  The  discussion  opened  on  the  3d  of 
December,  as  soon  as  the  President's  Message  had  been 
read.  The  Southern  Senators  generally  treated  the  elec 
tion  of  the  previous  November  as  having  been  a  virtual 
decision  against  the  equality  and  rights  of  the  slavehold 
ing  States.  The  Kepublican  members  disavowed  this  con 
struction,  and  proclaimed  their  willingness  to  adopt  any 
just  and  proper  measures  which  would  quiet  the  appre 
hensions  of  the  South,  while  they  insisted  that  the 
authority  of  the  Constitution  should  be  maintained,  and 
the  constitutional  election  of  a  President  should  be  re 
spected.  At  the  opening  of  the  session,  Mr.  Powell,  of 
Kentucky,  in  the  Senate,  moved  the  reference  of  that 
portion  of  the  President's  Message  which  related  to  the 
sectional  difficulties  of  the  country,  to  a  select  committee 
of  thirteen.  This  resolution  being  adopted,  Mr.  Critten 
den  immediately  afterwards  introduced  a  series  of  joint 
resolutions,  embodying  what  came  to  be  known  after 
wards  as  the  Crittenden  Compromise — proposing  to  sub 
mit  to  the  action  of  the  people  of  the  several  States  the 
following  amendments  to  the  Constitution  :— 

1.  Prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  territory  of  the  United  States  north  of 
86°  30',  and  protecting  it  as  property  in  all  territory  south  of  that  line ; 
and  admitting  into  the  Union,  with  or  without  slavery,  as  its  Constitution 
might  provide,  any  State  that  might  be  formed  out  of  such  territory, 
whenever  its  population  should  be  sufficient  to  entitle  it  to  a  member  of 
Congress. 

2.  Prohibiting  Congress  from  abolishing  slavery  in  places  under  it? 
exclusive  jurisdiction  within  Slave  States. 

3.  Prohibiting  Congress  from  abolishing  slavery  within  the  District  of 
Columbia,  so  long  as  slavery  should  exist  in  Virginia  or  Maryland;  or 
without  the  consent  of  the  inhabitants,  or  without  just  compensation  to 
the  owners. 

4.  Prohibiting  Congress  from  hindering  the  transportation  of  slaves 
from  one  State  to  another,  or  to  a  Territory  in  which  slavery  is  allowed. 

5.  Providing  that  where  a  fugitive  slave  is  lost  to  his  owner  by  violent 
resistance  to  the  execution  of  the  process  of  the  law  for  his  recovery,  the 
United  States  shall  pay  to  said  owner  his  full  value,  and  may  recover  the 
same  from  the  county  in  which  such  rescue  occurred. 


120  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

6.  These  provisions  were  declared  to  be  unchangeable  by  any  future 
amendment  of  the  Constitution,  as  were  also  the  existing  articles  relating 
to  the  representation  of  slaves  and  the  surrender  of  fugitives. 

Besides  these  proposed  amendments  of  the  Constitution, 
Mr.  Crittenden's  resolutions  embodied  certain  declara 
tions  in  affirmance  of  the  constitutionality  and  "binding 
force  of  the  fugitive  slave  law — recommending  the  repeal 
by  the  States  of  all  bills,  the  effect  of  which  was  to 
hinder  the  execution  of  that  law,  proposing  to  amend  it 
by  equalizing  its  fees,  and  urging  the  effectual  execution 
of  the  law  for  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave-trade. 

These  resolutions  were  referred  to  the  Committee  of 
Thirteen,  ordered  on  Mr.  Powell's  motion,  and  composed 
of  the  following  senators  : — 

Messrs.  Powell,  Hunter,  Crittenden,  Seward,  Toombs,  Douglas,  Colla- 
mer,  Davis,  Wade,  Bigler,  Kice,  Doolittle,  and  Grimes. 

On  the  31st  of  December,  this  committee  reported  that 
they  "  had  not  been  able  to  agree  upon  any  general  plan 
of  adjustment."  The  whole  subject  was  nevertheless 
discussed  over  and  over  again  during  the  residue  of  the 
session  ;  but  no  final  action  was  taken  until  the  very  day 
of  its  close.  On  the  21st  of  January,  Messrs.  Yulee  and 
Mallory,  of  Florida,  resigned  their  seats  in  the  Senate, 
because  their  State  had  passed  an  ordinance  of  secession  ; 
and  on  the  28th,  Mr.  Iverson,  of  Georgia,  followed  their 
example.  Messrs.  Clay  and  Fitzpatrick,  of  Alabama, 
and  Mr.  Davis,  of  Mississippi,  followed  next,  and,  on  the 
4th  of  February,  Messrs.  Slidell  and  Benjamin,  of  Louis 
iana,  also  took  their  leave. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  the  debates  took  the 
same  general  direction  as  in  the  Senate.  On  the  first  day 
of  the  session  a  resolution  was  adopted,  by  a  vote  of  one 
hundred  and  forty-five  to  thirty-eight,  to  refer  so  much 
of  the  President's  Message  as  related  to  the  perilous  con 
dition  of  the  country,  to  a  committee  of  one  from  each 
State.  This  committee  was  appointed  as  follows : — 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  121 

Cor  win  of  Ohio.  Dunn  of  Indiana. 

Millson  of  Virginia.  Taylor  of  Louisiana. 

Adams  of  Massachusetts.  Davis  of  Mississippi. 

Winslow  of  North  Carolina.  Kellogg  of  Illinois. 

Humphrey  of  New  York.  Houston  of  Alahama. 

Boyce  of  South  Carolina.  Morse  of  Maine. 

Campbell  of  Pennsylvania.  Phelps  of  Missouri. 

Love  of  Georgia.  Rust  of  Arkansas. 

Ferry  of  Connecticut.  Howard  of  Michigan. 

Davis  of  Maryland.  Hawkins  of  Florida. 

Robinson  of  Rhode  Island.  Hamilton  of  Texas. 

Whitely  of  Delaware.  "Washburn  of  Wisconsin. 

Tappan  of  New  Hampshire.  Curtis  of  Iowa. 

Stratton  of  New  Jersey.  Birch  of  California. 

Bristow  of  Kentucky.  Windom  of  Minnesota. 

Morrill  of  Vermont.  Stark  of  Oregon. 
Nelson  of  Tennessee. 

A  great  variety  of  resolutions  were  offered  and  referred 
to  this  committee.  In  a  few  days  the  committee  reported 
the  following  series  of  resolutions,  and  recommended 
their  adoption  :— 

Resolved  ly  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States 
of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  all  attempts  on  the  parts  of  the 
legislatures  of  any  of  the  States  to  obstruct  or  hinder  the  recovery  and 
surrender  of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor,  are  in  derogation  of  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  inconsistent  with  the  comity  and  good 
neighborhood  that  should  prevail  among  the  several  States,  and  danger 
ous  to  the  peace  of  the  Union. 

Resolved,  That  the  several  States  be  respectfully  requested  to  cause 
their  statutes  to  be  revised,  with  a  view  to  ascertain  if  any  of  them  are 
in  conflict  with,  or  tend  to  embarrass  or  hinder  the  execution  of,  the  laws 
of  the  United  States,  made  in  pursuance  of  the  second  section  of  the  fourth 
article  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  for  the  delivering  up  of 
persons  held  to  labor  by  the  laws  of  any  State  and  escaping  therefrom; 
and  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  earnestly  request  that  all 
enactments  having  such  tendency  be  forthwith  repealed,  as  required  by  a 
just  sense  of  constitutional  obligations,  and  by  a  due  regard  for  the  peace 
of  the  Republic ;  and  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  requested  to 
Communicate  these  resolutions  to  the  governors  of  the  several  States, 
i/rith  a  request  that  they  will  lay  the  same  before  the  legislatures  thereof, 
respectively. 

Resolved,  That  we  recognize  slavery  as  now  existing  in  fifteen  of  the 
United  States  by  the  usages  and  laws  of  those  States ;  and  we  recognize 
no  authority,  legally  or  otherwise,  outside  of  a  State  where  it  so  exists,  to 


122  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

interfere  with  slaves  or  slavery  in  such  States,  in  disregard  of  the  rights 
of  their  owners  or  the  peace  of  society. 

Resolved,  That  we  recognize  the  justice  and  propriety  of  a  faithful 
execution  of  the  Constitution,  and  laws  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  on  the 
subject  of  fugitive  slaves,  or  fugitives  from  service  or  labor,  and  discoun 
tenance  all  mobs  or  hindrances  to  the  execution  of  such  laws,  and  that 
citizens  of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities 
of  citizens  in  the  several  States. 

Resolved,  That  we  recognize  no  such  conflicting  elements  in  its  compo 
sition,  or  sufficient  cause  from  any  source,  for  a  dissolution  of  this  Gov 
ernment;  that  we  were  not  sent  here  to  destroy,  but  to  sustain  and 
harmonize  the  institutions  of  the  country,  and  to  see  that  equal  justice  is 
done  to  all  parts  of  the  same ;  and,  finally,  to  perpetuate  its  existence  on 
terms  of  equality  and  justice  to  all  the  States. 

Resolved,  That  a  faithful  observance,  on  the  part  of  all  the  States,  of 
all  their  constitutional  obligations  to  each  other  and  to  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  is  essential  to  the  peace  of  the  country. 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government  to  enforce  the 
Federal  laws,  protect  the  Federal  property,  and  preserve  the  Union  of 
these  States. 

Resolved,  That  each  State  be  requested  to  revise  its  statutes,  and,  if 
necessary,  so  to  amend  the  same  as  to  secure,  without  legislation  by  Con 
gress,  to  citizens  of  other  States  travelling  therein,  the  same  protection  as 
citizens  of  such  States  enjoy ;  and  also  to  protect  the  citizens  of  other 
States  travelling  or  sojourning  therein  against  popular  violence  or  illegal 
summary  punishment,  without  trial  in  due  form  of  law  for  imputed 
crimes. 

Resolved,  That  each  State  be  also  respectfully  requested  to  enact  such 
laws  as  will  prevent  and  punish  any  attempt  whatever  in  such  State  to 
recognize  or  set  on  foot  the  lawless  invasion  of  any  other  State  o^  Terri 
tory.  . 

Resolved,  That  the  President  be  requested  to  transmit  copies  of  the 
foregoing  resolutions  to  the  Governors  of  the  several  States,  with  a  request 
that  they  be  communicated  to  their  respective  legislatures. 

These  resolutions  were  intended  and  admirably  cal 
culated  to  calm  the  apprehensions  of  the  people  of  the 
slaveholding  States  as  to  any  disposition  on  the  part  of 
the  Federal  Government  to  interfere  with  slavery,  or 
withhold  from  them  any  of  their  constitutional  rights  ; 
and  in  a  House  controlled  by  a  large  Republican  majority, 
they  were  adopted  by  a  vote  of  ayes  one  hundred  and 
thirty-six,  noes  fifty-three.  Not  content  with  this  effort 
to  satisfy  all  just  complaints  on  the  part  of  the  Southern 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  123 

States,  the  same  committee  reported  the  following  resolu 
tion,  recommending  such  an  amendment  of  the  Constitu 
tion  as  should  put  it  forever  out  of  the  power  of  the 
government  or  people  of  the  United  States  to  interfere 
with  slavery  in  any  of  the  States  :— 

Be  it  resolved  ly  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled  (two-thirds  of  both  Houses  con 
curring),  That  the  following  article  be  proposed  to  the  legislatures  of 
the  several  States  as  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  which,  when  ratified  by  three-fourths  of  said  legislatures,  shall 
be  valid,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  a  part  of  the  said  Constitution, 
namely: 

Art.  12.  No  amendment  shall  be  made  to  the  Constitution  which  will 
authorize,  or  give  to  Congress  the  power  to  abolish  or  interfere,  within 
any  State,  with  the  domestic  institutions  thereof,  including  that  of  per 
sons  held  to  labor  or  service  by  the  laws  of  said  State. 

This  resolution  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  to  sixty-five— more  than  two-thirds  in 
its  favor.  This  closed  the  action  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  at  this  session  on  this  important  subject, 
though  it  had  previously  adopted,  by  a  unanimous  vote, 
the  following  declaratory  resolution  :— 

Resolved,  That  neither  the  Federal  Government  nor  the  people,  or  the 
governments  of  the  non-slaveholding  States,  have  the  right  to  legislate 
npon  or  interfere  with  slavery  in  any  of  the  slaveholding  States  in  the 
Union. 

The  action  of  the  Senate  was  somewhat  modified  by 
the  intervening  action  of  a  Peace  Conference,  which 
assembled  at  Washington  on  the  4th  of  February,  in 
pursuance  of  a  recommendation  of  the  State  of  Virginia, 
embodied  in  resolutions  adopted  by  the  General  As 
sembly  of  that  State  on  the  19th  of  January.  It  con 
sisted  of  delegates,  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  in 
number,  from  twenty-one  States — none  of  those  which 
had  seceded  being  represented.  John  Tyler,  of  Virginia, 
was  appointed  president,  and  a  committee,  consisting  of 
one  from  each  State,  was  appointed,  with  authority  to 
"report  what  they  may  deem  right,  necessary,  and 
proper,  to  restore  harmony  and  preserve  the  Union." 


124  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

On  the  15th  of  February  the  committee  reported  a  series 
of  resolutions,  in  seven  sections,  which  were  discussed 
and  amended,  one  by  one,  until  the  afternoon  of  the  26th, 
when  the  vote  was  taken  upon  them  as  amended,  in 
succession,  with  the  following  results  : — 

SECTION  1.  In  all  the  present  territory  of  the  United  States,  north  of 
the  parallel  of  thirty-six  degrees  and  thirty  minutes  of  north  latitude,  in 
voluntary  servitude,  except  in  punishment  of  crime,  is  prohibited.  In  all 
the  present  territory  soiAh  of  that  line,  the  status  of  persons  held  to  invol 
untary  service  or  labor,  as  it  now  exists,  shall  not  be  changed ;  nor  shall 
any  law  be  passed  by  Congress  or  the  territorial  legislature  to  hinder  or 
prevent  the  taking  of  such  persons  from  any  of  the  States  of  this  Union  to 
said  territory,  nor  to  impair  the  rights  arising  from  said  relation ;  but  the 
same  shall  be  subject  to  judicial  cognizance  in  the  Federal  Courts,  accord 
ing  to  the  course  of  the  common  law.  When  any  territory  north  or  south 
of  said  line,  within  such  boundary  as  Congress  may  prescribe,  shall  con 
tain  a  population  equal  to  that  required  for  a  member  of  Congress,  it 
shall,  if  its  form  of  government  be  republican,  be  admitted  into  the  Union 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  original  States,  with  or  without  involuntary 
servitude,  as  the  constitution  of  such  State  may  provide. 

The  vote  on  the  adoption  of  the  section  was  as  follows : — 

AYES. — Delaware,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  Pennsylva 
nia,  Ehode  Island,  Tennessee — 8. 

NOES. — Connecticut,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  Missouri,  New 
York,  North  Carolina,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Virginia — 11. 

So  its  adoption  was  not  agreed  to. 

A  reconsideration  of  this  vote  was  called  for  by  the  delegates  from 
Illinois,  and  agreed  to,  14  to  5.  On  the  next  day  the  question  was  again 
taken  on  the  adoption  of  the  section,  with  the  following  result: — 

AYES. — Delaware,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  New  Jersey,  Ohio. 
Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Tennessee — 9. 

NOES. — Connecticut,  Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  North  Carolina,  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont,  Virginia — 8. 

Thus  the  section  was  adopted. 

It  was  stated  by  the  members  from  New  York,  when  the  State  was 
called,  that  one  of  their  number,  D.  D.  Field,  was  absent,  and  the  del 
egation  was  divided.  Thus  New  York,  Indiana,  and  Kansas  were 
divided. 

The  adoption  of  the  second  section  was  then  moved ;  it  was  as  fol 
lows: — 

SECTION  2.  No  territory  shall  be  acquired  by  the  United  States,  except 
by  discovery,  and  for  naval  and  commercial  stations,  depots,  and  transit 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  125 

rentes,  without  a  concurrence  of  the  majority  of  all  the  Senators  from 
States  which  allow  involuntary  servitude,  and  a  majority  of  all  the  Sena 
tors  from  States  which  prohibit  that  relation ;  nor  shall  territory  be  ac 
quired  by  treaty,  unless  the  votes  of  a  majority  of  the  Senators  from  each 
class  of  States  hereinbefore  mentioned  be  cast  as  a  part  of  the  two-thirds 
majority  necessary  to  the  ratification  of  such  treaty. 

The  vote  on  this  section  was  as  follows : — 

AYES.— Delaware,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  New  Jersey, 
Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Tennessee,  Virginia— 11. 

NOES.— Connecticut,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  North  Car 
olina,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont — 8. 

New  York  and  Kansas  were  divided. 

The  adoption  of  section  three  of  the  report,  with  the  amendments,  was 
next  moved.  The  amended  section  was  as  follows: — 

SECTION  3.  Neither  the  Constitution  nor  any  amendment  thereof  shall 
be  construed  to  give  Congress  power  to  regulate,  abolish,  or  control, 
within  any  State,  the  relation  established  or  recognized  by  the  laws 
thereof  touching  persons  held  to  labor  or  involuntary  service  therein,  nor 
to  interfere  with  or  abolish  involuntary  service  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  without  the  consent  of  Maryland  and  without  the  consent  of  the 
owners,  or  making  the  owners  who  do  not  consent  just  compensation ; 
nor  the  power  to  interfere  with  or  prohibit  representatives  and  others 
from  bringing  with  them  to  the  District  of  Columbia,  retaining,  and 
taking  away,  persons  so  held  to  labor  or  service ;  nor  the  power  to  in 
terfere  with  or  abolish  involuntary  service  in  places  under  the  exclusive 
jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  within  those  States  and  Territories 
where  the  same  is  established  or  recognized ;  nor  the  power  to  prohibit 
the  removal  or  transportation  of  persons  held  to  labor  or  involuntary 
service  in  any  State  or  Territory  of  the  United  States  to  any  other  State  or 
Territory  thereof,  where  it  is  established  or  recognized  by  law  or  usage  ; 
and  the  right  during  transportation,  by  sea  or  river,  of  touching  at  ports, 
shores,  and  landings,  and  of  landing  in  case  distress  shall  exist;  but 
not  the  right  of  transit  in  or  through  any  State  or  Territory,  or  of  sale  or 
traffic,  against  the  law  thereof.  Nor  shall  Congress  have  power  to 
authorize  any  higher  rate  of  taxation  on  persons  held  to  labor  or  service 
than  on  land. 

The  vote  on  the  adoption  of  the  section  was  as  follows : — 

AYES. — Delaware,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  New  Jersey, 
North  Carolina,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Tennessee,  Vir 
ginia — 12. 

NOES. — Connecticut,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  New  Hamp 
shire,  Vermont — 7. 

So  the  section  was  adopted.     Kansas  and  New  York  were  divided. 


126  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  adoption  of  the  fourth  section  of  the  report,  as  amended,  was  then 
moved ;  it  was  as  follows  : — 

SECTION  4.  The  third  paragraph  of  the  second  section  of  the  fourth 
article  of  the  Constitution  shall  not  he  construed  to  prevent  any  of  the 
States,  hy  appropriate  legislation,  and  through  the  action  of  their  judicial 
and  ministerial  officers,  from  enforcing  the  delivery  of  fugitives  from  lahor 
to  the  person  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  is  due. 

The  vote  on  the  adoption  of  this  section  was  as  follows : — 

AYES. — Connecticut,  Delaware,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Maryland, 
Missouri,  New  Jersey,  North  Carolina,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island, 
Tennessee,  Vermont,  Virginia — 15. 

NOES. — Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire — 4. 

Thus  the  section  was  adopted.     Kansas  and  New  York  were  divided. 

The  adoption  of  the  fifth  section  of  the  report,  as  amended,  was  then 
moved ;  it  was  as  follows : — 

SECTION  5.  The  foreign  slave-trade  is  hereby  forever  prohibited,  and  it 
shall  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  pass  laws  to  prevent  the  importation  of 
slaves,  coolies,  or  persons  held  to  service  or  labor,  into  the  United  States 
and  the  Territories  from  places  beyond  the  limits  thereof. 

The  vote  on  the  adoption  of  this  section  resulted  as  follows : — 

AYES. — Connecticut,  Delaware,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Maryland, 
Missouri,  New  Jersey,  New  York,.  New  Hampshire,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania, 
Rhode  Island,  Tennessee,  Vermont,  Kansas — 10. 

NOES. — Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  North  Carolina,  Virginia — 5. 

The  section  was  thus  adopted. 

A  motion  was  next  made  to  adopt  the  sixth  section,  as  amended ;  it 
was  as  follows  : — 

SECTION  6.  The  first,  third,  and  fifth  sections,  together  with  this  section 
of  these  amendments,  and  the  third  paragraph  of  the  second  section  of  the 
first  article  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  third  paragraph  of  the  second  sec 
tion  of  the  fourth  article  thereof,  shall  not  be  amended  or  abolished  with 
out  the  consent  of  all  the  States. 

The  vote  on  this  section  was  as  follows : — 

AYES. — Delaware,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  New  Jersey, 
Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Tennessee,  Kansas — 11. 

NOES. — Connecticut,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  North  Caro 
lina,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Virginia — 9. 

New  York  was  divided.     So  this  section  was  adopted. 

The  motion  was  then  made  to  adopt  the  seventh  and  last  section,  as 
amended :  it  was  as  follows  : — 

SECTION  7.  Congress  shall  provide  by  law  that  the  United  States  shall 
pay  to  the  owner  the  full  value  of  his  fugitive  from  labor,  in  all  cases 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  127 

where  the  marshal,  or  other  officer  whose  duty  it  was  to  arrest  such  fugi 
tive,  was  prevented  from  doing  so  by  violence  or  intimidation,  from  mobs 
or  other  riotous  assemblages,  or  when,  after  arrest,  such  fugitive  was  res 
cued  by  like  violence  or  intimidation,  and  the  owner  thereby  deprived  of 
the  same ;  and  the  acceptance  of  such  payment  shall  preclude  the  owner 
from  further  claim  to  such  fugitive.  Congress  shall  provide  by  law  for 
securing  to  the  citizens  of  each  State  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  cit 
izens  in  the  several  States. 

The  vote  on  this  section  was  as  follows  : — 

AYES. Delaware,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  New  Jersey, 

New  Hampshire,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Tennessee,  Kan 
sas — 12. 

NOES. — Connecticut,  Iowa,  Maine,  Missouri,  North  Carolina,  Vermont, 
Virginia — 7. 

Thus  the  last  section  was  adopted.     New  York  was  divided. 

The  adoption  of  the  following  resolution  was  then  moved  by  Mr.  Frank 
lin,  of  Pennsylvania : — 

Resolved,  As  the  sense  of  this  Convention,  that  the  highest  political 
duty  of  every  citizen  of  the  United  States  is  his  allegiance  to  the  Federal 
Government  created  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  that 
no  State  of  this  Union  has  any  constitutional  right  to  secede  therefrom, 
or  to  absolve  the  citizens  of  such  State  from  their  allegiance  to  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States. 

It  was  moved  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the  table.  The  vote  was  as 
follows : — 

AYES. — Delaware,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  New  Jersey,  North 
Carolina,  Ohio,  Tennessee,  Virginia — 9. 

NOES.— Connecticut,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts, 
New  York,  New  Hampshire,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Vermont, 
Kansas — 12. 

Some  amendments  were  then  offered  and  laid  on  the  table,  when  its 
indefinite  postponement  was  moved  and  carried  by  the  following  vote  :— 

AYES.— Delaware,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  Missouri,  New  Jersey,  North 
Carolina,  Ohio,  Rhode  Island,  Tennessee,  Virginia— 10. 

NOES.— Connecticut,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Maine,  Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania — 7. 

New  York  was  divided. 

The  following  preamble  was  then  offered  by  Mr.  Guthrie,  and  agreed 
to:— 

To  the  Congress  of  the  United  States : 

The  Convention  assembled  upon  the  invitation  of  the  Stete  of  Virginia, 
to  adjust  the  unhappy  differences  which  now  disturb  the  peace  of  the 
Union  and  threaten  its  continuance,  make  known  to  the  Congress  of  the 


128  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

United  States  that  their  body  convened  in  the  City  of  Washington  on  the 
4th  instant,  and  continued  in  session  until  the  27th. 

There  were  in  the  body,  when  action  was  taken  upon  that  which  is 
here  submitted,  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  commissioners,  represent 
ing  the  following  States:  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachu 
setts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky, 
Missouri,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Kansas. 

They  have  approved  what  is  herewith  submitted,  and  respectfully  re 
quest  that  your  honorable  body  will  submit  it  to  conventions  in  the 
States  as  an  article  of  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

In  the  Senate,  on  the  2d  day  of  March,  a  communica 
tion  was  received  from  the  President  of  the  Peace  Con 
gress,  communicating  the  resolutions  thus  adopted  in  that 
body.  They  were  at  once  referred  to  a  committee  consist 
ing  of  Messrs.  Crittenden,  Bigler,  Thomson,  Seward,  and 
Trumbull.  The  next  day  they  were  reported  to  the  Sen 
ate  for  its  adoption,  Messrs.  Seward  and  Trumbull,  the 
minority  of  the  Committee,  dissenting  from  the  majority, 
and  proposing  the  adoption  of  a  resolution  calling  on  the 
legislatures  of  the  States  to  express  their  will  in  regard 
to  calling  a  Convention  for  amending  the  Constitution. 

The  question  then  came  up  on  adopting  the  resolutions 
of  the  Peace  Conference.  Mr.  Hunter,  of  Virginia,  moved 
to  substitute  the  first  of  Mr.  Crittenden' s  resolutions  for 
the  first  of  those  reported  by  the  committee.  Mr.  Crit 
tenden  opposed  it,  and  urged  the  adoption  of  the  proposi 
tions  of  the  Peace  Conference  in  preference  to  his  own. 
Mr.  Mason,  of  Virginia,  opposed  the  resolutions  of  the 
Peace  Conference,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  not  satisfy 
the  South.  Mr.  Baker,  of  Oregon,  advocated  it.  Mr. 
Green,  of  Missouri,  opposed  it,  as  surrendering  every 
Southern  principle,  in  which  he  was  seconded  by  Mr. 
Lane,  of  Oregon. 

At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings,  Mr.  Douglas  gave  a 
new  turn  to  the  form  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Senate,  by 
moving  to  take  up  the  resolution  adopted  by  the  House 
to  amend  the  Constitution  so  as  to  prohibit  forever  any 
interference  with  slavery  in  the  States.  This  motion  was 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  129 

carried.  Mr.  Pugli  moved  to  amend  by  substituting  for 
ttiis  resolution  the  resolutions  of  Mr.  Crittenden.  This 
was  rejected— ayes  14,  noes  25.  Mr.  Brigham,  of  Michi 
gan,  next  moved  to  substitute  a  resolution  against  any 
amendment  of  the  Constitution,  and  in  favor  of  enforcing 
the  laws.  This  was  rejected — ayes  13,  noes  25.  Mr. 
Grimes,  of  Iowa,  then  moved  to  substitute  the  resolution 
of  Messrs.  Seward  and  Trumbull,  as  the  minority  of  the 
Select  Committee,  calling  on  the  State  Legislatures  to  ex 
press  their  will  in  regard  to  calling  a  Convention  to  amend 
the  Constitution.  This  was  rejected— ayes  14,  noes  25. 
The  propositions  of  the  Peace  Conference  were  then 
moved  by  Mr.  Johnson,  of  Arkansas,  and  rejected — ayes 
3,  noes  34.  Mr.  Crittenden' s  resolutions  were  then  taken 
up,  and  lost  by  the  following  vote  : — 

AYES. — Messrs.  Bayard,  Bright,  Bigler,  Crittenden,  Douglas,  Gwin, 
Hunter,  Johnson  of  Tennessee,  Kennedy,  Lane,  Latham,  Mason,  Nichol 
son,  Polk,  Pugli,  Rice,  Sehastian,  Thomson,  and  Wigfall — 19. 

NOES. — Messrs.  Anthony,  Bingham,  Chandler,  Clark,  Dixon,  Doolittle, 
Durkee,  Fessenden,  Foote,  Foster,  Grimes,  Ilarlan,  King,  Morrill,  Sum- 
ner,  Ten  Eyck,  Trumbull,  Wade,  Wilkinson,  and  Wilson — 20. 

The  resolutions  were  thus  lost,  in  consequence  of  the 
withdrawal  of  Senators  from  the  disaffected  States.  The 
question  was  then  taken  on  the  House  resolution  to  amend 
the  Constitution  so  as  to  prohibit  forever  any  amendment 
of  the  Constitution  interfering  with  slavery  in  any  State, 
and  the  resolution  was  adopted  by  a  two-thirds  vote — 
ayes  24,  nays  12. 

This  closed  the  action  of  Congress  upon  this  important 
subject.  It  was  strongly  Republican  in  both  branches, 
yet  it  had  done  every  thing  consistent  with  its  sense  of 
justice  and  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  to  disarm  the  ap 
prehensions  of  the  Southern  States,  and  to  remove  all 
provocation  for  their  resistance  to  the  incoming  Adminis 
tration.  It  had  given  the  strongest  possible  pledge  that 
it  had  no  intention  of  interfering  with  slavery  in  any 
State,  by  amending  the  Constitution  so  as  to  make  such 
interference  forever  impossible.  It  created  governments 
for  three  new  Territories,  Nevada,  Dakotah,  and  Colora 

9 


130  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

do,  and  passed  no  law  excluding  slavery  from  any  one  of 
them.  It  hrtd  severely  censured  the  legislation  of  some 
of  the  Northern  States  intended  to  hinder  the  recovery  of 
fugitives  from  labor ;  and  in  response  to  its  expressed 
wishes,  Rhode  Island  repealed  its  laws  of  that  character, 
and  Vermont,  Maine,  Massachusetts,  and  Wisconsin  had 
the  subject  under  consideration,  and  were  ready  to  take 
similar  action.  Yet  all  this  had  no  effect  whatever  in 
changing  or  checking  the  secession  movement  in  the 
Southern  States. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  131 


CHAPTER  V. 

FROM    SPRINGFIELD   TO   WASHINGTON. 

SPEECH  AT  INDIANAPOLIS. — ARRIVAL  AND  SPEECH  AT  CINCINNATI. — SPEECH 
AT  COLUMBUS. — SPEECH  AT  PITTSBURG. — ARRIVAL  AND  SPEECH  AT  CLEVE 
LAND. — ARPIVAL  AT  BUFFALO. — AT  ROCHESTER  AND  SYRACUSE.  —  AT 
ALBANY. — SPEECH  AT  POUGHKEEPSIE. — IN  NEW  YORK. — REPLY  TO  THE 
MAYOR  OF  NEW  YORK. — IN  NEW  JERSEY. — ARRIVAL  AT  PHILADELPHIA. — 
SPEECH  IN  PHILADELPHIA. — AT  HARRISBURG. — ARRIVAL  AND  RECEPTION 
AT  WASHINGTON. 

FROM  the  date  of  his  election,  Mr.  LINCOLN  maintained 
silence  on  the  affairs  of  the  country.  The  Government 
was  to  remain  for  three  months  longer  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Buchanan,  and  the  new  President  did  not  deem  it  becom 
ing  or  proper  for  him  to  interfere,  in  any  way,  with  the 
regular  discharge  of  its  duties  and  responsibilities.  On 
the  11  th  of  February,  1861,  he  left  his  home  in  Spring 
field,  Illinois,  accompanied  to  the  railroad  depot  by  a 
large  concourse  of  his  friends  and  neighbors,  whom  he 
bade  farewell  in  the  following  words  :— 

MY  FRIENDS  : — No  one  not  in  my  position  can  appreciate  the  sadness  I 
feel  at  this  parting.  To  this  people  I  owe  all  that  I  am.  Here  I  have  lived 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ;  here  my  children  were  born,  and  here 
one  of  them  lies  buried.  I  know  not  how  soon  I  shall  see  you  again.  A  duty 
devolves  upon  me  which  is,  perhaps,  greater  than  that  which  has  devolved 
upon  any  other  man  since  the  days  of  WASHINGTON.  lie  never  would 
have  succeeded  except  for  the  aid  of  Divine  Providence,  upon  which  he 
at  all  times  relied.  I  feel  that  I  cannot  succeed  without  the  same  Divine 
aid  which  sustained  him,  and  on  the  same  Almighty  Being  I  place  my  re 
liance  for  support ;  and  I  hope  you,  my  friends,  will  all  pray  that  I  may 
receive  that  Divine  assistance,  without  which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with 
which  success  is  certain.  Again  I  bid  you  all  an  affectionate  farewell. 

As  the  train  passed  through  the  country,  the  President 
was  greeted  with  hearty  cheers  and  good  wishes  by  the 
thousands  who  assembled  at  the  railway  stations  along 


A 


132  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  route.  Party  spirit  seemed  to  have  been  forgotten, 
and  the  cheers  were  always  given  for  "Lincoln  and  the 
Constitution. ' '  At  Tolono  he  appeared  upon  the  platform, 
and  in  response  to  the  applause  which  hailed  his  appear 
ance,  he  said : — 

I  am  leaving  you  on  an  errand  of  national  importance,  attended,  as  you 
are  aware,  with  considerable  difficulties.  Let  us  believe,  as  some  poet  has 
expressed  it,  "Behind  the  cloud  the  sun  is  still  shining."  I  bid  you  an 
affectionate  farewell. 

At  Indianapolis  the  party  was  welcomed  by  a  salute  of 
thirty-four  guns,  and  the  President-elect  was  received  by 
the  Governor  of  the  State  in  person,  and  escorted  to  a 
carriage  in  waiting,  which  proceeded — folio-  'red  by  a  pro 
cession  of  the  members  of  both  houses  of  the  legislature, 
the  municipal  authorities,  the  military,  and  firemen— to 
the  Bates  House.  Appearing  on  the  balcony  of  this  hotel, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  greeted  by  the  hearty  applause  of  the 
large  crowd  which  had  assembled  in  the  street,  to  which 
lie  addressed  the  following  remarks  :— 

GOVERNOR  MORTON  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  INDIANA: — 

Most  heartily  do  1  thank  you  for  this  magnificent  reception,  and  while 
I  cannot  take  to  myself  any  share  of  the  compliment  thus  paid,  more 
than  that  which  pertains  to  a  mere  instrument,  an  accidental  instrument, 
perhaps  I  should  say,  of  a  great  cause,  I  yet  must  look  upon  it  as  a  most 
magnificent  reception,  and  as  such  most  heartily  do  thank  you  for  it. 
You  have  been  pleased  to  address  yourself  to  me  chiefly  in  behalf  of  this 
glorious  Union  in  which  we  live,  in  all  of  which  you  have  my  hearty 
sympathy,  and,  as  far  as  may  be  within  my  power,  will  have,  one  and 
inseparably,  my  hearty  consideration.  While  I  do  not  expect,  upon  this 
occasion,  or  until  I  get  to  Washington,  to  attempt  any  lengthy  speech,  1 
will  only  say  to  the  salvation  of  the  Union  there  needs  but  one  single 
thing — the  hearts  of  a  people  like  yours.  [Applause.] 

The  people,  when  they  rise  in  mass  in  behalf  of  the  Union  and  the 
liberties  of  their  country,  truly  may  it  be  said,  "The  gates  of  hell  cannot 
prevail  against  them."  [Renewed  applause.]  In  all  trying  positions  in 
which  I  shall  be  placed — and,  doubtless,  I  shall  be  placed  in  many  such — 
my  reliance  will  be  placed  upon  you  and  the  people  of  the  United  States; 
and  I  wish  you  to  remember,  now  and  forever,  that  it  is  your  business, 
and  not  mine;  that  if  the  union  of  these  States,  and  the  liberties  of  this 
people  shall  be  lost,  it  is  but  little  to  any  one  man  of  fifty-two  years  of 
age,  but  a  great  deal  to  the  thirty  millions  of  people  who  inhabit  these 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  133 

United  States,  and  to  their  posterity  in  all  coming  time.  It  is  your  busi 
ness  to  rise  up  and  preserve  the  Union  and  liberty  for  yourselves,  and  not 
for  me. 

I  desire  they  should  be  constitutionally  performed.  I,  as  already  inti 
mated,  am  but  an  accidental  instrument,  temporary,  and  to  serve  but  for 
a  limited  time ;  and  I  appeal  to  you  again  to  constantly  bear  in  mind  that 
with  you,  and  not  with  politicians,  not  with  Presidents,  not  with  office- 
seekers,  but  with  you  is  the  question,  Shall  the  Union  and  shall  the  liber 
ties  of  this  country  be  preserved  to  the  latest  generations  ?  [Cheers.] 

In  the  evening  the  members  of  the  legislature  waited 
upon  him  in  a  body  at  his  hotel,  where  one  of  their  num 
ber,  on  behalf  of  the  whole,  and  in  presence  of  a  very 
large  assemblage  of  the  citizens  of  the  place,  made  a  brief 
address  of  welcome  and  congratulation,  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
acknowledged  in  the  following  terms  :— 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  STATE  or  INDIANA: — I  am  here  to  thank  you 
much  for  this  magnificent  welcome,  and  still  more  for  the  generous  sup 
port  given  by  your  State  to  that  political  cause  which  I  think  is  the  true 
and  just  cause  of  the  whole  country  and  the  whole  world. 

Solomon  says  there  is  "a  time  to  keep  silence,"  and  when  men  wrangle 
by  the  mouth  with  no  certainty  that  they  mean  the  same  thing,  while 
using  the  same  word,  it  perhaps  were  as  well  if  they  would  keep  silence. 

The  words  "coercion"  and  "invasion"  are  much  used  in  these  days, 
and  often  with  some  temper  and  hot  blood.  Let  us  make  sure,  if  we  can, 
that  we  do  not  misunderstand  the  meaning  of  those  who  use  them.  Let 
as  get  exact  definitions  of  these  words,  not  from  dictionaries,  but  from 
the  men  themselves,  who  certainly  depreciate  the  things  they  would 
represent  by  the  use  of  words.  What,  then,  is  "Coercion?"  What  is 
"  Invasion?"  Would  the  marching  of  an  army  into  South  Carolina,  with 
out  the  consent  of  her  people,  and  with  hostile  intent  towards  them,  be 
"invasion?"  I  certainly  think  it  would;  and  it  would  be  "coercion" 
also  if  the  South  Carolinians  were  forced  to  submit.  But  if  the  United 
States  should  merely  hold  and  retake  its  own  forts  and  other  property, 
and  collect  the  duties  on  foreign  importations,  or  even  withhold  the  mails 
from  places  where  they  were  habitually  violated,  would  any  or  all  these 
things  be  "invasion"  or  "coercion?"  Do  our  professed  lovers  of  the 
Union,  but  who  spitefully  resolve  that  they  will  resist  coercion  and  inva 
sion,  understand  that  such  things  as  these  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States  would  be  coercion  or  invasion  of  a  State?  If  so,  their  idea  of 
means  to  preserve  the  object  of  their  affection  would  seem  exceedingly 
thin  and  airy.  If  sick,  the  little  pills  of  the  horaoeopathists  would  be 
n\'\eh  too  large  for  it  to  swallow.  In  their  view,  the  Union,  as  a  family 


134  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

relation,  would  seem  to  be  no  regular  marriage,  but  a  sort  of  "  free-love" 
arrangement,  to  be  maintained  only  on  "passional  attraction." 

By-the-way,  in  what  consists  the  special  sacredness  of  a  State  ?  I  speak 
not  of  the  position  assigned  to  a  State  in  the  Union,  by  the  Constitution ; 
for  that,  by  the  bond,  we  all  recognize.  That  position,  however,  a  State 
cannot  carry  out  of  the  Union  with  it.  I  speak  of  that  assumed  primary 
right  of  a  State  to  rule  all  which  is  less  than  itself,  and  ruin  all  which  is 
larger  than  itself.  If  a  State  and  a  county,  in  a  given  case,  should  be 
equal  in  extent  of  territory,  and  equal  in  number  of  inhabitants,  in  what, 
as  a  matter  of  principle,  is  the  State  better  than  the  county  ?  "Would  an 
exchange  of  names  be  an  exchange  of  rights  upon  principle?  On  what 
rightful  principle  may  a  State,  being  not  more  than  one-fiftieth  part  of 
the  nation,  in  soil  and  population,  break  up  the  nation  and  then  coerco  a 
proportionally  larger  subdivision  of  itself,  in  the  most  arbitrary  way? 
What  mysterious  right  to  play  tvrant  is  conferred  on  a  district  of  country, 
with  its  people,  by  merely  calling  it  a  State? 

Fellow-citizens,  I  am  not  asserting  any  thing ;  I  am  merely  asking  ques 
tions  for  you  to  consider.  Arid  now  allow  me  to  bid  you  farewell. 

On  the  morning  of  the  12th,  Mr.  Lincoln  took  his  depart 
ure  and  arrived  at  Cincinnati  at  about  noon,  having  been 
greeted  along  the  route  by  the  hearty  applause  of  the 
thousands  assembled  at  the  successive  stations.  His 
reception  at  Cincinnati  was  overwhelming.  The  streets 
were  so  densely  crowded  that  it  was  with  the  utmost  diffi 
culty  the  procession  could  secure  a  passage.  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  escorted  to  the  Burnett  House,  which  had  been  hand 
somely  decorated  in  honor  of  his  visit.  He  was  welcomed 
by  the  Mayor  of  the  city  in  a  few  remarks,  in  response  to 
which  he  said  :— 

MR.  MAYOR  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  have  spoken  but  once  before  this 
in  Cincinnati.  That  was  a  year  previous  to  the  late  Presidential  election. 
On  that  occasion,  in  a  playful  manner,  but  with  sincere  words,  I  addressed 
much  of  what  I  said  to  the  Kentuckians.  I  gave  my  opinion  that  we,  as 
Republicans,  would  ultimately  beat  them,  as  Democrats,  but  that  they 
could  postpone  that  result  longer  by  nominating  Senator  Douglas  for  the 
Presidency  than  they  could  in  any  other  way.  They  did  net,  in  any  true 
sense  of  the  word,  nominate  Mr.  Douglas,  and  the  result  has  come  certainly 
as  soon  as  ever  I  expected.  I  also  told  them  how  I  expected  they  would 
be  treated  after  they  should  have  been  beaten  ;  and  I  now  wish  to  call 
their  attention  to  what  ]  then  said  upon  that  subject.  I  then  said,  "When 
we  do  as  we  say,  beat  you,  you  perhaps  want  to  know  what  we  will  do 
with  you.  I  will  tell  you,  as  far  as  I  am  authorized  to  speak  for  the  oppo 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  135 

sition,  what  we  mean  to  do  with  you.  We  mean  to  treat  you,  as  near  as 
\ve  possibly  can,  as  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison  treated  you.  We 
mean  to  leave  you  alone,  and  in  no  way  to  interfere  with  your  institu 
tions;  to  abide  by  all  and  every  compromise  of  the  Constitution;  and,  in 
a  word,  coming  back  to  the  original  proposition,  to  treat  you  so  far  as 
degenerate  men,  if  we  have  degenerated,  may,  according  to  the  example 
of  those  noble  fathers,  WASHINGTON,  JEFFERSON,  and  MADISON.  We  mean 
to  remember  that  you  are  as  good  as  we ;  that  there  is  no  difference  be 
tween  us,  other  than  the  difference  of  circumstances.  We  mean  to  recog 
nize  and  bear  in  mind  always  that  you  have  as  good  hearts  in  your  bosoms 
as  other  people,  or  as  we  claim  to  have,  and  treat  you  accordingly. 

Fellow-citizens  of  Kentucky !  friends !  brethren,  may  I  call  you  in  my 
new  position  ?  I  see  no  occasion,  and  feel  no  inclination  to  retract  a  word 
of  this.  If  it  shall  not  be  made  good,  be  assured  the  fault  shall  not  be 
mine. 

In  the  evening  tlie  German  Republican  associations  called 
upon  Mr.  Lincoln  and  presented  him  an  address  of  con 
gratulation,  to  which  he  responded,  warmly  indorsing  the 
wisdom  of  the  Homestead  "bill,  and  speaking  of  the  advan 
tages  offered  "by  the  soil  and  institutions  of  the  United 
States  to  foreigners  who  might  wish  to  make  it  their  home. 
He  left  Cincinnati  on  the  morning  of  the  13th,  accompanied 
by  a  committee  of  the  Ohio  Legislature,  which  had  come 
from  the  capital  to  meet  him.  The  party  reached  Colum 
bus  at  two  o'  clock,  and  the  President  was  escorted  to  the 
hall  of  the  Assembly,  where  he  was  formally  welcomed 
by  Lieutenant-Go vernor  Kirk  on  behalf  of  the  legislature, 
which  had  assembled  in  joint  session,  to  which  he  made 
the  following  reply : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  MR.  SPEAKER,  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  GENERAL 
ASSEMBLY: — It  is  true,  as  has  been  said  by  the  President  of  the  Senate, 
that  very  great  responsibility  rests  upon  me  in  the  position  to  which  the 
votes  of  the  American  people  have  called  me.  I  am  deeply  sensible  of 
that  weighty  responsibility.  I  cannot  but  know  what  yon  all  know,  that 
without  a  name,  perhaps  without  a  reason  why  I  should  have  a  name, 
there  has  fallen  upon  me  a  task  such  as  did  not  rest  even  upon  the  Father 
of  his  Country ;  and  so  feeling,  i  cannot  but  turn  and  look  for  the  support 
without  which  it  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  perform  that  great  task.  I 
tarn,  then,  and  look  to  the  great  American  people,  and  to  that  God  who 
has  never  forsaken  them. 

Allusion  has  been  made  tcr  the  interest  felt  in  relation  to  the  policy  of 
the  new  Administration.  In  this  I  have  received  from  some  a  degree  of 


136  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

credit  for  having  kept  silence,  and  from  others  some  depreciation.  I  still 
think  that  I  was  right.  In  the  varying  and  repeatedly  shifting  scenes  of 
the  present,  and  without  a  precedent  which  could  enable  me  to  judge  by 
the  past,  it  has  seemed  fitting  that  before  speaking  upon  the  difficulties 
of  the  country,  I  should  have  gained  a  view  of  the  whole  field  so  as  to  be 
sure  after  all — at  liberty  to  modify  and  change  the  course  of  policy  as 
future  events  may  make  a  change  necessary.  I  have  not  maintained 
silence  from  any  want  of  real  anxiety.  It  is  a  good  thing  that  there  is  no 
more  than  anxiety,  for  there  is  nothing  going  wrong.  It  is  a  consoling 
circumstance  that  when  we  look  out,  there  is  nothing  that  really  hurts  any 
body.  We  entertain  different  views  upon  political  questions,  but  nobody 
is  suffering  any  thing.  This  is  a  most  consoling  circumstance,  and  from 
it  we  may  conclude  that  all  we  want  is  time,  patience,  and  a  reliance  on 
that  God  who  has  never  forsaken  this  people.  Fellow-citizens,  what  I 
have  said  I  have  said  altogether  extemporaneously,  and  will  now  come  to 
a  close. 

Both  houses  then  adjourned.  In  the  evening  Mr.  Lin 
coln  held  a  levee,  which  was  very  largely  attended.  On 
the  morning  of  the  14th,  Mr.  Lincoln  left  Columbus.  At 
Steubenville  he  had  a  formal  though  brief  reception,  being 
addressed  by  Judge  Floyd,  to  whose  remarks  he  made 
the  following  reply  :— 

I  fear  that  the  great  confidence  placed  in  my  ability  is  unfounded.  In 
deed,  I  am  sure  it  is.  Encompassed  by  vast  difficulties  as  I  am,  nothing 
shall  be  wanting  on  my  part,  if  sustained  by  the  American  people  and 
God.  I  believe  the  devotion  to  the  Constitution  is  equally  great  on  both 
sides  of  the  river.  It  is  only  the  different  understanding  of  that  instru 
ment  that  causes  difficulty.  The  only  dispute  on  both  sides  is,  "  What  are 
their  rights?"  If  the  majority  should  not  rule,  who  should  be  the  judge? 
Where  is  such  a  judge  to  be  found?  We  should  all  be  bound  by  the 
majority  of  the  American  people — if  not,  then  the  minority  must  control. 
Would  that  be  right?  Would  it  be  just  or  generous?  Assuredly  not.  I 
reiterate,  that  the  majority  should  rule.  If  I  adopt  a  wrong  policy,  the 
opportunity  for  condemnation  will  occur  in  four  years'  time.  Then  I  can 
be  turned  out,  and  a  better  man  with  better  views  put  in  my  place. 

The  train  reached  Pittsburg  in  the  evening,  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  received  with  the  utmost  enthusiasm  at  the 
Monongahela  House  by  a  large  crowd  which  had  assembled 
to  greet  him.  He  acknowledged  their  reception  briefly  : — 

He  said  he  would  not  give  them  a  speech,  as  he  thought  it  more  rare, 
if  not  more  wise,  for  a  public  man  to  abstain  from  much  speaking.  He 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  137 

expressed  his  gratitude  and  surprise  at  seeing  so  great  a  crowd  and  such 
boundless  enthusiasm  manifested  in  the  night-time,  and  under  such  un 
toward  circumstances,  to  greet  so  unworthy  an  individual  as  himself.  This 
was  undoubtedly  attributable  to  the  position  which  more  by  accident 
than  by  worth  he  had  attained.  He  remarked  further,  that  if  all  those 
whole-souled  people  whom  he  saw  this  evening  before  him,  were  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Union,  he  did  not  see  how  it  could  be  in  much  dan 
ger.  He  had  intended  to  say  a  few  words  to  the  people  of  Pittsburg — 
the  greatest  manufacturing  city  of  the  United  States — upon  such  matters 
as  they  were  interested  in  ;  but  as  he  had  adopted  the  plan  of  holding  his 
tongue  for  the  most  part  during  the  last  canvass,  and  since  his  election, 
he  thought  he  had  perhaps  better  now  still  continue  to  hold  his  tongue. 
[Cries  of  "  Go  on,"  "  go  on."]  Well,  T  am  reminded  that  there  is  an  Alle- 
ghany  City  as  well  as  an  Alleghany  County,  the  former  the  banner  town, 
and  the  latter  the  banner  county,  perhaps,  of  the  world.  I  am  glad  to 
see  both  of  them,  and  the  good  people  of  both.  That  I  may  not  disap 
point  these,  I  will  say  a  few  words  to  you  to-morrow  as  to  the  peculiar 
interests  of  Alleghany  County. 

On  the  morning  of  the  15th,  the  Mayor  and  Common 
Council  of  the  City  of  Pittsburg  waited  in  a  body  upon 
the  President-elect.  The  Mayor  made  him  an  address  of 
formal  welcome  in  presence  of  a  very  large  number  of 
citizens  who  had  assembled  to  witness  the  ceremony. 
After  the  applause  which  greeted  his  appearance  had 
subsided,  Mr.  Lincoln  made  the  following  remarks  :— 

I  most  cordially  thank  His  Honor  Mayor  Wilson,  and  the  citizens  of 
Pittsburg  generally,  for  their  flattering  reception.  I  am  the  more  grate 
ful  because  I  know  that  it  is  not  given  to  me  alone,  but  to  the  cause  I 
represent,  which  clearly  proves  to  me  their  good-will,  and  that  sincere 
feeling  is  at  the  bottom  of  it.  And  here  I  may  remark,  that  in  every 
short  address  I  have  made  to  the  people,  in  every  crowd  through  which 
T  have  passed  of  late,  some  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  present  dis 
tracted  condition  of  the  country.  It  is  natural  to  expect  that  I  should 
say  something  on  this  subject;  but  to  touch  upon  it  at  all  would  involve 
an  elaborate  discussion  of  a  great  many  questions  and  circumstances, 
requiring  more  time  than  I  can  at  present  command,  and  would,  perhaps, 
unnecessarily  commit  me  upon  matters  which  have  not  yet  fully  devel 
oped  themselves.  The  condition  of  the  country  is  an  extraordinary  one, 
and  fills  the  mind  of  every  patriot  with  anxiety.  It  is  my  intention  to 
give  this  subject  all  the  consideration  I  possibly  can  before  specially 
deciding  in  regard  to  it,  so  that  when  I  do  speak  it  may  be  as  nearly 
right  as  possible.  When  I  do  speak,  I  hope  I  may  say  nothing  in  opposi 
tion  to  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  contrary  to  the  integrity  of  tliQ 


138  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Union,  or  which  will  prove  inimical  to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  or  to 
the  peace  of  the  whole  country.  And,  furthermore,  when  the  time 
arrives  for  me  to  speak  on  this  great  subject,  I  hope  I  may  say  nothing 
to  disappoint  the  people  generally  throughout  the  country,  especially  if 
the  expectation  has  been  based  upon  any  thing  which  I  may  have  hereto 
fore  said.  Notwithstanding  the  troubles  across  the  river — (the  speaker 
pointing  southwardly  across  the  Monongahela,  and  smiling) — there  is  no 
crisis  but  an  artificial  one.  What  is  there  now  to  warrant  the  condition 
of  affairs  presented  by  our  friends  over  the  river  ?  Take  even  their  own 
view  of  the  questions  involved,  and  there  is  nothing  to  justify  the  course 
they  are  pursuing.  I  repeat,  then,  there  is  no  crisis,  excepting  such  a 
one  as  may  be  gotten  up  at  any  time  by  turbulent  men,  aided  by  design 
ing  politicians.  My  advice  to  them,  under  such  circumstances,  is  to  keep 
cool.  If  the  great  American  people  only  keep  their  temper  on  both  sides 
of  the  line,  the  troubles  will  come  to  an  end,  and  the  question  which 
now  distracts  the  country  will  be  settled,  just  as  surely  as  all  other  diffi 
culties  of  a  like  character  which  have  originated  in  this  Government 
have  been  adjusted.  Let  the  people  on  both  sides  keep  their  self-posses 
sion,  and  just  as  other  clouds  have  cleared  away  in  due  time,  so  will  this 
great  nation  continue  to  prosper  as  heretofore.  But,  fellow-citizens,  I 
have  spoken  longer  on  this  subject  than  I  intended  at  the  outset. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  Tariff  is  the  specialty  of  Pennsylvania. 
Assuming  that  direct  taxation  is  not  to  be  adopted,  the  Tariff  question 
must  be  as  durable  as  the  Government  itself.  It  is  a  question  of  national 
housekeeping.  It  is  to  the  Government  what  replenishing  the  meal-tub 
is  to  the  family.  Every  varying  circumstance  will  require  frequent 
modifications  as  to  the  amount  needed,  and  the  sources  of  supply.  So 
far  there  is  little  difference  of  opinion  among  the  people.  It  is  only 
whether,  and  how  far,  the  duties  on  imports  shall  be  adjusted  to  favor 
home  productions.  In  the  home  market  that  controversy  begins.  One 
party  insists  that  too  much  protection  oppresses  one  class  for  the  advan 
tage  of  another,  while  the  other  party  argues  that  with  all  its  incidents, 
in  the  long  run,  all  classes  are  benefited.  In  the  Chicago  Platform  there 
is  a  plank  upon  this  subject,  which  should  be  a  general  law  to  the  incom 
ing  Administration.  We  should  do  neither  more  nor  less  than  we  gave 
the  people  reason  to  believe  we  would  when  they  gave  us  their  votes. 
That  plank  is  as  I  now  read. 

Mr.  Lincc  Iri's  private  secretary  then  read  section  twelfth  of  the  Chicago 
Platform,  as  follows: — 

That  while  providing  revenue  for  the  support  of  the  General  Govern 
ment,  by  duties  upon  imports,  sound  policy  requires  such  an  adjustment 
of  these  imports  as  will  encourage  the  development  of  the  industrial 
interest  of  the  whole  country;  and  we  commend  that  policy  of  national 
exchanges  which  secures  to  working-men  liberal  wages,  to  agriculture 
remunerative  prices,  to  mechanics  and  manufacturers  adequate  reward 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  139 

for  the:r  skill,  labor,  and  enterprise,  and  to  the  nation  commercial  pros 
perity  and  independence. 

Mr.  Lincoln  resumed:  As  with  all  general  propositions,  doubtless  there 
will  be  shades  of  difference  in  construing  this.  I  have  by  no  means  a 
thoroughly  matured  judgment  upon  this  subject,  especially  as  to  details; 
some  general  ideas  are  about  all.  I  have  long  thought  to  produce  any 
necessary  article  at  home  which  can  be  made  of  as  good  quality  and  with 
as  little  labor  at  home  as  abroad,  would  be  better  policy,  at  least  by  the 
difference  of  the  carrying  from  abroad.  In  such  a  case,  the  carrying  is 
demonstrably  a  dead  loss  of  labor.  For  instance,  labor  being  the  true 
standard  of  value,  is  it  not  plain  that  if  equal  labor  gets  a  bar  of  railroad 
iron  out  of  a  mine  in  England,  and  another  out  of  a  mine  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  each  can  be  laid  down  in  a  track  at  home  cheaper  than  they  could 
exchange  countries,  at  least  by  the  cost  of  carriage?  If  there  be  a  pres 
ent  cause  why  one  can  be  both  made  and  carried  cheaper  in  money 
price  than  the  other  can  be  made  without  carrying,  that  cause  is  an 
unnatural  and  injurious  one,  and  ought  naturally,  if  not  rapidly,  to  be 
removed.  The  condition  of  the  treasury  at  this  time  would  seem  to 
render  an  early  revision  of  the  Tariff  indispensable.  The  Morrill  Tariff 
Bill,  now  pending  before  Congress,  may  or  may  not  become  a  law.  I 
am  not  posted  as  to  its  particular  provisions,  but  if  they  are  generally 
satisfactory,  and  the  bill  shall  now  pass,  there  will  be  an  end  of  the  mat 
ter  for  the  present.  If,  however,  it  shall  not  pass,  I  suppose  the  whole 
subject  will  be  one  of  the  most  pressing  and  important  for  the  next  Con 
gress.  By  the  Constitution,  the  Executive  may  recommend  measures 
which  he  may  think  proper,  and  he  may  veto  those  he  thinks  improper, 
and  it  is  supposed  that  he  may  add  to  these  certain  indirect  influences 
to  affect  the  action  of  Congress.  My  political  education  strongly  inclines 
me  against  a  very  free  use  of  any  of  these  means  by  the  Executive  to 
control  the  legislation  of  the  country.  As  a  rule,  I  think  it  better  that 
Congress  should  originate  as  well  as  perfect  its  measures  without  external 
bias.  I,  therefore,  would  rather  recommend  to  every  gentleman  who 
knows  he  is  to  be  a  member  of  the  next  Congress  to  take  an  enlarged 
view,  and  inform  himself  thoroughly,  so  as  to  contribute  his  part  to  such 
an  adjustment  of  the  tariff  as  shall  produce  a  sufficient  revenue,  and  in  its 
other  bearings,  so  far  as  possible,  be  just  and  equal  to  all  sections  of  the 
country,  and  all  classes  of  the  people. 

Mr.  Lincoln  left  Pittsburg  immediately  after  the  delivery 
of  this  speech,  being  accompanied  to  the  depot  by  a  long 
procession  of  the  people  of  the  city.  The  train  reached 
Cleveland  at  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  Pres 
ident-elect  was  received  by  a  long  procession,  which 
marched,  amidst  the  roar  of  artillery,  through  the  princi- 


140  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

pal  streets  to  the  Weddell  House,  where  Mr.  Lincoln,  in 
reply  to  an  address  of  welcome  from  the  Mayor,  made  the 
following  remarks  : — 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  CLEVELAND: — -We  have  been 
marching  about  two  miles  through  snow,  rain,  and  deep  mud.  The  large 
numbers  that  have  turned  out  under  these  circumstances  testify  that  you 
are  in  earnest  about  something  or  other.  But  do  I  think  so  meanly  of 
you  as  to  suppose  that  that  earnestness  is  about  me  personally?  I  would 
be  doing  you  injustice  to  suppose  it  was.  You  have  assembled  to  testify 
your  respect  to  the  Union,  and  the  Constitution  and  the  laws.  And  here 
let  me  state  that  it  is  with  you,  the  people,  to  advance  the  great  cause  of 
the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  and  not  with  any  one  man.  It  rests  with 
you  alor.e.  This  fact  is  strongly  impressed  on  my  mind  at  present.  In  a 
community  like  this,  whose  appearance  testifies  to  their  intelligence,  I 
am  convinced  that  the  cause  of  liberty  and  the  Union  can  never  be  in 
danger.  Frequent  allusion  is  made  to  the  excitement  at  present  existing 
in  our  national  politics,  and  it  is  as  well  that  I  should  also  allude  to  it 
here.  I  think  that  there  is  no  occasion  for  any  excitement.  The  crisis, 
as  it  is  called,  is  altogether  an  artificial  crisis.  In  all  parts  of  the  nation 
there  are  diiferences  of  opinion  on  politics.  There  are  differences  of 
opinion  even  here.  You  did  not  all  vote  for  the  person  who  now  ad 
dresses  you.  What  is  happening  now  will  not  hurt  those  who  are 
further  away  from  here.  Have  they  not  all  their  rights  now  as  they 
ever  have  had?  Do  not  they  have  their  fugitive  slaves  returned  now  as 
ever  ?  Have  they  not  the  same  Constitution  that  they  have  lived  under 
for  seventy  odd  years?  Have  they  not  a  position  as  citizens  of  this  com 
mon  country,  and  have  we  any  power  to  change  that  position?  [Cries 
of  "No."]  What,  then,  is  the  matter  with  them?  Why  all  this  excite 
ment?  Why  all  these  complaints?  As  I  said  before,  this  crisis  is  all 
artificial!  It  has  no  foundation  in  fact.  It  was  not  "  argued  up."  as  the 
saying  is,  and  cannot  therefore  be  argued  down.  Let  it  alone,  and  it  will 
go  down  of  itself.  [Laughter.]  Mr.  Lincoln  said  that  they  must 
be  content  with  but  a  few  words  from  him.  He  was  very  much 
fatigued,  and  had  spoken  so  much  that  he  was  already  hoarse.  Ho 
thanked  them  for  the  cordial  and  magnificent  reception  they  had  given 
him.  Not  less  did  he  thank  them  for  the  votes  they  gave  him  last  fall ; 
and  quite  as  much  he  thanked  them  for  the  efficient  aid  they  had  given 
the  cause  which  he  represented — a  cause  which  he  would  say  was  a  good 
one. 

He  had  one  more  word  to  say.  He  was  given  to  understand  that  this 
reception  was  tendered  not  only  by  his  own  party  supporters,  but  by 
men  of  all  parties.  This  is  as  it  should  be.  If  Judge  Douglas  had  been 
elected,  arid  had  been  here,  on  his  way  to  Washington,  as  I  am  to-night, 
tin-  Republicans  should  have  joined  his  supporters  in  welcoming  him, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  14] 

just  as  his  friends  have  joined  with  mine  to-night.  If  all  do  not  join 
now  to  save  the  good  old  ship  of  the  Union  on  this  voyage,  nobody  will 
have  a  chance  to  pilot  her  on  another  voyage.  lie  concluded  by  thank 
ing  all  present  for  the  devotion  they  had  shown  to  the  cause  of  the 
Union. 

On  the  morning  of  the  16th  the  Presidential  party  left 
Cleveland  for  Buffalo.  At  Erie,  where  they  dined,  loud 
calls  were  made  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  for  a  speech,  in  response 
to  which  he  made  a  few  remarks,  excusing  himself  for  not 
expressing  his  opinions  on  the  exciting  questions  of  the 
day.  He  trusted  that  when  the  time  for  speaking  should 
come,  he  should  lind  it  necessary  to  say  nothing  not  in 
accordance  with  the  Constitution,  as  well  as  with  the 
interests  of  the  people  of  the  whole  country.  At  North 
east  Station  he  took  occasion  to  state  that  during  the  cam 
paign  he  had  received  a  letter  from  a  young  girl  of  the 
place,  in  which  he  was  kindly  admonished  to  do  certain 
tilings,  and  among  others  to  let  his  whiskers  grow  ;  and, 
as  he  had  acted  upon  that  piece  of  advice,  he  would  now 
be  glad  to  welcome  his  fair  correspondent,  if  she  was 
among  the  crowd.  In  response  to  the  call  a  lassie  made 
her  way  through  the  crowd,  was  helped  on  the  platform, 
and  was  kissed  by  the  President. 

Arriving  at  Buffalo,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  the  utmost  diffi 
culty  to  make  his  way  through  the  dense  crowd  which 
had  assembled  in  anticipation  of  Ids  arrival.  On  reaching 
the  American  Hotel,  he  was  welcomed  in  a  brief  speech  by 
Acting-Mayor  Bemis,  to  which  he  responded  as  follows  :— 

MR.  MATOK  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  BUFFALO  AND  THE  STATE  OF  NEW 
YOKK  : — I  am  here  to  thank  you  briefly  for  this  grand  reception  given  to 
me,  not  personally,  but  as  the  representative  of  our  great  and  beloved 
country.  [Cheers.]  Your  worthy  Mayor  has  been  pleased  to  mention, 
in  his  address  to  me,  the  fortunate  and  agreeable  journey  which  I  have 
had  from  home,  only  it  is  a  rather  circuitous  route  to  the  Federal  Capital. 
I  am  very  happy  that  he  was  enabled  in  truth  to  congratulate  myself  and 
company  on  that  fact.  It  is  true  we  have  had  nothing  thus  far  to  mar 
the  pleasure  of  the  trip.  "We  have  not  been  met  alone  by  those  who 
assisted  in  giving  the  election  to  me;  I  say  not  alone  by  them,  but  by  the 
whole  population  of  the  country  through  which  we  have  passed.  Tins  in 
as  it  should  be.  Hud  the  election  fallen  to  any  other  of  the  distinguished 


142  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

candidates  instead  of  myself,  under  the  peculiar  circumstances,  to  say  the 
least,  it  would  have  been  proper  for  all  citizens  to  have  greeted  him  as 
you  now  greet  me.  It  is  an  evidence  of  the  devotion  of  the  whole  people 
to  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  liberties  of  this 
country.  [Cheers.]  I  am  unwilling  on  any  occasion  that  I  should  be  so 
meanly  thought  of  as  to  have  it  supposed  for  a  moment  that  these  demon 
strations  are  tendered  to  me  personally.  They  are  tendered  to  the  country, 
to  the  institutions  of  the  country,  and  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  liberties  of 
the-country,  for  which  these  institutions  were  made  and  created. 

Your  worthy  Mayor  has  thought  fit  to  express  the  hope  that  I  may  be 
able  to  relieve  the  country  from  the  present,  or,  I  should  say,  the  threat 
ened  difficulties.  I  am  sure  I  bring  a  heart  true  to  the  work.  [Tremen 
dous  applause.]  For  the  ability  to  perform  it,  I  must  trust  in  that  Supreme 
Being  who  has  never  forsaken  this  favored  land,  through  the  instrumen 
tality  of  this  great  and  intelligent  people.  Without  that  assistance  I  shall 
surely  fail ;  with  it,  I  cannot  fail.  When  we  speak  of  threatened  difficul 
ties  to  the  country,  it  is  natural  that  it  should  be  expected  that  something 
should  be  said  by  myself  with  regard  to  particular  measures.  Upon  more 
mature  reflection,  however — and  others  will  agree  with  me — that,  when 
it  is  considered  that  these  difficulties  are  without  precedent,  and  never 
have  been  acted  upon  by  any  individual  situated  as  I  am,  it  is  most  proper 
I  should  wait  arid  see  the  developments,  and  get  all  the  light  possible,  so 
that  when  I  do  speak  authoritatively,  I  may  be  as  near  right  as  possible. 
[Cheers.]  When  I  shall  speak  authoritatively,  I  hope  to  say  nothing  in 
consistent  with  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  the  rights  of  all  the  States, 
of  each  State,  and  of  each  section  of  the  country,  and  not  to  disappoint 
the  reasonable  expectations  of  those  who  have  confided  to  me  their  votes. 
In  this  connection  allow  me  to  say  that  you,  as  a  portion  of  the  great 
American  people,  need  only  to  maintain  your  composure,  stand  up  to 
your  sober  convictions  of  right,  to  your  obligations  to  the  Constitution, 
and  act  in  accordance  with  those  sober  convictions,  and  the  clouds  which 
now  arise  in  the  horizon  will  be  dispelled,  and  we  shall  have  a  bright  and 
glorious  future ;  and  when  this  generation  has  passed  away,  tens  of  thou 
sands  will  inhabit  this  country  where  only  thousands  inhabit  it  now.  I 
do  not  propose  to  address  you  at  length ;  I  have  no  voice  for  it.  Allow  me 
again  to  thank  you  for  this  magnificent  reception,  and  bid  you  fareweJl. 

Mr.  Lincoln  remained  at  Buffalo  over  Sunday,  the  17th, 
and  on  the  morning  of  the  18th  left  for  Albany.  On 
reaching  Rochester,  he  was  introduced  by  the  Mayor  to  a 
crowd  of  several  thousands,  to  whom  he  said  :— 

I  confess  myself,  after  having  seen  many  large  audiences  since  leaving 
home,  overwhelmed  with  this  vast  number  of  faces  at  this  hour  of  the 
morning.  I  am  not  vain  enough  to  believe  that  you  are  here  from  any 
wish  to  see  me  as  an  individual,  but  because  I  am  for  the  time  being  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  143 

representative  of  the  American  people.  I  could  not,  if  I  would,  address 
you  at  any  length.  I  have  not  the  strength,  even  if  I  liau  the  time,  for  a 
speech  at  each  of  these  many  interviews  that  are  afforded  me  on  my  way 
to  Washington.  I  appear  merely  to  see  you,  and  to  let  you  see  me,  and 
to  hid  you  farewell.  I  hope  it  will  be  understood  that  it  is  from  no  dis 
inclination  to  oblige  anybody  that  I  do  not  address  you  at  greater  length. 

At  Syracuse,  where  preparations  had  been  made  to  give 
him  a  formal  reception,  he  made  the  following  remarks 
in  reply  to  an  address  of  welcome  from  the  Mayor  :— 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  I  see  you  have  erected  a  very  fine  and  hand 
some  platform  here  for  me,  and  I  presume  you  expected  me  to  speak  from 
it.  If  I  should  go  upon  it,  you  would  imagine  that  I  was  about  to  deliver 
you  a  much  longer  speech  than  I  am.  I  wish  you  to  understand  that  I 
mean  no  discourtesy  to  you  by  thus  declining.  I  intend  discourtesy  to  no 
one.  But  I  wish  you  to  understand  that,  though  I  am  unwilling  to  go 
upon  this  platform,  you  are  not  at  liberty  to  draw  any  inferences  concern 
ing  any  other  platform  with  which  ray  name  has  been  or  is  connected. 
[Laughter  and  applause.]  I  wish  you  long  life  and  prosperity  individu 
ally,  and  pray  that  with  the  perpetuity  of  those  institutions  under  which 
we  have  all  so  long  lived  and  prospered,  our  happiness  may  be  secured, 
our  future  made  brilliant,  arid  the  glorious  destiny  of  our  country  estab 
lished  forever.  I  bid  you  a  kind  farewell. 

At  Utica,  where  an  immense  and  most  enthusiastic 
assemblage  of  people  from  the  surrounding  country  had 
gathered  to  see  him,  Mr.  Lincoln  contented  himself  by 
saying : — 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — I  have  no  speech  to  make  to  you,  and  no  time 
to  speak  in.  I  appear  before  you  that  I  may  see  you,  and  that  you  may 
see  me  ;  and  I  am  willing  to  admit,  that  so  far  as  the  ladies  are  concerned, 
I  have  the  best  of  the  bargain,  though  I  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  I 
do  not  make  the  same  acknowledgment  concerning  the  men.  [Laughter 
and  applause.] 

The  train  reached  Albany  at  half- past  two  in  the  after 
noon,  where  Mr.  Lincoln  was  formally  received  by  the 
Mayor  in  a  complimentary  address,  to  which  he  thus 
replied : — 

MR.  MAYOR: — 1  can  hardly  appropriate  to  myself  the  nattering  terms  in 
which  you  communicate  the  tender  of  this  reception,  as  personal  to  my 
self.  I  most  gratefully  accept  the  hospitalities  tendered  to  me,  and  will 
not  detain  you  or  the  audience  with  any  extended  remarks  at  this  tiiuu 


144  THE  LIFK,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

[  presume  that  in  the  two  or  three  courses  through  which  I  shall  have  to 
go,  I  shall  have  to  repeat  somewhat,  and  I  will  therefore  only  repeat  to 
you  my  thanks  for  this  kind  reception. 

A  procession  was  then  formed,  which  escorted  Mr.  Lin 
coln  to  the  steps  of  the  Capital,  where  he  was  welcomed 
by  the  Governor,  in  presence  of  an  immense  mass  of  the 
people,  whom  he  addressed  as  follows  : — 

MR.  GOVERNOR: — I  was  pleased  to  receive  an  invitation  to  visit  the 
capital  of  the  great  Empire  State  of  the  nation,  on  my  way  to  the  Federal 
Capital,  and  I  now  thank  you,  Mr.  Governor,  and  the  people  of  this  capital, 
and  the  people  of  the  State  of  New  York,  for  this  most  hearty  and  mag 
nificent  welcome.  If  I  am  not  at  fault,  the  great  Empire  State  at  this 
time  contains  a  greater  population  than  did  the  United  States  of  America 
at  the  time  she  achieved  her  national  independence.  I  am  proud  to  bo 
invited  to  pass  through  your  capital  and  meet  them,  as  I  now  have  the 
honor  to  do. 

I  am  notified  by  your  Governor  that  this  reception  is  given  without 
distinction  of  party.  I  accept  it  the  more  gladly  because  it  is  so.  Almost 
all  men  in  this  country,  and  in  any  country  where  freedom  of  thought 
is  tolerated,  attach  themselves  to  political  parties.  It  is  but  ordinary 
charity  to  attribute  this  to  the  fact  that  in  so  attaching  himself  to  the 
party  which  his  judgment  prefers,  the  citizen  believes  he  thereby  promotes 
the  best  interests  of  the  whole  country  ;  and  when  an  election  is  passed, 
it  is  altogether  befitting  a  free  people  that,  until  the  next  election,  they 
should  be  as  one  people.  The  reception  you  have  extended  to  me  to-day 
is  not  given  to  me  personally.  It  should  not  be  so,  but  as  the  representa 
tive  for  the  time  being  of  the  majority  of  the  nation.  If  the  election  had 
resulted  in  the  selection  of  either  of  the  other  candidates,  the  same  cor 
diality  should  have  been  extended  to  him  as  is  extended  to  me  this  day, 
in  testimony  of  the  devotion  of  the  whole  people  to  the  Constitution  and 
the  whole  Union,  and  of  their  desire  to  perpetuate  our  institutions,  and  to 
hand  them  down  in  their  perfection  to  succeeding  generations. 

I  have  neither  the  voice  nor  the  strength  to  address  you  at  any  greater 
length.  I  beg  you  will  accept  my  most  grateful  thanks  for  this  devotion — 
not  to  me,  but  to  this  great  and  glorious  free  country. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  then  escorted  to  the  Hall  of  Assembly, 
and  was  formally  received  on  behalf  of  the  members 
of  the  legislature,  to  whom  he  made  the  following  ad 
dress  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  THE  STATE  ov 
NEW  YORK  : — It  is  Avith  feelings  of  great  diffidence,  and,  I  may  say,  with 
filings  of  uwe,  perhaps  greater  than  I  have  recently  experienced,  that  J 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  145 

meet  you  here  in  this  place.  The  history  of  this  great  State,  the  renown 
of  those  great  men  who  have  stood  here,  and  spoke  here,  and  been  heard 
here,  all  crowd  around  my  fancy,  and  incline  me  to  shrink  from  any 
attempt  to  address  you.  Yet  I  have  some  confidence  given  me  by  the 
generous  manner  in  which  you  have  invited  me,  and  by  the  still  more 
generous  manner  in  which  you  have  received  me,  to  speak  further.  You 
have  invited  and  received  me  without  distinction  of  party.  I  cannot  for 
a  moment  suppose  that  this  has  been  done  in  any  considerable  degree 
with  reference  to  my  personal  services,  but  that  it  is  done  in  so  far  as  I 
am  regarded  at  this  time  as  the  representative  of  the  majesty  of  this  great 
nation.  I  doubt  not  this  is  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth,  of  the  case, 
and  this  is  as  it  should  be.  It  is  much  more  gratifying  to  me  that  this 
reception  has  been  given  to  me  as  the  representative  of  a  free  people, 
than  it  could  possibly  be  if  tendered  as  an  evidence  of  devotion 'to  me,  or 
to  any  one  man  personally.  And  now  I  think  it  were  more  fitting  that 
I  should  close  these  hasty  remarks.  It  is  true  that,  while  I  hold  myself, 
without  mock  modesty,  the  humblest  of  all  individuals  that  have  ever 
been  elevated  to  the  Presidency,  I  have  a  more  difficult  task  to  perform 
than  any  one  of  them.  You  have  generously  tendered  me  the  united 
support  of  the  great  Empire  State.  For  this,  in  behalf  of  the  nation — in 
behalf  of  the  present  and  future  of  the  nation — in  behalf  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty  for  all  time  to  come,  most  gratefully  do  I  thank  you.  I 
I  do  not  propose  to  enter  into  an  explanation  of  any  particular  line  of 
policy,  as  to  our  present  difficulties,  to  be  adopted  by  the  incoming  Ad 
ministration.  I  deem  it  just  to  you,  to  myself,  and  to  all,  that  I  should 
see  every  thing,  that  I  should  hear  every  thing,  that  I  should  have  every 
light  that  can  be  brought  within  my  reach,  in  order  that,  when  I  do  so 
speak,  I  shall  have  enjoyed  every  opportunity  to  take  correct  and  true 
grounds  ;  and  for  this  reason  I  don't  propose  to  speak,  at  this  time,  of  the 
policy  of  the  Government.  But  when  the  time  comes  I  shall  speak,  as 
well  as  I  am  able,  for  the  good  of  the  present  and  future  of  this  country — 
for  the  good  both  of  the  North  and  the  South  of  this  country — for  the 
good  of  the  one  and  the  other,  and  of  all  sections  of  the  country.  [Rounds 
of  applause.]  In  the  mean  time,  if  we  have  patience,  if  we  restrain  our 
selves,  if  we  allow  ourselves  not  to  run  off  in  a  passion,  I  still  have  confi 
dence  that  the  Almighty,  the  Maker  of  the  Universe,  will,  through  the 
instrumentality  of  this  great  and  intelligent  people,  bring  us  through  this, 
as  he  has  through  all  the  other  difficulties  of  our  country.  Relying  on 
this,  I  again  thank  you  for  this  generous  reception.  [Applause  and 
cheers.] 

On  the  morning  of  the  19th  Mr.  Lincoln  went  to  Troy, 
and,  in  reply  to  the  welcome  of  the  Mayor,  said  : — 

ME.  MAYOR  AND  CITIZENS  or  TROT  : — I  thank  you  very  kindly  for  this 
cjreat  reception.    Since  I  left  my  home  it  has  not  been  my  fortune  to  meet 
]0 


L46  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

an  assemblage  more  numerous  and  moro  orderly  than  this.  I  am  the 
more  graitfied  at  this  mark  of  your  regard,  since  you  assure  me  it  is  ten 
dered,  not  to  the  individual,  but  to  the  high  office  you  have  called  me  to 
fill.  I  have  neither  strength  nor  time  to  make  any  extended  remarks,  and 
I  can  only  repeat  to  you  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  kind  reception  you 
have  thought  proper  to  extend  to  me. 

On  tlie  route  to  New  York,  by  the  Hudson  River  Rail 
road,  very  large  crowds  of  people  had  assembled  at  the 
various  stations  to  welcome  him.  At  Hudson  he  spoke 
as  follows : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  see  that  you  have  provided  a  platform,  but  I  shall 
have  to  decline  standing  on  it.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  The  superin 
tendent  tells  me  I  have  not  time  during  our  brief  stay  to  leave  the  train. 
I  had  to  decline  standing  on  some  very  handsome  platforms  prepared  for 
me  yesterday.  But  I  say  to  you,  as  I  said  to  them,  you  must  not  on  this 
account  draw  the  inference  that  I  have  any  intention  to  desert  any  plat 
form  I  have  a  legitimate  right  to  stand  on.  I  do  not  appear  before  you 
for  the  purpose  of  making  a  speech.  I  come  only  to  see  you,  and  to  give 
you  the  opportunity  to  see  me ;  and  I  say  to  you,  as  I  have  before  said  to 
crowds  where  there  are  so  many  handsome  ladies  as  there  are  here,  I 
think  I  have  decidedly  the  best  of  the  bargain.  I  have  only,  therefore, 
to  thank  you  most  cordially  for  this  kind  reception,  and  bid  you  all  fare 
well. 

At  Poughkeepsie,  where  great  preparations  had  been 
made  for  his  reception,  he  responded  thus  to  an  address 
from  the  Mayor  : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS: — It  is  altogether  impossible  I  should  make  myself 
heard  by  any  considerable  portion  of  this  vast  assemblage ;  but,  although 
I  appear  before  you  mainly  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  you,  and  to  let  you 
see,  rather  than  hear  me,  I  cannot  refrain  from  saying  that  I  am  highly 
gratified — as  much  here,  indeed,  under  the  circumstances,  as  I  have  been 
anywhere  on  my  route — to  witness  this  noble  demonstration — made,  not 
in  honor  of  an  individual,  but  of  the  man  who  at  this  time  humbly,  but 
earnestly,  represents  the  majesty  of  the  nation.  This  reception,  like  all 
others  that  have  been  tendered  to  me,  doubtless  emanates  from  all  the 
political  parties,  and  not  from  one  alone.  As  such  I  accept  it  the  more 
gratefully,  since  it  indicates  an  earnest  desire  on  the  part  of  the  whole 
people,  without  regard  to  political  differences,  to  save — not  the  country, 
because  the  country  will  save  itself — but  to  save  the  institutions  of  the 
country — those  institutions  under  which,  in  the  last  three-quarters  of  a 
century,  we  have  grown  to  be  a  great,  an  intelligent,  and  a  happy  people 
—the  greatest,  the  most  intelligent,  and  the  happiest  people  in  the  world 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  147 

These  noble  manifestations  indicate,  with  unerring  certainty,  that  the 
whole  people  are  willing  to  make  common  cause  for  this  object;  that  if, 
as  it  ever  must  be,  some  have  been  successful  in  the  recent  election,  and 
some  have  been  beaten — if  some  are  satisfied,  and  some  are  dissatisfied, 
the  defeated  party  are  not  in  favor  of  sinking  the  ship,  but  are  desirous 
of  running  it  through  the  tempest  in  safety,  and  willing,  if  they  think  the 
people  have  committed  an  error  in  their  verdict  now,  to  wait  in  the  hope 
of  reversing  it,  and  setting  it  right  next  time.  I  do  not  say  that  in  the 
recent  election  the  people  did  the  wisest  thing  that  could  have  been  done ; 
indeed,  I  do  not  think  they  did ;  but  I  do  say,  that  in  accepting  the  great 
trust  committed  to  me,  which  I  do  with  a  determination  to  endeavor  to 
prove  worthy  of  it,  I  must  rely  upon  you,  upon  the  people  of  the  whole 
country,  for  support ;  and  with  their  sustaining  aid,  even  I,  humble  as  I 
am,  cannot  fail  to  carry  the  ship  of  State  safely  through  the  storm. 

I  have  now  only  to  thank  you  warmly  for  your  kind  attendance,  and 
bid  you  all  an  affectionate  farewell. 

At  Peekskill,  in  reply  to  a  brief  address  from  Judge 
Nelson,  lie  said  : — 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — I  have  but  a  moment  to  stand  before  you,  to 
listen  to  and  return  your  kind  greeting.  I  thank  you  for  this  reception, 
and  for  the  pleasant  manner  in  which  it  is  tendered  to  me,  by  our  mutual 
friend.  I  will  say  in  a  single  sentence,  in  regard  to  the  difficulties  that 
lie  before  me  and  our  beloved  country,  that  if  I  can  only  be  as  generously 
and  unanimously  sustained  as  tho  demonstrations  I  have  witnessed  indi 
cate  I  shall  be,  I  shall  not  fail ;  but  without  your  sustaining  hands  I  am 
sure  that  neither  I,  nor  any  other  man,  can  hope  to  surmount  these  diffi 
culties.  I  trust  that  in  the  course  I  shall  pursue  I  shall  be  sustained,  not 
only  by  the  party  that  elected  me,  but  by  the  patriotic  people  of  the  whole 
country. 

The  President-elect  reached  New  York  at  three  o'clock, 
and  was  received  "by  an  immense  demonstration  of  popu 
lar  enthusiasm.  Places  of  business  were  generally  closed, 
and  the  streets  w^re  filled  with  people,  eager  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  his  person.  On  reaching  the  Astor  House,  he 
was  compelled  by  the  importunity  of  the  assembled  crowd 
to  appear  on  the  balcony,  from  which  he  said  : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  have  stepped  before  you  merely  in  compliance 
with  what  appears  to  be  your  wish,  and  not  with  the  purpose  of  making 
a  speech.  I  do  not  propose  making  a  speech  this  afternoon.  I  could  not 
be  heard  by  any  but  a  small  fraction  of  you,  at  best ;  but,  what  is  still 
worse  than  that,  I  have  nothing  just  now  to  say  that  is  worthy  of  your 
hearing.  [Applause.]  I  beg  you  to  believe  that  I  do  not  now  refuse  to 


148  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  &EIIVICES,  AND 

address  you  from  any  disposition  to  disoblige  you,  but  to  the  contrary. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  I  beg  of  you  to  excuse  me  for  the  present. 

In  the  evening,  Mr.  Lincoln  received  a  large  deputation 
from  the  various  Republican  associations  which  had 
taken  an  active  part  in  the  election  canvass,  and  in  reply 
to  a  brief  welcome  from  Mr.  E.  D.  Smith,  on  their  behalf, 
he  thus  addressed  them  : — 

ME.  CHAIEMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN: — I  am  rather  an  old  man  to  avail 
myself  of  such  an  excuse  as  I  am  now  about  to  do.  Yet  the  truth  is  so 
distinct,  and  presses  itself  so  distinctly  upon  me,  that  I  cannot  well  avoid 
it — and  that  is,  that  I  did  not  understand  when  I  was  brought  into  this 
room  that  I  was  brought  here  to  make  a  speech.  It  was  not  intimated  to 
me  that  I  was  brought  into  the  room  where  DANIEL  WEBSTEE  and  HENET 
CLAY  had  made  speeches,  and  where,  in  my  position,  I  might  be  expected 
to  do  something  like  those  men,  or  do  something  worthy  of  myself  or  my 
audience.  I,  therefore,  will  beg  you  to  make  very  great  allowance  for 
the  circumstances  in  which  I  have  been  by  surprise  brought  before 
you.  Jtfow,  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  thinking  and  speaking  sometimes 
upon  political  questions  that  have  for  some  years  past  agitated  the  coun 
try  ;  and,  if  I  were  disposed  to  do  so,  and  we  could  take  up  some  one  of 
the  issues,  as  the  lawyers  call  them,  and  I  were  called  upon  to  make  an 
argument  about  it  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  I  could  do  so  without  much 
preparation.  But  that  is  not  what  you  desire  to  be  done  here  to-night. 

I  have  been  occupying  a  position  since  the  Presidential  election  of 
silence,  of  avoiding  public  sneaking,  of  avoiding  public  writing.  I  have 
been  doing  so,  because  I  thought,  upon  full  consideration,  that  was  the 
proper  course  for  me  to  take.  [Great  applause.]  I  am  brought  before 
you  now,  and  required  to  make  a  speech,  when  you  all  approve  more  than 
any  thing  else  of  the  fact  that  I  have  been  keeping  silence.  [Great  laugh 
ter,  cries  of  "Good,"  and  applause.]  And  now  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
response  you  give  to  that  remark  ought  to  justify  me  in  closing  just  here. 
[Great  laughter.]  I  have  not  kept  silence  since  the  Presidential  election 
-from  any  party  \vantonness,  or  from  any  indifference  to  the  anxiety  that 
pervades  the  minds  of  men  about  the  aspect  of  the  political  affairs  of  this 
country.  I  have  kept  silence  for  the  reason  that  I  supposed  it  was  pecu 
liarly  proper  that  I  should  do  so  until  the  time  came  when,  according  to 
the  custom  of  the  country,  I  could  speak  officially. 

A  voice — The  custom  of  the  country  ? 

I  heard  some  gentleman  say,  "  According  to  the  custom  of  the  country." 
I  alluded  to  the  custom  of  the  President-elect,  at  the  time  of  taking  the 
oath  of  office.  That  is  what  I  meant  by  "  the  custom  of  the  country." 
I  do  suppose  that,  while  the  political  drama  being  enacted  in  this  coun 
try,  ac  this  time,  is  rapidly  shifting  its  scenes — forbidding  an  anticipation, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  149 

with  any  degree  of  certainty,  to-day,  what  we  shall  see  to-morrow— it 
was  peculiarly  fitting  that  I  should  see  it  all,  up  to  the  last  minute,  heforc 
T  should  take  ground  that  I  might  be  disposed  (by  the  shifting  of  the 
scenes  afterwards)  also  to  shift.  [Applause.]  I  have  said,  several  times, 
upon  this  journey,  and  I  now  repeat  it  to  you,  that  when  the  time  does 
'come,  I  shall  then  take  the  ground  that  I  think  is  right— [applause]— the 
ground  that  I  think  is  right— [applause,  and  cries  of  "  Good,  good  "—right 
for  the  North,  for  the  South,  for  the  East,  for  the  West,  for  the  whole 
country.  [Cries  of  "  Good,"  "Hurrah  for  Lincoln,"  and  applause.]  And 
in  doing  so,  I  hope  to  feel  no  necessity  pressing  upon  me  to  say  any  thing 
in  conflict  with  the  Constitution;  in  conflict  with  the  continued  union  of 
these  States— [applause]— in  conflict  with  the  perpetuation  of  the  liberties 
of  this  people— [applause]— or  any  thing  in  conflict  with  any  thing  what 
ever  that  I  have  ever  given  you  reason  to  expect  from  me.  [Applause.] 
And  now,  my  friends,  have  I  said  enough?  [Loud  cries  of  "No,  no," 
and  three  cheers  for  Lincoln.]  Now,  my  friends,  there  appears  to  be  a 
difference  of  opinion  between  you  and  me,  and  I  really  feel  called  upon 
to  decide  the  question  myself.  [Applause,  during  which  Mr.  Lincoln 
descended  from  the  table.] 

On  the  morning  of  the  20th  Mr.  Lincoln  proceeded  to 
the  City  Hall,  where  it  had  been  arranged  that  he  should 
have  an  official  reception.  He  was  there  addressed  by 
Mayor  Wood  in  the  following  terms  :— 

MR.  LINCOLN:— As  Mayor  of  New  York,  it  becomes  my  duty  to  extend 
to  you  an  official  welcome  in  behalf  of  the  Corporation.    In  doing  so,  per 
mit  me  to  say,  that  this  city  has  never  offered  hospitality  to  a  man  clothed 
with  more  exalted  powers,  or  resting  under  graver  responsibilities,  than 
those  which  circumstances  have  devolved  upon  you.     Coining  into  office 
with  a  dismembered  Government  to  reconstruct,  and  a  disconnected  and 
hostile  people  to  reconcile,  it  will  require  a  high  patriotism,  and  an^eleva 
ted  comprehension  of  the  whole  country  and  its  varied  interests,  opinions, 
and  prejudices,  to  so  conduct  public  affairs  as  to  bring  it  back  again  to  its 
former  harmonious,  consolidated,  and  prosperous  condition.     If  I  refer  to 
this  topic,  sir,  it  is  because  New  York  is  deeply  interested.     The  present, 
political  divisions  have  sorely  afflicted  her  people.    All  her  material  inf 
ests  are  paralyzed.     Her  commercial  greatness  is  endangered.    She  is  the 
child  of  the  American  Union.    She  has  grown  up  under  its  maternal  care, 
and  been  fostered  by  its  paternal  bounty,  and  we  fear  that  if  the  Union 
dies,  the  present  supremacy  of  New  York  may  perish  with  it.     To  you, 
therefore,  chosen  under  the  forms  of  the  Constitution  as  the  head  of  the 
Confederacy,  we  look  for  a  restoration  of  fraternal  relations  between  the 
States— only  to  be  accomplished  by  peaceful  and  conciliatory  means,  aided 
by  the  wisdom  of  Almighty  God. 


150  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

To  this  address  Mr.  Lincoln  made  the  followin     re- 


MR.  MAYOR  :  —  It  is  with  feelings  of  deep  gratitude  that  I  make  my 
acknowledgments  for  the  reception  thai  has  been  given  me  in  the  £,veat 
commercial  City  of  New  York.  I  cannot  but  remember  that  it  is  done  by 
the  people,  who  do  not,  by  a  large  majority,  agree  with  me  in  political 
sentiment.  It  is  the  more  grateful  to  me,  because  in  this  I  see  that  for 
the  great  principles  of  our  Government  the  people  are  pretty  nearly  or 
quite  unanimous.  In  regard  to  the  difficulties  that  confront  us  at  this 
time,  and  of  which  you  have  seen  fit  to  speak  so  becomingly  and  so  justly, 
I  can  only  say  that  I  agree  with  the  sentiments  expressed.  In  my  devo 
tion  to  the  Union  I  hope  I  am  behind  no  man  in  the  nation.  As  to  my 
wisdom  in  conducting  affairs  so  as  to  tend  to  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,  I  fear  too  great  confidence  may  have  been  placed  in  me.  I  am 
sure  I  bring  a  heart  devoted  to  the  work.  There  is  nothing  that  could 
ever  bring  me  to  consent  —  willingly  to  consent  —  to  the  destruction  of  this 
Union  (in  which  not  only  the  great  City  of  New  York,  but  the  whole 
country,  has  acquired  its  greatness),  unless  it  would  be  that  thing  for 
which  the  Union  itself  was  made.  I  understand  that  the  ship  is  made  for 
the  carrying  and  preservation  of  the  cargo  ;  and  so  long  as  the  ship  is 
safe  with  the  cargo,  it  shall  not  be  abandoned.  This  Union  shall  never 
be  abandoned,  unless  the  possibility  of  its  existence  shall  cease  to  exist, 
without  the  necessity  of  throwing  passengers  ard  cargo  overboard.  So 
long,  then,  as  it  is  possible  that  the  prosperity  and  liberties  of  this  people 
can  be  preserved  within  this  Union,  it  shall  be  my  purpose  at  all  times  to 
preserve  it.  And  now,  Mr.  Mayor,  renewing  my  thanks  for  this  cordial 
reception,  allow  me  to  cpme  to  a  close.  [Applause.] 

On  the  morning  of  Thursday,  the  21st,  Mr.  Lincoln  left 
New  York  for  Philadelphia,  and  on  reaching  Jersey  City 
was  met  and  welcomed,  on  behalf  of  the  State,  Iby  the 
Hon.  W.  L.  Dayton,  to  whose  remarks  he  made  this  re- 


MR.  DAYTON  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  JERSEY  :  —  I  shall 
only  thank  you  briefly  for  this  very  kind  reception  given  me,  not  person 
ally,  but  as  the  temporary  representative  of  the  majesty  of  the  nation. 
[Applause.]  To  the  kindness  of  your  hearts,  and  of  the  hearts  of  your 
brethren  in  your  State,  I  should  be  very  proud  to  respond,  but  I  shall  not 
have  strength  to  address  you  or  other  assemblages  at  length,  even  if  I  had 
the  time  to  do  so.  I  appear  before  you,  therefore,  for  little  else  than  to 
greet  you,  and  to  briefly  say  farewell.  You  have  done  me  the  very  high 
honor  to  present  your  reception  courtesies  to  me  through  your  great  man 
—  a  man  with  whom  it  is  an  honor  to  be  associated  anywhere,  and  in 
owning  whom  no  State  can  be  poor.  [Applause.]  He  has  said  enough, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  151 

and  by  the  saying  of  it  suggested  enough,  to  require  it  response  of  an  hour 
well  considered.  [Applause.]  I  could  not  in  an  hour  make  a  worthy 
response  to  it.  I  therefore,  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  New  Jersey,  content 
myself  with  saying,  most  heartily  do  I  indorse  all  the  sentiments  he  h;w 
expressed.  [Applause.]  Allow  me,  most  gratefully,  to  bid  you  farewell. 
[Applause.] 

At  Newark  he  was  welcomed  by  the  Mayor,  to  whom 
he  said : — 

ME.  MAYOR  :— I  thank  you  for  this  reception  at  the  city  of  Newark. 
With  regard  to  the  great  work  of  which  you  speak,  I  will  say  that  I  bring 
to  it  a  heart  filled  with  love  for  my  country,  and  an  honest  desire  to  do 
what  is  right.  I  am  sure,  however,  that  I  have  not  the  ability  to  do  any 
thing  unaided  of  God,  and  that  without  his  support,  and  that  of  this  free, 
happy,  prosperous,  and  intelligent  people,  no  man  can  succeed  in  doing 
that  the  importance  of  which  we  all  comprehend.  Again  thanking  you 
for  the  reception  you  have  given  me,  I  will  now  bid  you  farewell,  and 
proceed  upon  my  journey. 

At  Trenton  he  was  received  "by  a  committee  of  the 
legislature,  and  escorted  to  both  branches,  which  were 
in  session.  The  President  of  the  Senate  welcomed  him  in 
a  brief  address,  to  which  he  made  the  following  reply  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  STATE  OF 
NEW  JERSEY  : — I  am  very  grateful  to  you  for  the  honorable  reception  of 
which  I  have  been  the  object.  I  cannot  but  remember  the  place  that 
New  Jersey  holds  in  our  early  history.  In  the  early  Revolutionary  strug 
gle  few  of  the  States  among  the  Old  Thirteen  had  more  of  the  battle-fields 
of  the  country  within  their  limits  than  old  New  Jersey.  May  I  be  par 
doned  if,  upon  this  occasion,  I  mention  that  away  back  in  my  childhood, 
the  earliest  days  of  my  being  able  to  read,  I  got  hold  of  a  small  book, 
such  a  one  as  few  of  the  younger  members  have  ever  seen,  "  WEEM'S  Life 
of  Washington"  I  remember  all  the  accounts  there  given  of  the  battle 
fields  and  struggles  for  the  liberties  of  the  country,  and  none  fixed  them 
selves  upon  my  imagination  so  deeply  as  the  struggle  here  at  Trenton, 
New  Jersey.  The  crossing  of  the  river ;  the  contest  with  the  Hessians ; 
the  great  hardships  endured  at  that  time,  all  fixed  themselves  on  my 
memory  more  than  any  single  Revolutionary  event ;  and  you  all  know,  for 
you  have  all  been  boys,  how  these  early  impressions  last  longer  than  any 
others.  I  recollect  thinking  then,  boy  even  though  I  was,  that  thero 
must  have  been  something  more  than  common  that  these  men  struggled 
for.  I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that  that  thing  which  they  struggled  for ; 
that  something  even  more  than  National  Independence;  that  something 
that  held  out  a  great  promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  world  to  all  time  to 


152  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

come — I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that  this  Union,  the  Constitution,  and 
the  liberties  of  the  people  shall  be  perpetuated  in  accordance  with  the 
original  idea  for  which  that  struggle  was  made,  and  I  shall  be  most  happy 
indeed  if  I  shall  be  an  humble  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty, 
and  of  this,  his  most  chosen  people,  as  the  chosen  instrument — also  in  the 
hands  of  the  Almighty — for  perpetuating  the  object  of  that  great  struggle. 
You  give  me  this  reception,  as  I  understand,  without  distinction  of  party. 
I  learn  that  this  body  is  composed  of  a  majority  of  gentlemen  who,  in  the 
exercise  of  their  best  judgment  in  the  choice  of  a  Chief  Magistrate,  did 
not  think  I  was  the  man.  I  understand,  nevertheless,  that  they  came 
forward  here  to  greet  me  as  the  constitutional  President  of  the  United 
States — as  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  meet  the  man  who,  for  the 
time  being,  is  the  representative  man  of  the  nation — united  by  a  purpose 
to  perpetuate  the  Union  and  liberties  of  the  people.  As  such,  I  accept 
this  reception  more  gratefully  than  I  could  do  did  I  believe  it  was  ten 
dered  to  me  as  an  individual. 

Mr.  Lincoln  then  passed  to  the  Assembly  Chamber, 
where,  in  reply  to  the  Speaker,  he  said  :— 

ME.  SPEAKER  AND  GENTLEMEN: — I  have  just  enjoyed  the  honor  of  a 
reception  by  the  other  branch  of  this  legislature,  and  I  return  to  you 
and  them  my  thanks  for  the  reception  which  the  people  of  New  Jersey 
have  given  through  their  chosen  representatives  to  me  as  the  representa 
tive,  for  the  time  being,  of  the  majesty  of  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
I  appropriate  to  myself  very  little  of  the  demonstrations  of  respect  with 
which  I  have  been  greeted.  I  think  little  should  be  given  to  any  man, 
but  that  it  should  be  a  manifestation  of  adherence  to  the  Union  and  the 
Constitution.  I  understand  myself  to  be  received  here  by  the  representa 
tives  of  the  people  of  New  Jersey,  a  majority  of  whom  differ  in  opinion 
from  those  with  whom  I  have  acted.  This  manifestation  is,  therefore,  to 
be  regarded  by  me  as  expressing  their  devotion  to  the  Union,  the  Consti 
tution,  and  the  liberties  of  the  people.  You,  Mr.  Speaker,  have  well  said 
that  this  is  a  time  when  the  bravest  and  wisest  look  with  doubt  and  awe 
upon  the  aspect  presented  by  our  national  affairs.  Under  these  circum 
stances,  you  will  readily  see  why  I  should  not  speak  in  detail  of  the  course 
I  shall  deem  it  best  to  pursue.  It  is  proper  that  I  should  avail  myself  of 
all  the  information  and  all  the  time  at  my  command,  in  order  that  when 
the  time  arrives  in  which  I  must  speak  officially,  I  shall  be  able  to  take  the 
ground  which  I  deem  the  best  and  safest,  and  from  which  I  may  have  no 
occasion  to  swerve.  I  shall  endeavor  to  take  the  ground  I  deem  most 
just  to  the  North,  the  East,  the  West,  the  South,  and  the  whole  country. 
I  take  it,  I  hope,  in  good  temper,  certainly  with  no  malice  towards  any 
section.  I  shall  do  all  that  may  be  in  my  power  to  promote  a  peaceful 
settlement  of  all  our  difficulties.  The  man  does  not  live  who  is  more  de 
voted  to  peace  than  I  am.  [Cheers.]  None  who  would  do  more  to  pre- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          153 

?erve  it,  but  it  may  be  necessary  to  put  the  foot  down  firmly.  [Here  the 
ludience  broke  out  into  cheers  so  loud  and  long,  that  for  some  moments 
t  was  impossible  to  hear  Mr.  Lincoln's  voice.]  And  if  I  do  my  duty  and 
lo  right,  you  will  sustain  me,  will  you  not  ?  [Loud  cheers,  and  cries  of 
4  Yes,  yes,  we  will."]  Keceived,  as  I  am,  by  the  members  of  a  legislature, 
the  majority  of  whom  do  not  agree  with  me  in  political  sentiments,  I 
trust  that  I  may  have  their  assistance  in  piloting  the  ship  of  State 
through  this  voyage,  surrounded  by  perils  as  it  is ;  for  if  it  should  suffer 
wreck  now,  there  will  be  no  pilot  ever  needed  for  another  voyage.  Gen 
tlemen,  I  have  already  spoken  longer  than  I  intended,  and  must  beg  leave 
to  stop  here. 

The  procession  then  moved  to  the  Trenton  House, 
where  the  President-elect  made  the  following  speech  to 
the  crowd  outside  :— 

I  have  been  invited  by  your  representatives  to  the  Legislature  to  visit 
this,  the  capital  of  your  honored  State,  and  in  acknowledging  their  kind 
invitation,  compelled  to  respond  to  the  welcome  of  the  presiding  officers  of 
each  body,  and  I  suppose  they  intended  I  should  speak  to  you  through 
them,  as  they  are  the  representatives  of  all  of  you ;  and  if  I  was  to  speak 
again  here,  I  should  only  have  to  repeat,  in  a  great  measure,  much  that  I 
have  said,  which  would  be  disgusting  to  my  friends  around  me  who  have 
met  here.  I  have  no  speech  to  make,  but  merely  appear  to  see  you  and 
let  you  look  at  me  ;  and  as  to  the  latter,  I  think  I  have  greatly  the  best  of 
the  bargain.  [Laughter.]  My  friends,  allow  me  to  bid  you  farewell. 

The  party  arrived  at  Philadelphia  at  4  o'clock,  and  the 
President-elect,  proceeding  immediately  to  the  Continen 
tal  Hotel,  was  welcomed  in  a  brief  speech  from  Mayor 
Henry,  to  which  he  replied  as  follows  : — 

ME.  MATOE  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  PHILADELPHIA  : — I  appear  before 
you  to  make  no  lengthy  speech,  but  to  thank  you  for  this  reception.  The 
reception  you  have  given  me  to-night  is  not  to  me,  the  man,  the  individ 
ual,  but  to  the  man  who  temporarily  represents,  or  should  represent,  the 
majesty  of  the  nation.  [Cheers.]  It  is  true,  as  your  worthy  Mayor  has 
said,  that  there  is  anxiety  amongst  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  at  this 
time.  I  deem  it  a  happy  circumstance  that  this  dissatisfied  position  of  our 
fellow-citizens  does  not  point  us  to  any  thing  in  which  they  are  being 
injured,  or  about  to  be  injured ;  for  which  reason,  I  have  felt  all  the  while 
justified  in  concluding  that  the  crisis,  the  panic,  the  anxiety  of  the  coun 
try  at  this  time,  is  artificial.  If  there  be  those  who  differ  with  me  upon 
this  subject,  they  have  not  pointed  out  the  substantial  difficulty  that 
exists.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  an  artificial  panic  may  not  do  consid 
erable  harm ;  that  it  has  done  such  I  do  not  deny.  The  hope  that  ha? 


154  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES, 

been  expressed  by  your  Mayor,  that  I  may  be  able  to  restore  peace,  har 
mony,  and  prosperity  to  the  country,  is  most  worthy  of  him ;  and  happy, 
indeed,  will  I  be  if  I  shall  be  able  to  verify  and  fulfil  that  hope.  [Tre 
mendous  cheering.]  I  promise  you,  in  all  sincerity,  that  I  bring  to  the 
work  a  sincere  heart.  Whether  I  will  bring  a  head  equal  to  that  heart 
will  be  for  future  times  to  determine.  It  were  useless  for  me  to  speak  of 
details  of  plans  now ;  I  shall  speak  officially  next  Monday  week,  if  ever. 
If  I  should  not  speak  then,  it  were  useless  for  me  to  do  so  now.  If  I  do 
speak  then,  it  is  useless  for  me  to  do  so  now.  When  I  do  speak,  I  shall 
take  such  ground  as  I  deem  best  calculated  to  restore  peace,  harmony, 
and  prosperity  to  the  country,  and  tend  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  nation 
and  the  liberty  of  these  States  and  these  people.  Your  worthy  Mayor 
has  expressed  the  wish,  in  which  I  join  with  him,  that  it  were  convenient 
for  me  to  remain  in  your  city  long  enough  to  consult  your  merchants  and 
manufacturers ;  or,  as  it  were,  to  listen  to  those  breathings  rising  within 
the  consecrated  walls  wherein  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and, 
I  will  add,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  were  originally  framed  and 
adopted.  [Enthusiastic  applause.]  I  assure  you  and  your  Mayor  that  I 
had  hoped  on  this  occasion,  and  upon  all  occasions  during  my  life,  that  I 
shall  do  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  teachings  of  these  holy  and  most 
sacred  walls.  I  never  asked  any  thing  that  does  not  breathe  from  those 
walls.  All  my  political  warfare  has  been  in  favor  of  the  teachings  that 
came  forth  from  these  sacred  walls.  May  my  right  hand  forget  its  cun 
ning,  and  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth,  if  ever  I  prove  false 
to  those  teachings.  Fellow-citizens,  I  have  addressed  you  longer  than  I 
expected  to  do,  and  now  allow  me  to  bid  you  good-night. 

On  the  21st,  Mr.  Lincoln  visited  the  old  Independence 
Hall,  from  which  was  originally  issued  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  He  was  received  in  a  cordial  speed* 
by  Mr.  Theodore  Cuyler,  to  which  he  made  the  follow 
ing  response  : — 

ME.  CUTLER  : — I  am  filled  with  deep  emotion  at  finding  myself  standing 
here  in  this  place,  where  were  collected  together  the  wisdom,  the  patriot 
ism,  the  devotion  to  principle  from  which  sprang  the  institutions  under 
which  we  live.  You  have  kindly  suggested  to  me  that  in  my  hands 
is  the  task  of  restoring  peace  to  the  present  distracted  condition  of  the 
country.  I  can  say  in  return,  sir,  that  all  the  political  sentiments 
I  entertain  have  been  drawn,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  draw  them, 
from  the  sentiments  which  originated  in  and  were  given  to  the  world 
from  thi&  hall,  I  have  never  had  a  feeling,  politically,  that  did  not  spring 
from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  I 
have  often  pondered  over  the  dangers  which  were  incurred  by  the  men 
who  assembled  here,  and  framed  and  adopted  that  Declaration  of  Inde- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  155 

I  endence.  I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  that  were  endured  by  the  offi 
cers  and  soldiers  of  the  army  who  achieved  that  independence.  I  have 
often  in  quired  of  myself  what  great  principle  or  idea  it  was  that  kept  this 
Confederacy  so  long  together.  It  was  not  the  mere  matter  of  the  sep 
aration  of  the  Colonies  from  the  mother-land,  but  that  sentiment  in  trie 
Declaration  of  Independence  which  gave  liberty,  not  alone  to  the  people 
of  this  country,  but,  I  hope,  to  the  world,  for  all  future  time.  [Great  ap 
plause.]  It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the  weight 
would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all  men.  This  is  the  sentiment  em 
bodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Now,  my  friends,  can  this 
country  be  saved  upon  that  basis  ?  If  it  can,  I  will  consider  myself  one 
of  the  happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I  can  help  to  save  it.  If  it  cannot  be 
saved  upon  that  principle,  it  will  be  truly  awful.  But  if  this  country  can 
not  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  principle,  I  was  about  to  say  I  would 
rather  be  assassinated  on  this  spot  than  surrender  it.  [Applause.]  Now, 
in  my  view  of  the  present  aspect  of  affairs,  there  need  be  no  bloodshed 
or  war.  There  is  no  necessity  for  it.  I  am  not  in  favor  of  such  a  course ; 
and  I  may  say  in  advance  that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed  unless  it  be 
forced  upon  the  Government,  and  then  it  will  be  compelled  to  act  in  self- 
defence.  [Applause.] 

My  friends,  this  is  wholly  an  unexpected  speech,  and  I  did  not  expect 
to  be  called  upon  to  say  a  word  when  I  came  here.  I  supposed  it  was 
merely  to  do  something  towards  raising  the  flag — I  may,  therefore,  have 
said  something  indiscreet.  [Cries  of  "  No,  no."]  I  have  said  nothing  but 
what  I  am  willing  to  live  by,  and,  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God, 
die  by. 

One  object  of  the  visit  to  the  Hall  was,  to  have  Mr. 
Lincoln  assist  in  raising  the  national  flag  over  the  Hall. 
Arrangements  had  been  made  for  the  performance  of  this 
ceremony,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  escorted  to  the  platform 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  and  was  invited,  in  a  brief  ad 
dress,  to  raise  the  flag.  He  responded  in  a  patriotic 
speech,  announcing  his  cheerful  compliance  with  the  re 
quest  He  alluded  to  the  original  flag  of  thirteen  stars, 
saying  that  the  number  had  increased  as  time  rolled  on, 
and  we  became  a  happy,  powerful  people,  each  star  add 
ing  to  its  prosperity.  The  future  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
people.  It  was  on  such  an  occasion  we  could  reason  to 
gether,  reaffirm  our  devotion  to  the  country  and  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Let  us  make 
up  our  minds,  said  he,  that  whenever  we  do  put  a  new  star 
upon  our  banner,  it  shall  be  a  fixed  one,  never  to  be 


156  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

dimmed  "by  the  horrors  of  war,  "but  "brightened  by  the 
contentment  and  prosperity  of  peace.  Let  us  go  on  to 
extend  the  area  of  our  usefulness,  and  add  star  upon  star, 
until  their  light  shall  shine  over  five  hundred  millions  of 
free  and  happy  people.  He  then  performed  his  part  in 
the  ceremony,  amidst  a  thundering  discharge  of  artillery. 
In  the  afternoon  he  left  for  the  West.  On  reaching 
Lancaster  he  was  received  with  a  salute,  and  replied  to 
an  address  of  welcome  in  the  following  words  :— 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  OLD  LANCASTER  : — I  appear  not  to  make  a 
speech.  I  have  not  time  to  make  a  speech  at  length,  and  not  strength  to 
make  them  on  every  occasion  ;  and  worse  than  all,  I  have  none  to  make. 
There  is  plenty  of  matter  to  speak  about  in  these  times,  but  it  is  well 
known  that  the  more  a  man  speaks  the  less  he  is  understood — the  more 
he  says  one  thing,  the  more  his  adversaries  contend  he  meant  something 
else.  I  shall  soon  have  occasion  to  speak  officially,  and  then  I  will  en 
deavor  to  put  my  thoughts  just  as  plain  as  I  can  express  myself — true  to 
the  Constitution  and  Union  of  all  the  States,  and  to  the  perpetual  liberty 
of  all  the  people.  Until  I  so  speak,  there  is  no  need  to  enter  upon  details. 
In  conclusion,  I  greet  you  most  heartily,  and  bid  you  an  affectionate 
farewell. 

On  reaching  Harrisburg,  on  the  22d,  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
escorted  to  the  legislature,  and  was  welcomed  by  the 
presiding  officers  of  the  two  houses,  to  whom  he  replied 
as  follows : — 

I  appear  before  you  only  for  a  very  few,  brief  remarks,  in  response  to 
what  has  been  said  to  me.  I  thank  you  most  sincerely  for  this  reception, 
and  the  generous  words  in  which  support  has  been  promised  me  upon 
this  occasion.  I  thank  your  great  Commonwealth  for  the  overwhelming 
support  it  recently  gave,  not  me  personally,  but  the  cause  which  I  think 
a  just  one,  in  the  late  election.  [Loud  applause.]  Allusion  has  been 
made  to  the  fact — the  interesting  fact,  perhaps,  we  should  say — that  I  for 
the  first  time  appear  at  the  Capital  of  the  great  Commonwealth  of  Penn 
sylvania  upon  the  birthday  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  in  connection 
with  that  beloved  anniversary  connected  with  the  history  of  this  country. 
I  have  already  gone  through  one  exceedingly  interesting  scene  this  morn 
ing  in  the  ceremonies  at  Philadelphia.  Under  the  high  conduct  of  gentle 
men  there,  I  was  for  the  first  time  allowed  the  privilege  of  standing  in 
old  Independence  Hall  [enthusiastic  cheering],  to  have  a  few  words 
addressed  to  me  there,  and  opening  up  to  me  an  opportunity  of  express 
ing,  with  much  regret,  that  I  had  not  more  time  time  to  express  GOUIO- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  157 

thing  of  my  own  feelings,  excited  by  the  occasion,  somewhat  to  harmonize 
and  give  shape  to  the  feelings  that  had  been  really  the  feelings  of  my 
whole  life.  Besides  this,  our  friends  there  had  provided  a  magnificent 
flag  of  the  country.  They  had  arranged  it  so  that  I  was  given  the  honor 
of  arising  it  to  the  head  of  its  staff.  [Applause.]  And  when  it  went  up,  I 
was  pleased  that  it  went  to  its  place  by  the  strength  of  my  own  feeble  arm, 
when,  according  to  the  arrangement,  the  cord  was  pulled,  and  it  floated 
gloriously  to  the  wind,  without  an  accident,  in  the  light,  glowing  sunshine 
of  the  morning.  I  could  not  help  hoping  that  there  was,  in  the  entire  suc 
cess  of  that  beautiful  ceremony,  at  least  something  of  an  omen  of  what  is  to 
come.  [Loud  applause.]  How  could  I  help  feeling  then  as  I  often  have  felt  ? 
In  the  whole  of  that  proceeding  I  was  a  very  humble  instrument.  I  had 
not  provided  the  flag;  I  had  not  made  the  arrangements  for  elevating  it 
to  its  place  ;  I  had  applied  but  a  very  small  portion  of  my  feeble  strength 
in  raising  it.  In  the  whole  transaction  I  was  in  the  hands  of  the  people 
who  had  arranged  it,  and  if  I  can  have  the  same  generous  co-operation  of 
the  people  of  the  nation,  I  think  the  flag  of  our  country  may  yet  be  kept 
flaunting  gloriously.  [Loud,  enthusiastic,  and  continued  cheers.]  I  recur 
for  a  moment  but  to  repeat  soine  words  uttered  at  the  hotel,  in  regard  to 
what  has  been  said  about  the  military  support  which  the  General  Govern 
ment  may  expect  from  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  in  a  proper 
emergency.  To  guard  against  any  possible  mistake  do  I  recur  to  this. 
It  is  not  with  any  pleasure  that  I  contemplate  the  possibility  that  a  neces 
sity  may  arise  in  this  country  for  the  use  of  the  military  arm.  [Applause.] 
While  I  am  exceedingly  gratified  to  see  the  manifestation  upon  your 
streets  of  your  military  force  here,  and  exceedingly  gratified  at  your 
promises  here  to  use  that  force  upon  a  proper  emergency — while  I  make 
these  acknowledgments  I  desire  to  repeat,  in  order  to  preclude  any  pos 
sible  misconstruction,  that  I  do  most  sincerely  hope  that  we  shall  have 
no  use  for  them.  [Applause.]  That  it  will  never  become  their  duty  to 
shed  blood,  and  most  especially  never  to  shed  fraternal  blood.  I  promise 
that,  so  far  as  I  may  have  wisdom  to  direct,  if  so  painful  a  result  shall  in 
any-wise  be  brought  about,  it  shall  be  through  no  fault  of  mine.  [Cheers.] 
Allusion  has  also  been  made  by  one  of  your  honored  speakers  to  some 
remarks  recently  made  by  myself  at  Pittsburg,  in  regard  to  what  is  sup 
posed  to  be  the  especial  interest  of  this  great  Commonwealth  of  Pennsyl 
vania.  I  now  wish  only  to  say,  in  regard  to  that  matter,  that  the  few- 
remarks  which  I  uttered  on  that  occasion  were  rather  carefully  worded. 
I  took  pains  that  they  should  be  so.  I  have  seen  no  occasion  since  to  add 
to  them,  or  subtract  from  them.  I  leave  them  precisely  as  they  stand 
[applause],  adding  only  now,  that  I  am  pleased  to  have  an  expression  from 
you,  gentlemen  of  Pennsylvania,  significant  that  they  are  satisfactory  to 
you.  And  now,  gentlemen  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Common 
wealth  of  Pennsylvania,  allow  me  to  return  you  again  my  most  sincere 
thanks. 


158  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES.,  AND 

After  the  delivery  of  this  address,  Mr.  Lincoln  devoted 
dome  hours  to  the  reception  of  visitors,  and  at  six  o'  clock 
retired  to  his  room.  The  next  morning  the  whole  coun 
try  was  surprised  to  learn  that  he  had  arrived  in  Wash 
ington — twelve  hours  sooner  than  he  had  originally  in 
tended.  His  sudden  departure  proved  to  have  been  a 
measure  of  precaution  for  which  events  subsequently 
disclosed  afforded  a  full  justification.  For  some  time  pre 
vious  to  his  departure  from  home,  the  rumor  had  been 
current  that  he  would  never  reach  the  Capital  alive.  An 
attempt  was  made  on  the  Toledo  and  Western  Railroad, 
on  the  llth  of  February,  to  throw  from  the  track  the  train 
on  which  he  was  journeying,  and  just  as  he  was  leaving 
Cincinnati  a  hand  grenade  was  found  to  have  been  se 
creted  on  board  the  cars.  These  and  other  circumstances 
led  to  an  organized  and  thorough  investigation,  under  the 
direction  of  a  police  detective,  carried  on  with  great  skill 
and  perseverance  at  Baltimore,  and  which  resulted  in  dis 
closing  the  fact  that  a  small  gang  of  assassins,  under  the 
leadership  of  an  Italian  who  assumed  the  name  of  Orsini, 
had  arranged  to  take  his  life  during  his  passage  through 
Baltimore.  General  Scott  and  Mr.  Seward  had  both  been 
apprised  of  the  same  fact  through  another  source,  and 
they  had  sent  Mr.  F.  W.  Seward  as  a  special  messenger 
to  Philadelphia,  to  meet  the  President-elect  there,  pre 
vious  to  his  departure  for  Harrisburg,  and  give  him 
notice  of  these  circumstances.  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not 
deviate  from  the  programme  he  had  marked  out  for  him 
self,  in  consequence  of  these  communications ;  except 
that,  under  the  advice  of  friends,  he  deemed  it  prudent 
to  anticipate  by  one  train  the  time  he  was  expected  to 
arrive  in  Washington.  He  reached  there  on  the  morning 
of  Saturday,  the  23d. 

On  Wednesday,  the  27th,  the  Mayor  and  Common 
Council  of  the  city  waited  upon  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  ten 
dered  him  a  welcome.  He  replied  to  them  as  follows  :— 

MR.  MAYOT*  : — I  thank  you,  and  through  you  the  municipal  authorities 
of  this  city  who  accompany  you,  for  this  welcome.  And  as  it  is  the  first 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  159 

time  in  my  life,  since  the  present  phase  of  politics  has  presented  itself  in 
this  country,  that  I  have  said  any  thing  publicly  within  a  region  ^of 
country  where  the  institution  of  slavery  exists,  I  will  take  this  occasion 
to  say,  that  I  think  very  much  of  the  ill-feeling  that  has  existed  and  still 
exists  between  the  people  in  the  sections  from  which  I  came  and  the 
people  here,  is  dependent  upon  a  misunderstanding  of  one  another.  I 
therefore  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity  to  assure  you,  Mr.  Mayor,  and 
all  the  gentlemen  present,  that  I  have  not  now,  and  never  have  had,  any 
other  than  as  kindly  feelings  towards  you  as  the  people  of  my  own 
section.  I  have  not  now,  and  never  have  had,  any  disposition  to  treat 
you  in  any  respect  otherwise  than  as  my  own  neighbors.  I  have  not 
now  any  purpose  to  withhold  from  you  any  of  the  benefits  of  the  Consti 
tution,  under  any  circumstances,  that  I  would  not  feel  myself  constrained 
to  withhold  from  my  own  neighbors ;  and  I  hope,  in  a  word,  that  when 
we  shall  become  better  acquainted— and  I  say  it  with  great  confidence — 
we  shall  like  each  other  the  more.  I  thank  you  for  the  kindness  of  this 
reception. 

On  the  next  evening  a  serenade  was  given  to  Mr. 
Lincoln  Iby  the  members  of  the  Republican  Association, 
and  he  then  addressed  the  crowd  which  the  occasion  had 
brought  together  as  follows  :— 

MY  FRIENDS  :— I  suppose  that  I  may  take  this  as  a  compliment  paid  to 
me,  and  as  such  please  accept  my  thanks  for  it.  I  have  reached  this  City 
of  Washington  under  circumstances  considerably  differing  from  those 
under  which  any  other  man  has  ever  reached  it.  I  am  here  for  the  pur 
pose  of  taking  an  official  position  amongst  the  people,  almost  all  of  whom 
were  politically  opposed  to  me,  and  are  yet  opposed  to  me,  as  I  suppose. 

I  propose  no  lengthy  address  to  you.  I  only  propose  to  say,  as  I  did 
on  yesterday,  when  your  worthy  Mayor  and  Board  of  Aldermen  called 
upon  me,  that  I  thought  much  of  the  ill  feeling  that  has  existed  between 
you  and  the  people  of  your  surroundings  and  that  people  from  among 
whom  I  come,  has  depended,  and  now  depends,  upon  a  misunder 
standing. 

I  hope  that,  if  things  shall  go  along  as  prosperously  as  I  believe  we  all 
desire  they  may,  I  may  have  it  in  my  power  to  remove  something  of  this 
misunderstanding;  that  I  may  be  enabled  to  convince  you,  and  the  people 
of  your  section  of  the  country,  that  we  regard  you  as  in  all  things  our 
equals,  and  in  all  things  entitled  to  the  same  respect  and  the  same  treat 
ment  that  we  claim  for  ourselves ;  that  we  are  in  no  wise  disposed,  if  it 
were  in  our  power,  to  oppress  ycu,  to  deprive  you  of  any  of  your  rights 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  even  narrowly  to  split 
hairs  with  you  in  regard  to  these  rights,  but  are  determined  to  give  you, 
as  far  a<*  lies  in  our  hands,  all  your  rights  under  the  Constitution — not 


160  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

grudgingly,  but  fully  and  fairly.  [Applause.]     I  hope  that,  by  thus  dealing 
with  you,  we  will  become  better  acquainted,  and  be  better  friends. 

And  now,  my  friends,  with  these  few  remarks,  and  again  returning  rny 
thanks  for  this  compliment,  and  expressing  my  desire  to  hear  a  little 
more  of  your  good  music,  I  bid  you  good-night. 

This  closed  Mr.  Lincoln's  pnblic  speeches  down  to  the 
date  of  his  inauguration. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  16  J 


CHAPTER    VI. 

FROM   THE    INAUGURATION    TO    THE    MEETING    OF    CONGRESS, 
JULY   4,  1861. 

THE  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. — ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT. — THE 
BOMBARDMENT  OF  FORT  SUMTER. — PASSAGE  OF  TROOPS  THROUGH  BAL 
TIMORE. — INTERVIEW  WITH  THE  MAYOR  OF  BALTIMORE. — THE  BLOCK 
ADE  OF  REBEL  PORTS. — THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  VIRGINIA  COMMIS 
SIONERS. — INSTRUCTION  TO  OUR  MINISTERS  ABROAD. — RECOGNITION  OF 
THE  REBELS  AS  BELLIGERENTS. — RIGHTS  OF  NEUTRALS. 

ON  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the  oath 
and  assumed  the  duties  of  the  Presidential  office.  He  was 
quite  right  in  saying,  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  from  his 
home  in  Springfield,  that  those  duties  were  greater  than 
had  devolved  upon  any  other  man  since  the  days  of 
Washington.  A  conspiracy  which  had  "been  on  foot  for 
thirty  years  had  reached  its  crisis.  Yet  in  spite  of  all 
that  had  been  done  "by  the  leading  spirits  in  this  n  ove- 
ment,  the  people  of  the  slaveholding  States  were  "by  no 
means  a  unit  in  its  support.  Seven  of  those  States — South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Texas,  Florida, 
and  Louisiana — had  passed  secession  ordinances,  and 
united  in  the  establishment  of  a  hostile  Confederacy  ;  but 
in  nearly  all  of  them  a  considerable  portion  of  the  people 
were  opposed  to  the  movement,  while  in  all  the  remaining 
slaveholding  States  a  very  active  canvass  was  carried  on 
between  the  friends  and  the  opponents  of  secession.  In 
Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  especially, 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  was  vindicated  and 
its  authority  sustained  by  men  of  pre-eminent  ability  and 
of  commanding  reputation,  and  there  seemed  abundant 
reason  for  hoping  that,  by  the  adoption  of  prudent  meas 
ures,  the  slaveholding  section  might  be  divided,  and  the 
Border  Slave  States  retained  in  the  Union.  The  authori 
ties  of  the  rebel  Confederacy  saw  the  importance  of  push- 
11 


162  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ing  the  issue  to  an  instant  decision.  Under  their  directions 
nearly  all  the  forts,  arsenals,  dock-yards,  custom-houses, 
&c.,  belonging  to  the  United  States,  within  the  limits  of 
the  seceded  States,  had  been  seized,  and  were  held  by 
representatives  of  the  rebel  government.  The  only  forts 
in  the  South  which  remained  in  possession  of  the  Union 
were  Forts  Pickens,  Taylor,  and  Jefferson  on  the  Florida 
coast,  and  Fort  Sumter  in  Charleston  Harbor,  and  prepa 
rations  were  far  advanced  for  the  reduction  and  capture 
of  these.  Officers  of  the  army  and  navy  from  the  South 
had  resigned  their  commissions  and  entered  the  rebel 
service.  Civil  officers  representing  the  United  States 
within  the  limits  of  the  Southern  States  could  no 
longer  discharge  their  functions,  and  all  the  powers  of 
that  Government  were  practically  paralyzed. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  addressed  him 
self  to  the  task,  first,  of  withholding  the  Border  States 
from  joining  the  Confederacy,  as  an  indispensable  pre 
liminary  to  the  great  work  of  quelling  the  rebellion  and 
restoring  the  authority  of  the  Constitution. 

The  ceremony  of  inauguration  took  place  as  usual  in 
front  of  the  Capitol,  and  in  presence  of  an  immense  mul 
titude  of  spectators.  A  large  military  force  was  in 
attendance,  under  the  immediate  command  of  General 
Scott,  but  nothing  occurred  to  interrupt  the  harmony 
of  the  occasion.  Before  taking  the  oath  of  office,  Mr. 
Lincoln  delivered  the  following 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS. 

Fellow-  Citizens  of  the  United  States : — 

In  compliance  with  a  custom  as  old  as  the  Government  itself,  I  appear 
before  you  to  address  you  briefly,  and  to  take  in  your  presence  the  oath 
prescribed  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  be  taken  by  the 
President  "before  he  enters  on  the  execution  of  his  office." 

I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  at  present  for  me  to  discuss  those 
matters  of  administration  about  which  there  is  no  special  anxiety  or 
excitement. 

Apprehension  seems  to  exist,  among  the  people  of  the  Southern  States, 
that  by  the  accession  of  a  Republican  Administration  their  prope  ity  and 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  163 

their  peace  and  personal  security  are  to  be  endangered.  There  has  never 
been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  apprehension.  Indeed,  the  most 
ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has  all  the  while  existed  and  been  open 
to  their  inspection.  It  is  found  in  nearly  all  the  published  speeches  of 
him  who  now  addresses  you.  I  do  but  quote  from  one  of  those  speeches 
when  I  declare  that  "I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  inter 
fere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe 
I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so."  Those 
who  nominated  and  elected  me  did  so  with  full  knowledge  that  I  had  mads 
this  and  many  similar  declarations,  and  had  never  recanted  them.  And 
more  than  this,  they  placed  in  the  platform  for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a  law 
to  themselves  and  to  me,  the  clear  and  emphatic  resolution  which  I  now 
read : — 

Resolved  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the  rights  of  the  States, 
and  especially  the  right  of  each  State  to  order  and  control  its  own  domes 
tic  institutions  according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  essential  to 
the  balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfection  and  endurance  of  our  polit 
ical  fabric  depend,  and  we  denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force 
of  the  soil  of  any  State  or  Territory,  no  matter  under  what  pretext,  as 
among  the  gravest  of  crimes. 

I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments ;  and,  in  doing  so,  I  only  press^  upon 
the  public  attention  the  most  conclusive  evidence  of  which  the  case  is  sus 
ceptible,  that  the  property,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are  to  be  in 
anywise  endangered  by  the  now  incoming  Administration.  I  add,  too, 
that  all  the  protection  which,  consistently  with  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws,  can  be  given,  will  be  cheerfully  given  to  all  the  States,  when  law 
fully  demanded,  for  whatever  cause— as  cheerfully  to  one  section  as  to 
another. 

There  is  much  controversy  about  the  delivering  up  of  fugitives  from 
service  or  labor.  The  clause  I  now  read  is  as  plainly  written  in  the  Con 
stitution  as  any  other  of  its  provisions : — 

No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws  thereof, 
escaping  into  another,  shall,  in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation 
therein  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  delivered 
up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due. 

It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was  intended  by  those  who 
made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of  what  we  call  fugitive  slaves ;  and  the  inten 
tion  of  the  lawgiver  is  the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear  their 
support  to  the  whole  Constitution— to  this  provision  as  much  as  any  other. 
To  the  proposition,  then,  that  slaves,  whose  cases  come  within  the  terms 
of  this  clause,  "  shall  be  delivered  up,"  their  oaths  are  unanimous.  Now, 
if  they  would  make  the  effort  in  good  temper,  could  they  not,  with  nearly 
equal  unanimity,  frame  and  pass  a  law  by  means  of  which  to  keep  good 
that  unanimous  oath  ? 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  whether  this  clause  should  be  en 
forced  by  National  or  by  State  authority ;  but  surely  that  difference  is 


164  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

not  a  very  material  one.  If  the  slave  is  to  be  surrendered,  it  can  be  of 
but  little  consequence  to  him,  or  to  others,  by  which  authority  it  is  done. 
And  should  any  one,  in  any  case,  be  content  that  his  oath  shall  go  unkept, 
on  a  mere  unsubstantial  controversy  as  to  how  it  shall  be  kept  ? 

Again,  in  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all  the  safeguards  of  lib 
erty  knovrn  in  civilized  and  humane  jurisprudence  to  be  introduced,  so 
that  a  free  man  be  not,  in  any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave  ?  And  might 
it  not  be  well,  at  the  same  time,  to  provide  by  law  for  the  enforcement 
of  that  clause  in  the  Constitution  which  guarantees  that  "  the  citizens  of 
each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in 
the  several  States?" 

I  take  the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reservation,  and  with  no 
purpose  to  construe  the  Constitution  or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules. 
And  while  I  do  not  choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of  Congress  as 
proper  to  be  enforced,  I  do  suggest  that  it  will  be  much  safer  for  all,  both 
in  official  and  private  stations,  to  conform  to  and  abide  by  all  those  acts 
which  stand  unrepealed,  than  to  violate  any  of  them,  trusting  to  find  im 
punity  in  having  them  held  to  be  unconstitutional. 

It  is  seventy-two  years  since  the  first  inauguration  of  a  President  under 
i>ur  National  Constitution.  During  that  period,  fifteen  different  and  greatly 
distinguished  citizens  have,  in  succession,  administered  the  Executive 
branch  of  the  Government.  They  have  conducted  it  through  many  perils, 
and  generally  with  great  success.  Yet,  with  all  this  scope  for  prece 
dent,  I  now  enter  upon  the  same  task  for  the  brief  constitutional  term  of 
four  years,  under  great  and  peculiar  difficulty.  A  disruption  of  the  Fed 
oral  Union,  heretofore  only  menaced,  is  now  formidably  attempted. 

I  hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law,  and  of  the  Constitution^ 
the  Union  of  these  States  is  perpetual.  Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  ex 
pressed,  in  the  fundamental  law  of  all  National  Governments.  It  is  safe 
to  assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had  a  provision  in  its  organic 
law  for  its  own  termination.  Continue  to  execute  all  the  express  provi 
sions  of  our  National  Government,  and  the  Union  will  endure  forever — il 
being  impossible  to  destroy  it,  except  by  some  action  not  provided  for  in 
the  instrument  itself. 

Again,  if  the  United  States  be  not  a  Government  proper,  but  an  associ 
ation  of  States  in  the  nature  of  contract  merely,  can  it,  as  a  contract,  be 
peaceably  unmade  by  less  than  all  the  parties  who  made  it?  One  party 
to  a  contract  may  violate  it — break  it,  so  to  speak ;  but  does  it  not  require 
all  to  lawfully  rescind  it? 

Descending  from  these  general  principles,  we  find  the  proposition  that, 
in  legal  contemplation,  the  Union  is  perpetual,  confirmed  by  the  history 
of  the  Union  itself.  The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitution.  It 
was  formed,  in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Association  in  1774.  It  was  ma 
tured  and  continued  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  1776.  It  was 
further  matured,  and  the  faith  of  all  the  then  Thirteen  States  expressly 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  105 

plighted  and  engaged  that  it  should  be  perpetual,  by  the  Articles  of  Con 
federation  in  1778.  And,  finally,  in  1787,  one  of  the  declared  objects  for 
ordaining  and  establishing  the  Constitution  was  "  to  form  a  more  perfect 
union." 

But  if  destruction  of  the  Union,  by  one,  or  by  a  part  only,  of  the 
States,  be  lawfully  possible,  the  Union  is  less  perfect  than  before,  the  Con 
stitution  having  lost  the  vital  element  of  perpetuity. 

It  follows,  from  these  views,  that  no  State,  upon  its  own  mere  motion, 
can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union ;  that  resolves  and  ordinances  to  that 
effect  are  legally  void;  and  that  acts  of  violence  within  any  State  or 
States,  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are  insurrectionary  or 
revolutionary,  according  to  circumstances. 

I,  therefore,  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws, 
the  Union  is  unbroken,  and  to  the  extent  of  my  ability  I  shall  take  care,  as 
the  Constitution  itself  expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of  the 
Unio'i  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States.  Doing  this  I  deem  to  be 
onl  7  a  simple  duty  on  my  part ;  and  I  shall  perform  it,  so  far  as  practica 
ble,  unless  my  rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold  the 
requisite  means,  or,  in  some  authoritative  manner,  direct  the  contrary.  I 
trust  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  menace,  but  only  as  the  declared  pur 
pose  of  the  Union  that  it  will  constitutionally  defend  and  maintain  itself. 

In  doing  this  there  need  be  no  bloodshed  or  violence ;  and  there  shall 
be  none,  unless  it  be  forced  upon  the  National  authority.  The  power  con 
fided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the  property  and 
places  belonging  to  the  Government,  and  to  collect  the  duties  and  im 
posts  ;  but  beyond  what  may  be  but  necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will 
be  no  invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people  anywhere. 
Where  hostility  to  the  United  States,  in  any  interior  locality,  shall  be  so 
great  and  universal  as  to  prevent  competent  resident  citizens  from  hold 
ing  the  Federal  offices,  there  will  be  no  attempt  to  force  obnoxious  stran 
gers  among  the  people  for  that  object.  While  the  strict  legal  right  may 
exist  in  the  Government  to  enforce  the  exercise  of  these  offices,  the 
attempt  to  do  so  would  be  so  irritating,  and  so  nearly  impracticable  withal, 
I  deem  it  better  to  forego,  for  the  time,  the  uses  of  such  offices. 

The  mails,  unless  repelled,  will  continue  to  be  furnished  in  all  parts  of 
the  Union.  So  far  as  possible,  the  people  everywhere  shall  have  that  sense 
of  perfect  security  which  is  most  favorable  to  calm  thought  and  reflection. 
The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed,  unless  current  events  and  ex 
perience  shall  show  a  modification  or  change  to  be  proper,  and  in  every 
case  and  exigency  my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised,  according  to  cir 
cumstances  actually  existing,  and  with  a  view  and  a  hope  of  a  peaceful 
solution  of  the  National  troubles,  and  the  restoration  of  fraternal  sympa 
thies  and  affections. 

That  there  are  persons  in  one  section  or  another  who  seek  to  destroy 
the  Union  at  all  events,  and  are  glad  of  any  pretext  to  do  it,  I  will  neither 


166  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

affirm  nor  deny;  but  if  there  be  such,  I  need  address  no  word  to  them. 
To  those,  however,  who  really  love  the  Union,  may  I  not  speak? 

Before  entering  upon  so  grave  a  matter  as  the  destruction  of  our 
National  fabric,  with  all  its  benefits,  its  memories,  and  its  hopes,  would  it 
not  be  wise  to  ascertain  precisely  why  we  do  it?  Will  you  hazard  so  des 
perate  a  step  while  there  is  any  possibility  that  any  portion  of  the  ills  you 
fly  from  have  no  real  existence  ?  Will  you,  while  the  certain  ills  you  fly 
to  are  greater  than  all  the  real  ones  you  fly  from — will  you  risk  the  com 
mission  of  so  fearful  a  mistake  ? 

All  profess  to  be  content  in  the  Union,  if  all  constitutional  rights  can 
be  maintained.  Is  it  true,  then,  that  any  right,  plainly  written  in  the 
Constitution,  has  been  denied?  I  think  not.  Happily  the  human  mind 
is  so  constituted  that  no  party  can  reach  to  the  audacity  of  doing  this. 
Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single  instance  in  which  a  plainly  written  provision 
of  the  Constitution  has  ever  been  denied.  If,  by  the  mere  force  of  num 
bers,  a  majority  should  deprive  a  minority  of  any  clearly  written  consti 
tutional  right,  it  might,  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  justify  revolution — 
certainly  would  if  such  right  were  a  vital  one.  But  such  is  not  our  case, 
All  the  vital  rights  of  minorities  and  of  individuals  are  so  plainly  assured 
to  them  by  affirmations  and  negations,  guarantees  and  prohibitions  in  the 
Constitution,  that  controversies  never  arise  concerning  them.  But  no 
organic  law  can  ever  be  framed  with  a  provision  specifically  applicable  to 
every  question  which  may  occur  in  practical  administration.  No  fore 
sight  can  anticipate,  nor  any  document  of  reasonable  length  contain,  ex 
press  provisions  for  all  possible  questions.  Shall  fugitives  from  labor  be 
surrendered  by  National  or  by  State  authority?  The  Constitution  does 
not  expressly  say.  May  Congress  prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories  ?  The 
Constitution  does  not  expressly  say.  Must  Congress  protect  slavery  in 
the  Territories?  The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say. 

From  questions  of  this  class  spring  all  our  constitutional  controversies, 
and  we  divide  upon  them  into  majorities  and  minorities.  If  the  minority 
will  not  acquiesce,  the  majority  must,  or  the  Government  must  cease. 
There  is  no  other  alternative;  for  continuing  the  Government  is  acquies 
cence  on  one  side  or  the  other.  If  a  minority  in  such  case  will  secede 
rather  than  acquiesce,  they  make  a  precedent  which,  in  turn,  will  divide 
and  ruin  them;  for  a  minority  of  their  own  will  secede  from  them  when 
ever  a  majority  refuses  to  be  controlled  by  such  minority.  For  instance, 
\yhy  may  not  any  portion  of  a  new  Confederacy,  a  year  or  two  hence, 
arbitrarily  secede  again,  precisely  as  portions  of  the  present  Union  now 
claim  to  secede  from  it  ?  All  who  cherish  disunion  sentiments  are  now 
being  educated  to  the  exact  temper  of  doing  this. 

Is  there  such  perfect  identity  of  interests  among  the  States  to  com 
pose  a  new  Union,  as  to  produce  harmony  only,  and  prevent  renewed 
secession  ? 

Plainly,  the  central  idea  of  secession  is  the  essence  of  anarchy.     A 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  167 

majority  held  in  restraint  by  constitutional  checks  and  limitations,  and 
always  changing  easily  with  deliberate  changes  of  popular  opinions  and 
sentiments,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people.  "Whoever  rejects 
it,  does,  of  necessity,  fly  to  anarchy  or  to  despotism.  Unanimity  is  im 
possible  ;  the  rule  of  a  minority,  as  a  permanent  arrangement,  is  wholly 
inadmissible;  so  that,  rejecting  the  majority  principle,  anarchy  or  despot 
ism,  in  some  form,  is  all  that  is  left. 

I  do  not  forget  the  position  assumed  by  some,  that  constitutional  ques 
tions  are  to  be  decided  by  the  Supreme  Court ;  nor  do  I  deny  that  such 
decisions  must  be  binding,  in  any  case,  upon  the  parties  to  a  suit,  as  to 
the  object  of  that  suit,  while  they  are  also  entitled  to  very  high  respect 
and  consideration  in  all  parallel  cases,  by  all  other  departments  of  the 
Government.  And  while  it  is  obviously  possible  that  such  decisions  may 
be  erroneous  in  any  given  case,  still,  the  evil  effect  following  it  being 
limited  to  that  particular  case,  with  the  chance  that  it  may  be  overruled, 
and  never  become  a  precedent  for  other  cases,  can  better  be  borne  than 
could  the  evils  of  a  different  practice.  At  the  same  time,  the  candid 
citizen  must  confess  that  if  the  policy  of  the  Government  upon  vital 
questions  affecting  the  whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably  fixed  by  de 
cisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  instant  they  are  made  in  ordinary 
litigation  between  parties  in  personal  actions,  the  people  will  have  ceased 
to  be  their  own  rulers,  having  to  that  extent  practically  resigned  their 
Government  into  the  hands  of  that  eminent  tribunal. 

Nor  is  there  in  this  view  any  assault  upon  the  Court  or  the  Judges. 
It  is  a  duty  from  which  they  may  not  shrink  to  decide  cases  properly 
brought  before  them,  and  it  is  no  fault  of  theirs  if  others  seek  to  turn 
their  decisions  to  political  purposes.  One  section  of  our  country  believes 
slavery  is  right,  and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it  is 
wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the  only  substantial  dis 
pute.  The  fugitive  slave  clause  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the 
suppression  of  the  foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced,  perhaps, 
as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where  the  moral  sense  of  the 
people  imperfectly  supports  the  law  itself.  The  great  body  of  the  people 
abide  by  the  dry  legal  obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in 
each.  This,  I  think,  cannot  be  perfectly  cured ;  and  it  would  be  worse, 
in  both  cases,  after  the  separation  of  the  sections  than  before.  The 
foreign  slave-trade,  now  imperfectly  suppressed,  would  be  ultimately 
revived,  without  restriction,  in  one  section;  while  fugitive  slaves,  no\r 
only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be  surrendered  at  all  by  the  other. 

Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  cannot  remove  our  re 
spective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between 
them.  A  husband  and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the  presence 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other ;  but  the  different  parts  of  our  coun 
try  cannot  do  this.  They  cannot  but  remain  face  to  face ;  and  inter 
course,  either  amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  It  is 


168  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

impossible,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  advantageous  or  more 
satisfactory  after  separation  than  before.  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier 
than  friends  can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced 
between  aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends?  Suppose  you  go  to  war, 
you  cannot  fight  always ;  and  when,  after  much  loss  on  both  sides,  and 
no  gain  on  either,  you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  old  questions,  as  to 
terms  of  intercourse,  are  again  upon  you. 

This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the  people  who  inhabit 
it.  Whenever  they  shall  grow  weary  of  the  existing  Government,  they 
can  exercise  their  constitutional  right  of  amending  it,  or  their  revolu 
tionary  right  to  dismember  or  overthrow  it.  I  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the 
fact  that  many  worthy  and  patriotic  citizens  are  desirous  of  having  the 
National  Constitution  amended.  While  I  make  no  recommendation  of 
amendments,  I  fully  recognize  the  rightful  authority  of  the  people  over 
the  whole  subject,  to  be  exercised  in  either  of  the  modes  prescribed  in 
the  instrument  itself ;  and  I  should,  under  existing  circumstances,  favor, 
rather  than  oppose,  a  fair  opportunity  being  afforded  the  people  to  act 
upon  it.  I  will  venture  to  add,  that  to  me  the  convention  mode  seems 
preferable,  in  that  it  allows  amendments  to  originate  with  the  people 
themselves,  instead  of  only  permitting  them  to  take  or  reject  proposi 
tions  originated  by  others,  not  especially  chosen  for  the  purpose,  and 
which  might  not  be  precisely  such  as  they  would  wish  to  either  accept  or 
refuse.  I  understand  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution — which 
amendment,  however,  I  have  not  seen — has  passed  Congress,  to  the  effect 
that  the  Federal  Government  shall  never  interfere  with  the  domestic  insti 
tutions  of  the  States,  including  that  of  persons  held  to  service.  To  avoid 
misconstruction  of  what  I  have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose  not  to 
speak  of  particular  amendments,  so  far  as  to  say  that,  holding  such  a  pro 
vision  now  to  be  implied  constitutional  law,  I  have  no  objections  to  its 
being  made  express  and  irrevocable. 

The  Chief  Magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from  the  people,  and  they 
have  conferred  none  upon  him  to  fix  terms  for  the  separation  of  the  States. 
The  people  themselves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose ;  but  the  Executive, 
as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His  duty  is  to  administer  the  present 
Government  as  it  came  to  his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by 
him,  to  his  successor. 

Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate  justice  of 
the  people  ?  Is  there  any  better  or  equal  hope  in  the  world  ?  In  our 
present  differences,  is  either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the  right  ? 
If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  his  eternal  truth  and  justice,  be 
on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on^  yours  of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that 
justice  will  surely  prevail,-  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  tho 
American  people. 

By  the  frame  of  the  Government  under  which  we  live,  the  same  people 
have  wisely  given  their  public  servants  but  little  power  for  mischief,  and 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  169 

have,  with  equal  wisdom,  provided  for  the  return  of  that  little  to  their 
own  hands  at  very  short  intervals.  While  the  people  retain  their  virtue 
and  vigilance,  no  Administration,  by  any  extreme  of  wickedness  or  folly, 
can  very  seriously  injure  the  Government  in  the  short  space  of  four 
years. 

My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well  upon  this  whole 
subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost  by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an 
object  to  hurry  any  of  you  in  hot  haste  to  a  step  which  you  would  never 
take  deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated  by  taking  time;  but  no 
good  object  can  be  frustrated  by  it.  Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied, 
still  have  the  old  Constitution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive  point, 
the  laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it ;  while  the  new  Administration 
will  have  no  immediate  power,  if  it  would,  to  change  either.  If  it  were 
admitted  that  you  who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dispute, 
there  still  is  no  single  good  reason  for  precipitate  action.  Intelligence, 
patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet 
forsaken  this  favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the  best  way, 
all  our  present  difficulty. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  is 
the  momentous  issues  of  civil  war.  The  Government  will  not  assail  you. 

You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors. 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  Government ; 
while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to  "  preserve,  protect,  and  de 
fend  "  it. 

I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not  be 
enemies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds 
of  affection. 

The  mystic  cord  of  memory,  stretching  from  every  battle-field  and 
patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad 
land,  will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched,  as 
surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature. 

The  declarations  of  the  Inaugural,  as  a  general  thing, 
gave  satisfaction  to  the  loyal  people  of  the  whole  coun 
try.  It  was  seen,  everywhere,  that  while  President  Lin 
coln  felt  constrained,  by  the  most  solemn  obligations 
of  duty,  to  maintain  the  authority  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  over  all  the  territory  within  its  juris 
diction,  whenever  that  authority  should  be  disputed  by 
the  actual  exercise  of  armed  force,  he  would  nevertheless 
do  nothing  whatever  to  provoke  such  a  demonstration, 
and  would  take  no  step  which  could  look  Hke  violence  or 
offensive  warfare  upon  the  seceded  States.  In  the  Border 
States  its  reception  was  in  the  main  satisfactory.  But,  as 


170  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

a  matter  of  course,  in  those  States,  as  elsewhere  through 
out  the  South,  the  secession  leaders  gave  it  the  most 
hostile  construction.  No  effort  was  spared  to  inflame  the 
public  mind,  by  representing  the  Inaugural  as  embodying 
the  purpose  of  the  President  to  make  war  upon  the 
Southern  States  for  their  attempt  to  secure  a  redress  of 
wrongs. 

The  President' s  first  act  was  to  construct  his  Cabinet, 
which  was  done  by  the  appointment  of  William  H.  Sew- 
ard,  of  New  York,  Secretary  of  State  ;  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
of  Ohio,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  Simon  Cameron,  of 
Pennsylvania,  Secretary  of  War  ;  Gideon  Welles,  of  Con 
necticut,  Secretary  of  the  Navy ;  Caleb  B.  Smith,  of  In 
diana,  Secretary  of  the  Interior ;  Montgomery  Blair,  of 
Maryland,  Postmaster-General ;  and  Edward  Bates,  of 
Missouri,  Attorney-General.  These  nominations  were  all 
confirmed  by  the  Senate,  and  these  gentlemen  entered 
upon  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  their  several  offices. 

On  the  12th  of  March,  Messrs.  John  Forsyth,  of  Ala 
bama,  and  Crawford,  of  Georgia,  requested  an  unofficial 
interview  with  the  Secretary  of  State,  which  the  latter 
declined.  On  the  1 3th  they  sent  to  him  a  communication, 
informing  him  that  they  were  in  Washington  as  commis 
sioners  from  a  government  composed  of  seven  States 
which  had  withdrawn  from  the  American  Union,  and  that 
they  desired  to  enter  upon  negotiations  for  the  adjustment 
of  all  questions  growing  out  of  this  separation.  Mr.  Sew- 
ard,  by  direction  of  the  President,  declined  to  receive 
them,  because  it  "could  not  be  admitted  that  the  States 
referred  to  had,  in  law  or  fact,  withdrawn  from  the  Fed 
eral  Union,  or  that  they  could  do  so  in  any  other  manner 
than  with  the  consent  and  concert  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  to  be  given  through  a  National  Convention, 
to  be  assembled  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States."  This  communication, 
though  written  on  the  15th  of  March,  was  withheld,  with 
the  consent  of  the  Commissioners,  until  the  8th  of  April, 
when  it  was  delivered.  The  fact  of  its  receipt,  and  its 
character,  were  instantly  telegraphed  to  Charleston,  and 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  171 

it  was  made  the  occasion  for  precipitating  the  revolution 
by  an  act  which,  it  was  believed,  would  unite  all  the 
Southern  States  in  support  of  the  Confederacy.  On  the 
day  of  its  receipt,  the  8th  of  April,  General  Beauregard, 
at  Charleston,  telegraphed  to  L.  P.  Walker,  the  rebel 
Secretary  of  War,  at  Montgomery,  that  ' '  an  authorized 
messenger  from  President  Lincoln  had  just  informed  Gov 
ernor  Pickens  and  himself  that  provisions  would  be  sent 
to  Fort  Sumter  peaceably,  or,  otherwise,  by  force."  Gen 
eral  Beauregard  was  instructed  to  demand  the  surrender 
of  the  fort,  which  he  did  on  the  llth,  and  was  at  once  in 
formed  by  Major  Anderson,  who  was  in  command,  that 
his  "  sense  of  honor  and  his  obligations  to  his  Government 
prevented  his  compliance."  On  the  night  of  the  same  day 
General  Beauregard  wrote  to  Major  Anderson,  by  orders 
of  his  Government,  that  if  he  "  would  state  the  time  at 
which  he  would  evacuate  Fort  Sumter ' '  (as  it  was  known 
that  it  must  soon  be  evacuated  for  lack  of  provisions), 
"  and  will  agree  that,  in  the  mean  time,  you  will  not  use 
your  guns  against  us  unless  ours  shall  be  employed 
against  Fort  Sumter,  we  will  abstain  from  opening  fire 
upon  you."  At  half-past  two  in  the  morning  of  the  12th, 
Major  Anderson  replied  that  he  would  evacuate  the  fort 
by  noon  on  the  15th,  abiding,  meantime,  by  the  terms 
proposed,  unless  he  should  "receive,  prior  to  that,  control 
ling  instructions  from  his  Government,  or  additional  sup 
plies."  In  reply  to  this  note  he  was  notified,  at  half-past 
three,  that  the  rebels  would  open  their  batteries  upon  the 
fort  in  one  hour  from  that  time.  This  they  did,  and,  after 
a  bombardment  of  thirty-three  hours,  Major  Anderson 
agreed  to  evacuate  the  fort,  which  he  carried  into  effect 
on  Sunday  morning,  the  14th. 

The  effect  of  this  open  act  of  war  was,  in  some  respects, 
precisely  what  had  been  anticipated  by  the  rebel  authori 
ties  :  in  other  respects,  it  was  very  different.  Upon  the 
Southern  States  it  had  the  effect  of  arousing  public  senti 
ment  to  the  highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm,  and  of  strength 
ening  the  rebel  cause.  At  the  North,  it  broke  down, 
for  the  moment,  all  party  distinctions,  and  united  the 


172  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

people  in  a  cordial  and  hearty  support  of  the  Govern 
ment. 

The  President  regarded  it  as  an  armed  attack  upon  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  in  support  of  the  com 
bination  which  had  been  organized  into  a  Confederacy  to 
resist  and  destroy  its  authority,  and  he  saw,  at  once,  that 
it  could  be  met  and  defeated  only  by  the  force  placed  in 
his  hands  for  the  maintenance  of  that  authority.  He 
accordingly,  on  the  15th  of  April,  issued  the  following 


PPvOCLAMATIOK 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

Whereas,  the  laws  of  the  United  States  have  been  for  some  time  past 
and  now  are  opposed,  and  the  execution  thereof  obstructed,  in  the  States 
of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and 
Texas,  by  combinations  too  powerful  to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary 
course  of  judicial  proceedings,  or  by  the  powers  vested  in  the  marshals 
by  law :  noAv,  therefore,  I,  ABKAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  of  the  United 
States,  in  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  by  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws,  have  thought  fit  to  call  forth,  and  hereby  do  call  forth,  the  militia 
of  the  several  States  of  the  Union,  to  the  aggregate  number  of  seventy- 
five  thousand,  in  order  to  suppress  said  combinations,  and  to  cause  the 
laws  to  be  duly  executed. 

The  details  for  this  object  will  be  immediately  communicated  to  the 
State  authorities  through  the  War  Department.  I  appeal  to  all  loynl 
citizens  to  favor,  facilitate,  and  aid  this  effort  to  maintain  the  honor,  tho 
integrity,  and  exis^tence  of  our  National  Union,  and  the  perpetuity  of 
popular  government,  and  to  redress  wrongs  already  long  enough  endured. 
I  deem  it  proper  to  say  that  the  first  service  assigned  to  the  forces  hereby 
called  forth  will  probably  be  to  repossess  the  forts,  places,  and  property 
which  have  been  seized  from  the  Union ;  and  in  every  event  the  utmost- 
care  will  be  observed,  consistently  with  the  objects  aforesaid,  to  avoid 
any  devastation,  any  destruction  of,  or  interference  with,  property,  or  any 
disturbance  of  peaceful  citizens  of  any  part  of  the  country;  and  I  hereby 
command  the  persons  composing  the  combinations  aforesaid  to  disperse 
and  retire  peaceably  to  their  respective  abodes,  within  twenty  days  from 
this  date. 

Deeming  that  the  present  condition  of  public  affairs  presents  an  extra 
ordinary  occasion,  I  do  hereby,  in  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  by 
the  Constitution,  convene  both  houses  of  Congress.  The  Senators  and 
Representatives  are,  therefore,  summoned  to  assemble  at  their  respective 
chambers,  at  twelve  o'clock,  noon,  on  Thursday,  the  fourth  day  of  July 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  173 

next,  then  and  there  to  consider  and  determine  such  measures  as,  in  their 
wisdom,  the  public  safety  and  interest  may  seem  to  demand. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand,  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  fifteenth  day  of  April,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-one,  and  of  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-fifth. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President. 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

The  issue  of  this  Proclamation  created  the  most  intense 
enthusiasm  throughout  the  country.  Scarcely  a  voice 
was  raised  in  any  of  the  Northern  States  against  this 
measure,  which  was  seen  to  "be  one  of  absolute  necessity 
and  of  self-defence  on  the  part  of  the  Government. 
Every  Northern  State  responded  promptly  to  the  Presi 
dent' s  demand,  and  from  private  persons,  as  well  as  by 
the  legislatures,  men,  arms,  and  money  were  offered,  in 
unstinted  profusion  and  with  the  most  zealous  alacrity, 
in  support  of  the  Government.  Massachusetts  was  first 
in  the  field ;  and  on  the  first  day  after  the  issue  of  the 
Proclamation,  her  Sixth  Regiment,  completely  equipped, 
started  from  Boston  for  the  National  Capital.  Two  more 
regiments  were  also  made  ready,  and  took  their  departure 
within  forty-eight  hours.  The  Sixth  Regiment,  on  its 
way  to  Washington,  on  the  19th,  was  attacked  by  a  mob 
in  Baltimore,  carrying  a  secession  flag,  and  several  of  its 
members  were  killed  or  severely  wounded.  This  inflamed 
to  a  still  higher  point  the  excitement  which  already  per 
vaded  the  country.  The  whole  Northern  section  of  the 
Union  felt  outraged  that  troops  should  be  assailed  and 
murdered  on  their  way  to  protect  the  Capital  of  the  Na 
tion.  In  Maryland,  where  the  Secession  party  was 
strong,  there  was  also  great  excitement,  and  the  Governor 
of  the  State  and  the  Mayor  of  Baltimore  united  in  urging 
for  prudential  reasons,  that  no  more  troops  should  be 
brought  through  that  city.  To  their  representation  the 
President  made  the  following  reply :— 


174  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

WASHINGTON,  April  29. 1861. 

Governor  HICKS  and  Mayor  BROWN  : 

GENTLEMEN  : — Your  letter  by  Messrs.  Bond,  Dobbin,  and  Brune  is  re 
ceived.  I  tender  you  both  my  sincere  thanks  for  your  efforts  to  keep  the 
peace  in  the  trying  situation  in  which  you  are  placed. 

For  the  future,  troops  must  be  brought  here,  but  I  make  no  point  of 
bringing  them  through  Baltimore.  Without  any  military  knowledge  my 
self,  of  course  I  must  leave  details  to  General  Scott.  He  hastily  said  this 
morning  in  the  presence  of  these  gentlemen,  "  March  them  around  Balti 
more,  and  not  through  it."  I  sincerely  hope  the  General,  on  fuller  reflec 
tion,  will  consider  this  practical  and  proper,  and  that  you  will  not  object 
to  it.  By  this  a  collision  of  the  people  of  Baltimore  with  the  troops  will 
be  avoided,  unless  they  go  out  of  their  way  to  seek  it.  I  hope  you  will 
exert  your  influence  to  prevent  this. 

Now  and  ever  I  shall  do  all  in  my  power  for  peace  consistently  with 
the  maintenance  of  the  Government. 

Your  obedient  servant,  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN. 

And  in  farther  response  to  the  same  request  from  Gov 
ernor  Hicks,  followed  "by  a  suggestion  that  the  contro 
versy  between  the  North  and  South  might  be  referred  to 
Lord  Lyons,  the  British  Minister,  for  arbitration,  Presi 
dent  Lincoln,  through  the  Secretary  of  State,  made  the 
following  reply  : — 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  April  22,  1S61. 

His  Excellency  THOMAS  H.  HicKS,  Governor  of  Maryland : 

SIR  : — I  have  had  the  honor  to  receive  your  communication  of  this 
morning,  in  which  you  inform  me  that  you  have  felt  it  to  be  your  duty 
to  advise  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  order  elsewhere  the  troops 
then  off  Annapolis,  and  also  that  no  more  may  be  sent  through  Maryland ; 
and  that  you  have  further  suggested  that  Lord  Lyons  be  requested  to  act 
as  mediator  between  the  contending  parties  in  our  country,  to  prevent 
the  effusion  of  blood. 

The  President  directs  me  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  that  communi 
cation,  and  to  assure  you  that  he  has  weighed  the  counsels  it  contains 
with  the  respect  which  he  habitually  cherishes  for  the  Chief  Magistrates 
of  the  several  States,  and  especially  for  yourself.  He  regrets,  as  deeply 
as  any  magistrate  or  citizen  of  this  country  can,  that  demonstrations 
against  the  safety  of  the  United  States,  with  very  extensive  preparations 
for  the  effusion  .of  blood,  have  made  it  his  duty  to  call  out  the  forces  to 
which  you  allude. 

The  force  now  Bought  to  be  brought  through  Maryland  is  intended  for 
nothing  but  the  defence  of  the  Capital.  The  President  has  necessarily 
confided  the  choice  of  the  National  highway  which  that  force  shall  take 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  175 

in  coming  to  this  city  to  the  Lieutenant- General  commanding  the  Army 
of  the  United  States,  who,  like  his  only  predecessor,  is  not  less  distin 
guished  for  his  humanity  than  for  his  loyalty,  patriotism,  and  distin 
guished  public  service. 

The  President  instructs  me  to  add,  that  the  National  highway  thus 
•selected  by  the  Lieutenant-General  has  been  chosen  by  him  upon  consul 
tation  with  prominent  magistrates  and  citizens  of  Maryland  as  the  one 
which,  while  a  route  is  absolutely  necessary,  is  farthest  removed  from  the 
populous  cities  of  the  State,  and  with  the  expectation  that  it  would  there 
fore  be  the  least  objectionable  one. 

The  President  cannot  but  remember  that  there  has  been  a  time  in  the 
history  of  our  country  when  a  general  of  the  American  Union,  with  forces 
designed  for  the  defence  of  its  Capital,  was  not  unwelcome  anywhere  in 
the  State  of  Maryland,  and  certainly  not  at  Annapolis,  then,  as  now,  the 
capital  of  that  patriotic  State,  and  then,  also,  one  of  the  capitals  of  the 
Union. 

If  eighty  years  could  have  obliterated  all  the  other  noble  sentiments  of 
that  age  in  Maryland,  the  President  would  be  hopeful,  nevertheless,  that 
there  is  one  that  would  forever  remain  there  and  everywhere.  That  sen 
timent  is,  that  no  domestic  contention  whatever  that  may  arise  among  the 
parties  of  this  Republic  ought  in  any  case  to  be  referred  to  any  foreign 
arbitrament,  least  of  all  to  the  arbitrament  of  a  European  monarchy. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  distinguished  consideration,  your  Excel 
lency's  obedient  servant,  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD. 

At  the  President' s  request,  the  Mayor  of  Baltimore,  and 
a  number  of  leading  influential  citizens  of  Maryland, 
waited  upon  him  at  Washington,  and  had  an  open  con 
ference  upon  the  condition  of  affairs  in  that  State.  The 
Mayor  subsequently  made  the  following  report  of  the  in 
terview  : — 

The  President,  upon  his  part,  recognized  the  good  faith  of  the  city  and 
State  authorities,  and  insisted  upon  his  own.  He  admitted  the  excited 
state  of  feeling  in  Baltimore,  and  his  desire  and  duty  to  avoid  the  fatal 
consequences  of  a  collision  with  the  people.  He  urged,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  absolute,  irresistible  necessity  of  having  a  transit  through  the 
State  for  such  troops  as  might  be  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the 
Federal  Capital.  The  protection  of  Washington,  he  asseverated  with  great 
earnestness,  was  the  sole  object  of  concentrating  troops  there ;  and  he 
protested  that  none  of  the  troops  brought  through  Maryland  were  in 
tended  for  any  purposes  hostile  to  the  State,  or  aggressive  as  against  the 
Southern  States.  Being  now  unable  to  bring  them  up  the  Potomac  ID 
security,  the  Government  must  either  bring  them  through  Maryland  or 
abandon  the  Capital. 


176  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

He  called  on  General  Scott  for  his  opinion,  which  the  General  gave  at 
length,  to  the  effect  that  troops  might  he  brought  through  Maryland, 
without  going  through  Baltimore,  by  either  carrying  them  from  Perrys- 
ville  to  Annapolis,  and  thence  by  rail  to  Washington,  or  by  bringing  them 
to  the  Relay  House  on  the  Northern  Central  Railroad,  and  marching  them 
to  the  Relay  House  on  the  "Washington  Railroad,  and  thence  by  rail  to 
the  Capital.  If  the  people  would  permit  them  to  go  by  either  of  those 
routes  uninterruptedly,  the  necessity  of  their  passing  through  Baltimore 
would  be  avoided.  If  the  people  would  not  permit  them  a  transit  thus 
remote  from  the  city,  they  must  select  their  own  best  route,  and,  if  need 
be,  fight  their  way  through  Baltimore — a  result  which  the  General  ear 
nestly  deprecated. 

The  President  expressed  his  hearty  concurrence  in  the  desire  to  avoid 
a  collision,  and  said  that  no  more  troops  should  be  ordered  through  Balti 
more,  if  they  were  permitted  to  go  uninterruptedly  by  either  of  the  other 
routes  suggested.  In  this  disposition  the  Secretary  of  War  expressed  his 
participation. 

Mayor  Brown  assured  the  President  that  the  city  authorities  would  use 
all  lawful  means  to  prevent  their  citizens  from  leaving  Baltimore  to  attack 
the  troops  in  passing  at  a  distance ;  but  he  urged,  at  the  same  time,  the 
impossibility  of  their  being  able  to  promise  any  thing  more  than  their 
best  efforts  in  that  direction.  The  excitement  was  great,  he  told  the 
President ;  the  people  of  all  classes  were  fully  aroused,  and  it  was  impos 
sible  for  any  one  to  answer  for  the  consequences  of  the  presence  of  North 
ern  troops  anywhere  within  our  borders.  He  reminded  the  President, 
also,  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  city  authorities  was  confined  to  their  own 
population,  and  that  he  could  give  no  promises  for  the  people  elsewhere, 
because  he  would  be  unable  to  keep  them  if  given.  The  President  frankly 
acknowledged  this  difficulty,  and  said  that  the  Government  would  only 
ask  the  city  authorities  to  use  their  best  efforts  with  respect  to  those 
under  their  jurisdiction. 

The  interview  terminated  with  the  distinct  assurance,  on  the  part  of 
the  President,  that  no  more  troops  would  be  sent  through  Baltimore  un 
less  obstructed  in  their  transit  in  other  directions,  and  with  the  under 
standing  that  the  city  authorities  should  do  their  best  to  restrain  their 
own  people. 

In  accordance  with  this  understanding,  troops  were  for 
warded  to  Washington  by  way  of  Annapolis,  until  peace 
and  order  were  restored  in  Baltimore,  when  the  regular 
use  of  the  highway  through  that  city  was  resumed,  and 
has  "been  continued  without  interruption  to  the  present 
time. 

On  the  19th  of  April  the  President  issued  the  following 
proclamation,  blockading  the  ports  of  the  seceded  States: — 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  177 


A  PKOCLAMATION, 
By  the  President  of  the  Unitted  States. 

Whereas,  An  insurrection  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
has  broken  out  in  the  States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Flor 
ida,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and  Texas,  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
for  the  collection  of  the  revenue  cannot  be  efficiently  executed  therein 
conformable  to  that  provision  of  the  Constitution  which  required  duties 
to  be  uniform  throughout  the  United  States : — 

And  whereas,  A  combination  of  persons,  engaged  in  such  insurrection, 
have  threatened  to  grant  pretended  letters  of  marque,  to  authorize  the 
bearers  thereof  to  commit  assaults  on  the  lives,  vessels,  and  property  of 
the  good  citizens  of  the  country,  lawfully  engaged  in  commerce  on  the 
high  seas,  and  in  waters  of  the  United  States  : — 

And  whereas,  An  Executive  Proclamation  has  been  already  issued,  re 
quiring  the  persons  engaged  in  these  disorderly  proceedings  to  desist 
therefrom,  calling  out  a  militia  force  for  the  purpose  of  repressing  the 
same,  and  convening  Congress  in  extraordinary  session  to  deliberate  and 
determine  thereon : — 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
with  a  view  to  the  same  purposes  before  mentioned,  and  to  the  protec 
tion  of  the  public  peace,  and  the  lives  and  property  of  quiet  and  orderly 
citizens  pursuing  their  lawful  occupations,  until  Congress  shall  have 
assembled  and  deliberated  on  the  said  unlawful  proceedings,  or  until  the 
same  shall  have  ceased,  have  further  deemed  it  advisable  to  set  on  foot  a 
blockade  of  the  ports  within  the  States  aforesaid,  in  pursuance  of  the 
laws  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  laws  of  nations  in  such  cases  pro 
vided.  For  this  purpose  a  competent  force  will  be  posted,  so  as  to  pre 
vent  entrance  and  exit  of  vessels  from  the  ports  aforesaid.  If,  therefore, 
with  a  view  to  violate  such  blockade,  a  vessel  shall  approach,  or  shall 
attempt  to  leave  any  of  the  said  ports,  she  will  be  duly  warned  by  tha 
commander  of  one  of  the  blockading  vessels,  who  will  indorse  on  her 
register  the  fact  and  date  of  such  warning ;  and  if  the  same  vessel  shall 
again  attempt  to  enter  or  leave  the  blockaded  port,  she  will  be  captured 
and  sent  to  the  nearest  convenient  port,  for  such  proceedings  against  her 
and  her  cargo  as  prize  as  may  be  deemed  advisable. 

And  I  hereby  proclaim  and  declare,  that  if  any  person,  under  the  pie- 
tended  authority  of  such  States,  or  under  any  other  pretence,  shall  molest 
a  vessel  of  the  United  States,  or  the  persons  or  cargo  on  board  of  her, 
such  persons  will  be  held  amenable  to  the  laws  of  the  United  States  for 
the  prevention  and  punishment  of  piracy. 

By  the  President.  ABKAHAIC  LINCOLN". 

WILLIAM  H.  SE  WARD,  Secretary  of  State, 
WAWIIKGTOK,  April  19, 1861. 
12 


178  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

These  were  the  initial  steps  by  which,  the  Government 
sought  to  repel  the  attempt  of  the  rebel  Confederacy  to 
overthrow  its  authority  by  force  of  anns.  Its  action  was 
at  that  time  wholly  defensive.  The  declarations  of  rebel 
officials,  as  well  as  the  language  of  the  Southern  press, 
indicated  very  clearly  their  intention  to  push  the  war 
begun  at  Sumter  into  the  North.  Jefferson  Davis  had 
himself  declared,  more  than  a  month  previous,  that  when 
ever  the  war  should  open,  the  North  and  not  the  South 
should  be  the  field  of  battle.  At  a  popular  demonstration 
held  at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  on  hearing  that  fire  had  been 
opened  upon  Sumter,  L.  P.  Walker,  the  rebel  Secretary 
of  War,  had  said,  that  while  "no  man  could  tell  where 
the  war  would  end,  he  would  prophesy  that  the  flag 
which  now  flaunts  the  breeze  here,  would  float  over  the 
dome  of  the  old  Capitol  at  Washington  before  the  first  of 
May,"  and  that  it  "might  float  eventually  over  Faneul 
Hall  itself."  The  rebel  Government  had  gone  forward 
with  great  vigor  to  prepare  the  means  for  making  good 
these  predictions.  Volunteers  were  summoned  to  the 
field.  Besides  garrisoning  the  fortresses  in  their  posses 
sion  along  the  Southern  coast,  a  force  of  nearly  twenty 
thousand  men  was  pushed  rapidly  forward  to  Virginia. 
A  loan  of  eight  millions  of  dollars  was  raised,  and  Davis 
issued  a  proclamation  offering  letters  of  marque  to  all  per 
sons  who  might  desire  to  aid  the  rebel  Government  and 
enrich  themselves  by  depredations  upon  the  rich  and  ex 
tended  commerce  of  the  United  States.  The  South  thus 
plunged  openly  and  boldly  into  a  war  of  aggression  ;  and 
the  President,  in  strict  conformity  with  the  declaration  of  his 
Inaugural,  put  the  Government  upon  the  defensive,  and 
limited  the  military  operations  of  the  moment  to  the  pro 
tection  of  the  Capital. 

The  effect  of  these  preliminary  movements  upon  the 
Border  Slave  States  was  very  decided.  The  assault  upon 
Sumter  greatly  excited  the  public  mind  throughout  those 
States.  In  Virginia  it  was  made  to  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the 
rebels.  The  State  Convention,  which  had  been  in  session 
since  the  13th  of  February,  was  composed  of  a  hundred 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  179 

and  fifty -two  delegates,  a  large  majority  of  whom  were 
Union  men.  The  Inaugural  of  President  Lincoln  had 
created  a  good  deal  of  excitement  among  the  members, 
and  a  very  animated  contest  had  followed  as  to  its  proper 
meaning.  The  secessionists  insisted  that  it  announced  a 
policy  of  coercion  towards  the  South,  and  had  seized  the 
occasion  to  urge  the  immediate  passage  of  an  ordinance  of 
secession.  This  gaye  rise  to  a  stormy  debate,  in  which 
the  friends  of  the  Union  maintained  their  ascendency. 
The  news  of  the  attack  upon  Sumter  created  a  whirlwind 
of  excitement,  which  checked  somewhat  the  Union  move 
ment  ;  and,  on  the  13th  of  April,  Messrs.  Preston,  Stuart, 
and  Randolph,  who  had  "been  sent  to  Washington  to  as 
certain  the  President' s  intentions  towards  the  South,  sent 
in  their  report,  which  was  received  just  after  Governor 
Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  had  announced  the  attack 
upon  Sumter,  and  had  demanded  to  know  what  Virginia 
intended  to  do  in  the  war  they  had  just  commenced,  and 
in  which  they  were  determined  to  triumph  or  perish, 
The  Commissioners  reported  that  the  President  had  madf 
the  following  reply  to  their  inquiries  :— 

To  Hon.  Messrs.  PKESTON,  STUART  and  KANDOLPII  : 

GENTLEMEN  : — As  a  committee  of  the  Virginia  Convention,  now  in  ses 
sion,  you  present  me  a  preamble  and  resolution  in  these  words : — 

Whereas,  In  the  opinion  of  this  Convention,  the  uncertainty  which  pre 
vails  in  the  public  mind  as  to  the  policy  which  the  Federal  Executive  in 
tends  to  pursue  towards  the  seceded  States,  is  extremely  injurious  to  the 
industrial  and  commercial  interests  of  the  country,  tends  to  keep  up  an 
excitement  which  is  unfavorable  to  the  adjustment  of  the  pending  diffi 
culties,  and  threatens  a  disturbance  of  the  public  peace  : — Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  three  delegates  be  appointed  to  wait  on 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  present  to  him  this  preamble,  and  re 
spectfully  ask  him  to  communicate  to  this  Convention  the  policy  which 
the  Federal  Executive  intends  to  pursue  in  regard  to  the  Confederate 
States. 

In  answer  I  have  to  say,  that  having,  at  the  beginning  of  my  official 
term,  expressed  my  intended  policy  as1  plainly  as  I  was  able,  it  is  with 
deep  regret  and  mortification  I  now  learn  there  is  great  and  injurious  un 
certainty  in  the  public  mind  as  to  what  that  policy  is,  and  what  course  I 
intend  to  pursue.  Not  having  as  yet  seen  occasion  to  change,  it  is  now 
my  purpose  to  pursue  the  course  marked  out  in  the  Inaugural  Address. 
I  commend  a  careful  consideration  of  the  whole  document  as  the  best  ex- 


180  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

pression  I  can  give  to  my  purposes.  As  I  then  and  therein  said,  I  now 
repeat,  "  The  power  confided  in  me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  pos 
sess  property  and  places  belonging  to  the  Government,  and  to  collect  the 
duties  and  imposts ;  but  beyond  what  is  necessary  for  these  objects  there 
will  be  no  invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people  any 
where."  By  the  words  "property  and  places  belonging  to  the  Govern 
ment,"  I  chiefly  allude  to  the  military  posts  and  property  which  were  in 
possession  of  the  Government  when  it  came  into  my  hands.  But  if,  as 
now  appears  to  be  true,  in  pursuit  of  a  purpose  to  drive  the  United  States 
authority  from  these  places,  an  unprovoked  assault  has  been  made  upon 
Fort  Sumter,  I  shall  hold  myself  at  liberty  to  repossess  it,  if  I  can,  like 
places  which  had  been  seized  before  the  Government  was  devolved  upon 
me ;  and  in  any  event  I  shall,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  repel  force  by 
force.  In  case  it  proves  true  that  Fort  Sumter  has  been  assaulted,  as  is 
reported,  I  shall,  perhaps,  cause  the  United  States  mails  to  be  withdrawn 
from  all  the  States  which  claim  to  have  seceded,  believing  that  the  com 
mencement  of  actual  war  against  the  Government  justifies  and  possibly 
demands  it.  I  scarcely  need  to  say  that  I  consider  the  military  posts  and 
property  situated  within  the  States  which  claim  to  have  seceded,  as  yet 
belonging  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  as  much  as  they  did 
before  the  supposed  secession.  Whatever  else  I  may  do  for  the  purpose, 
I  shall  not  attempt  to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts  by  any  armed  inva 
sion  of  any  part  of  the  country ;  not  meaning  by  this,  however,  that  I 
may  not  land  a  force  deemed  necessary  to  relieve  a  fort  upon  the  border 
of  the  country.  From  the  fact  that  I  have  quoted  a  part  of  the  Inaugural 
Address,  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  I  repudiate  any  other  part,  the 
whole  of  which  I  reaffirm,  except  so  far  as  what  I  now  say  of  the  mails 
may  be  regarded  as  a  modification. 

ABEA.HAM  LINCOLN. 


On  the  17tli,  two  days  after  this  report  was  presented, 
and  immediately  after  receiving  the  President's  procla 
mation  calling  for  troops,  the  Convention  passed  an  ordi 
nance  of  secession  by  a  vote  of  eighty-eight  to  fifty-five  ; 
and  Virginia,  "being  thus  the  most  advanced  member  of  the 
rebel  Confederacy,  became  the  battle-field  of  all  the  earlier 
contests  which  ensued,  and  on  the  21st  of  May  the  capital 
of  the  rebel  Government  was  transferred  to  Richmond. 
Very  strenuous  efforts  were  made  by  the  rebel  authori 
ties  to  secure  the  adhesion  of  Maryland,  Kentucky,  Ten 
nessee,  and  Missouri  to  the  Confederacy ;  but  the  wise 
forbearance  of  the  President  in  his  earlier  measures  had 
checked  these  endeavors,  and  held  all  those  States  but 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  181 

Tennessee  aloof  from  active  participation  in  the  secession 
movement. 

The  months  of  May  and  June  were  devoted  to  the  most 
active  and  vigorous  preparations  on  Iboth  sides  for  the 
contest  which  was  seen  to  be  inevitable.  Over  a  hundred 
thousand  troops  had  been  raised  and  organized  in  the 
rebel  States,  and  the  great  mass  of  them  had  been  pushed 
forward  towards  the  Northern  border.  On  the  20th  of 
April,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  seized  all  the 
dispatches  which  had  accumulated  in  the  telegraph  offices 
during  the  preceding  year,  for  the  purpose  of  detecting 
movements  in  aid  of  the  rebel  conspiracy.  On  the  27th 
of  April  the  blockade  of  rebel  ports  was  extended  by 
proclamation  to  the  ports  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia. 
On  the  3d  of  May  the  President  issued  a  proclamation 
calling  into  the  service  of  the  United  States  forty-tw 
thousand  and  thirty-four  volunteers  for  three  years,  ano, 
ordering  an  addition  of  twenty-two  thousand  one  hundred 
and  fourteen  officers  and  men  to  the  regular  army,  and 
eighteen  thousand  seamen  to  the  navy.  And  on  the  16th, 
by  another  proclamation,  he  directed  the  commander  of 
the  United  States  forces  in  Florida  to  "permit  no  person 
to  exercise  any  office  or  authority  upon  the  islands  of 
Key  West,  Tortugas,  and  Santa  Kosa,  which  may  be  in 
consistent  with  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  ;  authorizing  him,  at  the  same  time,  if  he  shall  find 
it  necessary,  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  to 
remove  from  the  vicinity  of  the  United  States  fortresses 
all  dangerous  and  suspected  persons." 

One  of  the  first  duties  of  the  new  Administration  was 
to  define  the  position  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  towards  foreign  nations  in  view  of  the 
rebellion.  While  it  is  impossible  to  enter  here  upon  this 
very  wide  branch  of  the  general  subject  at  any  consid 
erable  length,  this  history  would  be  incomplete  if  it  did 
not  state,  in  official  language,  the  attitude  which  the  Presi 
dent  decided  to  assume.  That  is  very  distinctly  set  forth 
in  the  letter  of  instructions  prepared  by  the  Secretary  of 
State  for  Mr.  Adams,  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for 


182  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  court    of   St.    James,  and  dated    April  10,  in    the 
following  terms : — 

Before  considering  the  arguments  you  are  to  use,  it  is  important  to  in 
dicate  those  which  you  are  not  to  employ  in  executing  that  mission  : — 

First.  The  President  has  noticed,  as  the  whole  American  people  have, 
with  much  emotion,  the  expressions  of  good-will  and  friendship  towards 
the  United  States,  and  of  concern  for  their  present  embarrassments,  which 
have  been  made  on  apt  occasions,  by  her  Majesty  and  her  ministers.  You 
will  make  due  acknowledgment  for  these  manifestations,  but  at  the  same 
time  you  will  not  rely  on  any  mere  sympathies  or  national  kindness.  You 
will  make  no  admissions  of  weakness  in  our  Constitution,  or  of  apprehen 
sion  on  the  part  of  the  Government.  You  will  rather  prove,  as  you  easily 
can,  by  comparing  the  history  of  our  country  with  that  of  other  States, 
that  its  Constitution  and  Government  are  really  the  strongest  and  surest 
which  have  ever  been  erected  for  the  safety  of  any  people.  You  will  in  no 
case  listen  to  any  suggestions  of  compromise  by  this  Government,  under 
foreign  auspices,  with  its  discontented  citizens.  If,  as  the  President  does 
not  at  all  apprehend,  you  shall  unhappily  find  her  Majesty's  Government 
tolerating  the  application  of  the  so-called  seceding  States,  or  wavering 
about  it,  you  will  not  leave  them  to  suppose  for  a  moment  that  they  can 
grant  that  application  and  remain  the  friends  of  the  United  States.  You 
may  even  assure  them  promptly,  in  that  case,  that  if  they  determine  to  rec 
ognize,  they  may  at  the  same  time  prepare  to  enter  into  alliance  with  the 
enemies  of  this  Eepublic.  You  alone  will  represent  your  country  at  Lon 
don,  and  you  will  represent  the  whole  of  it  there.  "When  you  are  asked 
to  divide  that  duty  with  others,  diplomatic  relations  between  the  Govern 
ment  of  Great  Britain  and  this  Government  will  be  suspended,  and  will 
remain  so  until  it  shall  be  seen  which  of  the  two  is  most  strongly  in 
trenched  in  the  confidence  of  their  respective  nations  and  of  mankind. 

You  will  not  be  allowed,  however,  even  if  you  were  disposed,  as  the 
President  is  sure  you  will  not  be,  to  rest  your  opposition  to  the  applica 
tion  of  the  Confederate  States  on  the  ground  of  any  favor  this  Adminis 
tration,  or  the  party  which  chiefly  called  it  into  existence,  proposes  to 
show  to  Great  Britain,  or  claims  that  Great  Britain  ought  to  show  them. 
You  will  not  consent  to  draw  into  debate  before  the  British  Government 
any  opposing  moral  principles  which  may  be  supposed  to  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  the  controversy  between  those  States  and  the  Federal 
Union. 

You  will  indulge  in  no  expressions  of  harshness  or  disrespect,  or  even 
impatience,  concerning  the  seceding  States,  their  agents,  or  their  people. 
But  you  will,  on  the  contrary,  all  the  while  remember  that  those  States 
are  now,  as  they  always  heretofore  have  been,  and,  notwithstanding  their 
temporary  self-delusion,  they  must  always  continue  to  be,  equal  and 
honored  members  of  this  Federal  Union,  and  that  their  citizens  through 
out  all  political  misunderstandings  and  alienations  still  are  and  always 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  183 

must  be  our  kindred  and  countrymen.  In  short,  all  your  arguments  must 
belong  to  one  of  three  classes,  namely :  First.  Arguments  drawn  from 
the  principles  of  public  law  and  natural  justice,  which  regulate  the  inter 
course  of  equal  States.  Secondly.  Arguments  which  concern  equally  the 
honor,  welfare,  and  happiness  of  the  discontented  States,  and  the  honor, 
welfare,  and  happiness  of  the  whole  Union.  Thirdly.  Arguments  which 
are  equally  conservative  of  the  rights  and  interests,  and  even  sentiments 
of  the  United  States,  and  just  in  their  bearing  upon  the  rights,  interests, 
and  sentiments  of  Great  Britain  and  all  other  nations. 

Just  previous  to  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Adams  at  Ms  post, 
the  British  Government  determined,  acting  in  concert 
with  that  of  France,  to  recognize  the  rebels  as  a  "bellige 
rent  power.  Against  this  recognition  our  Government 
directed  Mr.  Adams  to  make  a  decided  and  energetic  pro 
test.  On  the  fifteenth  of  June  the  British  and  French 
Ministers  at  Washington  requested  an  interview  with  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  purpose  of  reading  to  him  cer 
tain  instructions  they  had  received  on  this  subject  from 
their  respective  governments.  Mr.  Seward  declined  to 
hear  them  officially  until  he  knew  the  nature  of  the  docu 
ment,  which  was  accordingly  left  with  him  for  perusal, 
and  he  afterwards  declined  altogether  to  hear  it  read,  01 
receive  official  notice  of  it.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Adams,  on 
the  19th,  he  thus  states  its  character  and  contents :  - 

That  paper  purports  to  contain  a  decision  at  which  the  British  Govern 
ment  has  arrived,  to  the  effect  that  this  country  is  divided  into  two 
belligerent  parties,  of  which  the  Government  represents  one,  and  that 
Great  Britain  assumes  the  attitude  of  a  neutral  between  them. 

This  Government  could  not,  consistently  with  a  just  regard  for  the  sov 
ereignty  of  the  United  States,  permit  itself  to  debate  these  novel  and 
extraordinary  positions  with  the  Government  of  her  Britannic  Majesty ; 
much  less  can  we  consent  that  that  Government  shall  announce  to  us  a 
deeision  derogating  from  that  sovereignty,  at  which  it  has  arrived  with 
out  previously  conferring  with  us  upon  the  question.  The  United  States 
are  still  solely  and  exclusively  sovereign  within  the  territories  they  have 
lawfully  acquired  and  long  possessed,  as  they  have  always  been.  They 
are  at  peace  with  all  the  world,  as,  with  unimportant  exceptions,  they  have 
always  been.  They  are  living  under  the  obligations  of  the  law  of  nations, 
and  of  treaties  with  Great  Britain,  just  the  same  now  as  heretofore;  they 
are,  of  course,  the  friend  of  Great  Britain,  and  they  insist  that  Great  Britain 
shall  remain  their  friend  now,  just  as  she  has  hitherto  been.  Great  Britain, 
by  T,  irtue  of  these  relations,  is  a  stranger  to  parties  and  sections  in  this 


184  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

country,  whether  they  are  loyal  to  the>  United  States  or  not,  and  Great 
Britain  can  neither  rightfully  qualify  the  sovereignty  of  the  United  States, 
nor  concede,  nor  recognize  any  rights  or  interests  or  power  of  any  party? 
State,  or  section,  in  contravention  to  the  unbroken  sovereignty  of  the  Fed 
eral  Union.  What  is  now  seen  in  this  country  is  the  occurrence,  by  no 
means  peculiar,  but  frequent  in  all  countries — more  frequent  even  in  Great 
Britain  than  here — of  an  armed  insurrection  engaged  in  attempting  to 
overthrow  the  regularly  constituted  and  established  Government.  There 
is,  of  course,  the  employment  of  force  by  the  Government  to  suppress 
the  insurrection,  as  every  other  government  necessarily  employs  force  in 
such  cases.  But  these  incidents  by  no  means  constitute  a  state  of  war 
impairing  the  sovereignty  of  the  Government,  creating  belligerent  sec 
tions,  and  entitling  foreign  States  to  intervene,  or  to  act  as  neutrals 
between  them,  or  in  any  other  way  to  cast  off  their  lawful  obligations  to 
the  nation  thus  for  the  moment  disturbed.  Any  other  principle  than 
this  would  be  to  resolve  government  everywhere  into  a  thing  of  accident 
and  caprice,  and  ultimately  all  human  society  into  a  state  of  perpetual 
war. 

We  do  not  go  into  any  argument  of  fact  or  of  law  in  support  of  the 
positions  we  have  thus  assumed.  They  are  simply  the  suggestions  of  the 
instinct  of  self-defence,  the  primary  law  of  human  action — not  more  the 
law  of  individual  than  of  National  life. 


Similar  views  were  presented  for  the  consideration  of 
the  French  Emperor,  and,  indeed,  of  all  the  foreign  gov 
ernments  with  which  we  held  diplomatic  intercourse.  The 
action  of  the  seceding  States  was  treated  as  rebellion, 
purely  domestic  in  its  character,  upon  the  nature  or 
merits  of  which  it  would  "be  unbecoming  in  us  to  hold 
any  discussion  with  any  foreign  Power.  The  President 
pressed  upon  all  those  governments  the  duty  of  accepting 
this  view  of  the  question,  and  of  abstaining,  consequently, 
from  every  act  which  could  be  construed  into  any  recog 
nition  of  the  rebel  Confederacy,  or  which  could  embar 
rass  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  its  endeav 
ors  to  re-establish  its  rightful  authority.  Especial  pains 
were  taken,  by  the  most  emphatic  declarations,  to  leave 
no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  foreign  statesman  as  to  the 
purpose  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  accomplish 
that  result.  "You  cannot  be  too  decided  or  explicit,'7 
was  the  uniform  language  of  the  Secretary,  "in  making 
known  to  the  Government  that  there  is  not  now,  nor  has 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  185 

there  been,  nor  will  there  "be,  any  the  least  idea  existing 
in  this  Government  of  suffering  a  dissolution  of  this 
Union  to  take  place  in  any  way  whatever."  Efforts  were 
also  made  by  our  Government  to  define,  with  the  preci 
sion  which  the  novel  features  of  the  case  required,  the 
law  of  nations  in  regard  to  neutral  rights,  and  also  to 
secure  a  general  concurrence  of  the  maritime  powers  in 
the  principles  of  the  Paris  Convention  of  1859  :  the  latter 
object  was,  however,  thwarted  by  the  demand  made  by 
both  France  and  England,  that  they  should  not  be  re 
quired  to  abide  by  these  principles  in  their  application  to 
the  internal  conflict  which  was  going  on  in  the  United 
States.  This  demand  the  President  pronounced  inadmis 
sible. 


186  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


CHAPTER  YII. 

THE  EXTRA  SESSION  OF  CONGRESS,  AND  THE  MILITARY  EVENTS 
OP  THE  SUMMER  OP  1861. 

FIBST  ANNUAL  MESSAGE. — ACTION  OP  CONGRESS. — SLAVEET  AND  CON 
FISCATION: — THE  DEFEAT  AT  BULL  RUN. — TEEATMENT  OF  THE  SLAVERY 
QUESTION. — GENERAL  FREMONT  AND  THE  PRESIDENT. — THE  TRENT 
AFFAIR. 

IN  pursuance  of  the  President's  proclamation  of  the 
15th  of  April,  Congress  met  in  extra  session  on  the  4th 
of  July,  1861.  The  Republicans  had  control  of  "both 
houses,  counting  thirty-one  votes  out  of  forty-eight  in 
the  Senate,  and  one  hundred  and  six  out  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy-eight  in  the  House ;  there  being,  moreover, 
five  in  the  Senate  and  twenty-eight  in  the  House  who, 
without  belonging  to  the  Republican  party,  supported 
the  Administration  in  its  efforts  to  preserve  the  Union. 
Hon.  G-.  A.  Grow  was  elected  Speaker  of  the  House ; 
and,  on  the  5th,  the  President  communicated  to  Congress 
his  first  Annual  Message,  as  follows  : — 

Fellow- Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives: — 

Having  been  convened  on  an  extraordinary  occasion,  as  anthorized  by 
the  Constitution,  your  attention  is  not  called  to  any  ordinary  subject  of 
legislation. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  present  Presidential  term,  four  months  ago,  the 
functions  of  the  Federal  Government  were  found  to  be  generally  suspend 
ed  within  the  several  States  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Missis 
sippi,  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  excepting  only  those  of  the  Post- Office 
Department. 

Within  these  States  all  the  forts,  arsenals,  dock-yards,  custom-houses, 
and  the  like,  including  the  movable  and  stationary  property  in  and  about 
them,  had  been  seized,  and  were  held  in  open  hostility  to  this  Govern 
ment,  excepting  only  Forts  Pickens,  Taylor,  and  Jefferson,  on  and  near 
the  Florida  coast,  and  Fort  Sumter,  in  Charleston  Harbor,  South  Carolina. 
The  forts  thus  seized  had  been  put  in  improved  condition,  new  ones  had 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          187 

been  built,  and  armed  forces  had  been  organized  and  were  organizing,  all 
avowedly  with  the  same  hostile  purpose. 

The  forts  remaining  in  the  possession  of  the  Federal  Government  in 
and  near  these  States  were  either  besieged  or  menaced  by  warlike  prepa 
rations,  and  especially  Fort  Sumter  was  nearly  surrounded  by  well- 
protected  hostile  batteries,  with  guns  equal  in  quality  to  the  best  of  its 
own,  and  outnumbering  the  latter  as  perhaps  ten  to  one.  A  dispropor 
tionate  share  of  the  Federal  muskets  and  rifles  had  somehow  found  their 
way  into  these  States,  and  had  been  seized  to  be  used  against  the  Govern 
ment  Accumulations  of  the  public  revenue,  lying  within  them,  had 
been  seized  for  the  same  object.  The  Navy  was  scattered  in  distant  seas, 
leaving  but  a  very  small  part  of  it  within  the  immediate  reach  of  the 
Government.  Officers  of  the  Federal  Army  and  Navy  had  resigned  in 
great  numbers ;  and  of  those  resigning,  a  large  proportion  had  taken  up 
arms  against  the  Government.  Simultaneously,  and  in  connection  with 
all  this,  the  purpose  to  sever  the  Federal  Union  was  openly  avowed.  In 
accordance  with  this  purpose,  an  ordinance  had  been  adopted  in  each  of 
these  States,  declaring  the  States,  respectively,  to  be  separated  from  the 
National  Union.  A  formula  for  instituting  a  combined  government  of 
these  States  had  been  promulgated ;  and  this  illegal  organization,  in  the 
character  of  the  Confederate  States,  was  already  invoking  recognition,  aid, 
and  intervention  from  foreign  Powers. 

Finding  this  condition  of  things,  and  believing  it  to  be  an  imperative 
duty  upon  the  incoming  Executive  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  consumma 
tion  of  such  attempt  to  destroy  the  Federal  Union,  a  choice  of  means 
to  that  end  became  indispensable.  This  choice  was  made,  and  was  de 
clared  in  the  Inaugural  Address.  The  policy  chosen  looked  to  the  exhaus 
tion  of  all  peaceful  measures  before  a  resort  to  any  stronger  ones.  It 
sought  only  to  hold  the  public  places  and  property  not  already  wrested 
from  the  Government,  and  to  collect  the  revenue,  relying  for  the  rest  on 
time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box.  It  promised  a  continuance  of  the 
mails,  at  Government  expense,  to  the  very  people  who  were  resisting  the 
Government;  and  it  gave  repeated  pledges  against  any  disturbance  to 
any  of  the  people,  or  any  of  their  rights.  Of  all  that  which  a  President 
might  constitutionally  and  justifiably  do  in  such  a  case,  every  thing  was 
forborne,  without  which  it  was  believed  possible  to  keep  the  Government 
on  foot. 

On  the  5th  of  March  (the  present  incumbent's  first  full  day  in  office), 
a  letter  of  Major  Anderson,  commanding  at  Fort  Sumter,  written  on  the 
28th  of  February,  and  received  at  the  War  Department  on  the  4th  of 
March,  was  by  that  Department  placed  in  his  hands.  This  letter  ex 
pressed  the  professional  opinion  of  the  writer,  that  reinforcements  could 
not  be  thrown  into  that  fort  within  the  time  for  his  relief,  rendered  ne 
cessary  by  the  limited  supply  of  provisions,  and  with  a  view  of  holding 
possession  of  the  same,  with  a  force  of  less  than  twenty  thousand  good 


188  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

and  well-disciplined  men.  This  opinion  was  concurred  in  by  all  the 
officers  of  his  command,  and  their  memoranda  on  the  subject  were  made 
enclosures  of  Major  Anderson's  letter.  The  whole  was  immediately  laid 
before  Lieutenant-General  Scott,  who  at  once  concurred  with  Major 
Anderson  in  opinion.  On  reflection,  however,  he  took  full  time,  con 
sulting  with  other  officers,  both  of  the  army  and  the  navy ;  and  at  the 
end  of  four  days  came  reluctantly,  but  decidedly,  to  the  same  conclusion 
as  before.  He  also  stated  at  the  same  time  that  no  such  sufficient  force 
was  then  at  the  control  of  the  Government,  or  could  be  raised  and 
brought  to  the  ground  within  the  time  when  the  provisions  in  the  fort 
would  be  exhausted.  In  a  purely  military  point  of  view,  this  reduced 
the  duty  of  the  Administration  in  the  case  to  the  mere  matter  of  getting 
the  garrison  safely  out  of  the  fort. 

It  was  believed,  however,  that  to  so  abandon  that  position,  under  the 
circumstances,  would  be  utterly  ruinous  ;  that  the  necessity  under  which 
it  was  to  be  done  would  not  be  fully  understood ;  that  by  many  it  would 
be  construed  as  a  part  of  a  voluntary  policy  ;  that  at  home  it  would  dis 
courage  the  friends  of  the  Union,  embolden  its  adversaries,  and  go  far  to 
insure  to  the  latter  a  recognition  abroad ;  that,  in  fact,  it  would  be  our 
National  destruction  consummated.  This  could  not  be  allowed.  Star 
vation  was  not  yet  upon  the  garrison ;  and  ere  it  would  be  reached  Fort 
Pickens  might  be  re-enforced.  This  would  be  a  clear  indication  of  policy, 
and  would  better  enable  the  country  to  accept  the  evacuation  of  Fort 
Sumter  as  a  military  necessity.  An  order  was  at  once  directed  to  be  sent 
for  the  landing  of  the  troops  from  the  steamship  Brooklyn  into  Fort 
Pickens.  This  order  could  not  go  by  land,  but  must  take  the  longer  and 
slower  route  by  sea.  The  first  return  news  from  the  order  was  received 
just  one  week  before  the  fall  of  Fort  Sumter.  The  news  itself  was,  that 
the  officer  commanding  the  Sabine,  to  which  vessel  the  troops  had  been 
transferred  from  the  Brooklyn,  acting  upon  some  quasi  armistice  of  the 
late  Administration  (and  of  the  existence  of  which  the  present  Adminis 
tration,  up  to  the  time  the  order  was  dispatched,  had  only  too  vague  and 
uncertain  rumors  to  fix  attention),  had  refused  to  land  the  troops.  To 
now  re-enforce  Fort  Pickens  before  a  crisis  would  be  reached  at  Fort 
Sumter,  was  impossible — rendered  so  by  the  near  exhaustion  of  provisions 
in  the  latter-named  fort.  In  precaution  against  such  a  conjuncture,  the 
Government  had  a  few  days  before  commenced  preparing  an  expedition, 
as  well  adapted  as  might  be,  to  relieve  Fort  Sumter,  which  expedition 
was  intended  to  be  ultimately  used  or  not,  according  to  circumstances. 
The  strongest  anticipated  case  for  using  it  was  now  presented,  and  it  was 
resolved  to  send  it  forward.  As  had  been  intended  in  this  contingency, 
it  was  also  resolved  to  notify  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina  that  he 
might  expect  an  attempt  would  be  made  to  provision  the  fort ;  and  that, 
if  the  attempt  should  not  be  resisted,  there  would  be  no  effort  to  throw 
in  men,  arms,  or  ammunition,  without  further  notice,  or  in  case  of  an 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          189 

attack  upon  the  fort.  This  notice  was  accordingly  given ;  whereupon 
the  fort  was  attacked  and  bombarded  to  its  fall,  without  even  awaiting 
the  arrival  of  the  provisioning  expedition. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  the  assault  upon  and  reduction  of  Fort  Sumter  was 
in  no  sense  a  matter  of  self-defence  upon  the  part  of  the  assailants.  They 
well  knew  that  the  garrison  in  the  fort  could  by  no  possibility  commit 
aggression  upon  them.  They  knew — they  were  expressly  notified — that 
the  giving  of  bread  to  the  few  brave  and  hungry  men  of  the  garrison 
was  all  which  would  on  that  occasion  be  attempted,  unless  themselves, 
by  resisting  so  much,  should  provoke  more.  They  knew  that  this  Gov 
ernment  desired  to  keep  the  garrison  in  the  fort,  not  to  assail  them,  but 
to  maintain  visible  possession,  and  thus  to  preserve  the  Union  from 
actual  and  immediate  dissolution — trusting,  as  hereinbefore  stated,  to 
time,  discussion,  and  the  ballot-box  for  final  adjustment;  and  they  as 
sailed  and  reduced  the  fort  for  precisely  the  reverse  object — to  drive  out 
the  visible  authority  of  the  Federal  Union,  and  thus  force  it  to  immediate 
dissolution.  That  this  was  their  object  the  Executive  well  understood ; 
and  having  said  to  them  in  the  Inaugural  Address,  "  You  can  have  no 
conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors,"  he  took  pains  not 
only  to  keep  this  declaration  good,  but  also  to  keep  the  case  so  free  from 
the  power  of  ingenious  sophistry  that  the  world  should  not  be  able  to 
misunderstand  it.  By  the  affair  at  Fort  Sumter,  with  its  surrounding 
circumstances,  that  point  was  reached.  Then  and  thereby  the  assailants 
of  the  Government  began  the  conflict  of  arms,  without  a  gun  in  sight, 
or  in  expectancy  to  return  their  fire,  save  only  the  few  in  the  fort,  sent 
to  that  harbor  years  before  for  their  own  protection,  and  still  ready  to 
give  that  protection  in  whatever  was  lawful.  In  this  act,  discarding  all 
else,  they  have  forced  upon  the  country  the  distinct  issue,  "immediate 
dissolution  or  blood." 

And  this  issue  embraces  more  than  the  fate  of  these  United  States.  It 
presents  to  the  whole  family  of  man  the  question,  whether  a  constitu 
tional  republic  or  democracy — a  government  of  the  people  by  the  same 
people — can  or  cannot  maintain  its  territorial  integrity  against  its  own 
domestic  foes.  It  presents  the  question,  whether  discontented  individ 
uals,  too  few  in  numbers  to  control  administration,  according  to  organic 
law,  in  any  case,  can  always,  upon  the  pretences  made  in  this  case,  or  on 
any  other  pretences,  or  arbitrarily,  without  any  pretence,  break  up  their 
Government,  and  thus  practically  put  an  end  to  free  government  upon 
the  earth.  It  forces  us  to  ask,  "Is  there,  in  all  republics,  this  inherent 
and  fatal  weakness?"  "Must  a  government,  of  necessity,  be  too  strong 
for  the  liberties  of  its  own  people,  or  too  weak  to  maintain  its  own  exist 
ence?" 

So  viewing  the  issue,  no  choice  was  left  but  to  call  out  the  war  power 
of  the  Government ;  and  so  to  resist  force  employed  for  its  destruction, 
by  force  for  its  preservation. 


190  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  call  was  made,  and  the  response  of  the  country  was  most  gratify- 
ing — surpassing  in  unanimity  and  spirit  the  most  sanguine  expectation. 
Yet  none  of  the  States  commonly  called  Slave  States,  except  Delaware, 
gave  a  regiment  through  regular  State  organization.  A  few  regiments 
have  been  organized  within  some  others  of  those  States  by  individual 
enterprise,  and  received  into  the  Government  service.  Of  course,  the 
seceded  States,  so  called  (and  to  which  Texas  had  been  joined  about  the 
time  of  the  inauguration),  gave  no  troops  to  the  cause  of  the  Union. 
The  Border  States,  so  called,  were  not  uniform  in  their  action,  some  of  them 
being  almost  for  the  Union,  while  in  others — as  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
Tennessee,  and  Arkansas — the  Union  sentiment  was  nearly  repressed  and 
silenced.  The  course  taken  in  Virginia  was  the  most  remarkable — per 
haps  the  most  important.  A  convention,  elected  by  the  people  of  that 
State  to  consider  this  very  question  of  disrupting  the  Federal  Union, 
was  in  session  at  the  Capital  of  Virginia  when  Fort  Sumter  fell.  To  this 
body  the  people  had  chosen  a  large  majority  of  professed  Union  men. 
Almost  immediately  after  the  fall  of  Sumter  many  members  of  that 
majority  went  over  to  the  original  disunion  minority,  and  with  them 
adopted  an  ordinance  for  withdrawing  the  State  from  the  Union.  "Whether 
this  change  was  wrought  by  their  great  approval  of  the  assault  upon 
Sumter,  or  their  great  resentment  at  the  Government's  resistance  to  that 
assault,  is  not  definitely  known.  Although  they  submitted  the  ordinance* 
for  ratification  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  to  be  taken  on  a  day  then  some 
what  more  than  a  month  distant,  the  Convention  and  the  Legislature 
(which  was  also  in  session  at  the  same  time  and  place),  with  leading 
men  of  the  State  not  members  of  either,  immediately  commenced  acting 
as  if  the  State  were  already  out  of  the  Union.  They  pushed  military 
preparations  vigorously  forward  all  over  the  State.  They  seized  the 
United  States  armory  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  the  navy-yard  at  Gosport, 
near  Norfolk.  They  received — perhaps  invited — into  their  State  large 
bodies  of  troops,  with  their  warlike  appointments,  from  the  so-called 
seceded  States.  They  formally  entered  into  a  treaty  of  temporary  alii 
ance  and  co-operation  with  the  so-called  "Confederate  States,"  and  sent 
members  to  their  Congress  at  Montgomery ;  and,  finally,  they  permitted 
the  insurrectionary  Government  to  be  transferred  to  their  capital  at  Rich 
mond. 

The  people  of  Virginia  have  thus  allowed  this  giant  insurrection  to 
make  its  nest  within  her  borders ;  and  this  Government  has  no  choice 
left  but  to  deal  with  it  where  it  finds  it.  And  it  has  the  less  regret,  as 
the  loyal  citizens  have  in  due  form  claimed  its  protection.  Those  loyal 
citizens  this  Government  is  bound  to  recognize  and  protect  as  being 
Virginia. 

In  the  Border  States,  so-called — hi  fact,  the  Middle  States— there  are 
those  who  favor  a  policy  which  they  call  "  armed  neutrality" — that  is, 
an  arming  of  those  States  to  prevent  the  Union  forces  passing  one  way, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          191 

or  the  disunion  the  other,  over  their  soil.  This  would  be  disunion  com 
pleted.  Figuratively  speaking,  it  would  be  the  building  of  an  impassable 
wall  along  the  line  of  separation — and  yet  not  quite  an  impassable  one, 
for,  under  the  guise  of  neutrality,  it  would  tie  the  hands  of  Union  men, 
and  freely  pass  supplies  from  among  them  to  the  insurrectionists,  which 
it  could  not  do  as  an  open  enemy.  At  a  stroke  it  would  take  all  the 
trouble  off  the  hands  of  secession,  except  only  what  proceeds  from  the 
external  blockade.  It  would  do  for  the  disunionists  that  which  of  all 
things  they  most  desire — feed  them  well,  and  give  them  disunion  without 
a  struggle  of  their  own.  It  recognizes  no  fidelity  to  the  Constitution, 
no  obligation  to  maintain  the  Union ;  and  while  very  many  who  have 
favored  it  are  doubtless  loyal  citizens,  it  is,  nevertheless,  very  injurious 
in  effect. 

Recurring  to  the  action  of  the  Government,  it  may  be  stated  that  at 
first  a  call  was  made  for  seventy-five  thousand  militia;  and  rapidly  fol 
lowing  this,  a  proclamation  was  issued  for  closing  the  ports  of  the  insur 
rectionary  districts  by  proceedings  in  the  nature  of  a  blockade.  So  far 
all  was  believed  to  be  strictly  legal.  At  this  point  the  insurrectionists 
announced  their  purpose  to  enter  upon  the  practice  of  privateering. 

Other  calls  were  made  for  volunteers  to  serve  for  three  years,  unless 
sooner  discharged,  and  also  for  large  additions  to  the  regular  army  and 
navy.  These  measures,  whether  strictly  legal  or  not,  were  ventured  upon 
under  what  appeared  to  be  a  popular  demand  and  a  public  necessity; 
trusting  then,  as  now,  that  Congress  would  readily  ratify  them.  It  is 
believed  that  nothing  has  been  done  beyond  the  constitutional  compe 
tency  of  Congress. 

Soon  after  the  first  call  for  militia,  it  was  considered  a  duty  to  authorize 
the  Commanding-General,  in  proper  cases,  according  to  his  discretion, 
to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  or,  in  other  words, 
to  arrest  and  detain,  without  resort  to  the  ordinary  processes  and  forms 
of  law,  such  individuals  as  he  might  deem  dangerous  to  the  public  safety. 
This  authority  has  purposely  been  exercised  but  very  sparingly.  Never 
theless,  the  legality  and  propriety  of  what  has  been  done  under  it  are 
questioned,  and  the  attention  of  the  country  has  been  called  to  the 
proposition,  that  one  who  has  sworn  to  "take  care  that  the  laws  be 
faithfully  executed,"  should  not  himself  violate  them.  Of  course,  some 
consideration  was  given  to  the  question  of  power  and  propriety  before 
this  matter  was  acted  upon.  The  whole  of  the  laws  which  were  required 
to  be  faithfully  executed  were  being  resisted,  and  failing  of  execution  in 
nearly  one-third  of  the  States.  Must  they  be  allowed  to  finally  fail  of 
execution,  even  had  it  been  perfectly  clear  that  by  the  use  of  the  means 
necessary  to  their  execution  some  single  law,  made  in  such  extreme 
tenderness  of  the  citizen's  liberty  that  practically  it  relieves  more  of  the 
guilty  than  of  the  innocent,  should  to  a  very  limited  extent  be  violated  ? 
To  state  the  question  more  directly :  Are  all  the  laws  but  one  to  go  unex- 


192  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ecuted,  and  the  Government  itself  go  to  pieces,  lest  that  one  be  violated  f 
Even  in  such  a  case,  would  not  the  official  oath  be  broken  if  the  Gov 
ernment  should  be  overthrown,  when  it  was  believed  that  disregarding 
the  single  law  would  tend  to  preserve  it?  But  it  was  not  believed  that 
this  question  was  presented.  It  was  not  believed  that  any  law  was 
violated.  The  provision  of  the  Constitution  that  "  the  privilege  of  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended  unless  when,  in  cases  of 
rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may  require  it,"  is  equivalent  to 
a  provision — is  a  provision — that  such  privilege  may  be  suspended  when, 
in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  does  require  it.  It  was 
decided  that  we  have  a  case  of  rebellion,  and  that  the  public  safety  does 
require  the  qualified  suspension  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  which  was 
authorized  to  be  made.  Now,  it  is  insisted  that  Congress,  and  not  the 
Executive,  is  vested  with  this  power.  But  the  Constitution  itself  is  silent 
as  to  which  or  who  is  to  exercise  the  power ;  and  as  the  provision  was 
plainly  made  for  a  dangerous  emergency,  it  cannot  be  believed  the 
framers  of  the  instrument  intended  that  in  every  case  the  danger  should 
run  its  course  until  Congress  could  be  called  together,  the  very  assembling 
of  which  might  be  prevented,  as  was  intended  in  this  case,  by  the  re 
bellion. 

No  more  extended  argument  is  now  offered,  as  an  opinion,  at  some 
length,  will  probably  be  presented  by  the  Attorney-General.  Whether 
there  shall  be  any  legislation  on  the  subject,  and,  if  any,  what,  is  sub 
mitted  entirely  to  the  better  judgment  of  Congress. 

The  forbearance  of  this  Government  had  been  so  extraordinary,  and  so 
long  continued,  as  to  lead  some  foreign  nations  to  shape  their  action 
as  if  they  supposed  the  early  destruction  of  our  National  Union  was 
probable.  While  this,  on  discovery,  gave  the  Executive  some  concern, 
he  is  now  happy  to  say  that  the  sovereignty  and  rights  of  the  United 
States  are  now  everywhere  practically  respected  by  foreign  powers ;  and 
a  general  sympathy  with  the  country  is  manifested  throughout  the 
world. 

The  reports  of  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  "War,  and  the  Navy, 
will  give  the  information  in  detail  deemed  necessary  and  convenient  for 
your  deliberation  and  action ;  while  the  Executive  and  all  the  Depart 
ments  will  stand  ready  to  supply  omissions,  or  to  communicate  new  facts 
considered  important  for  you  to  know. 

It  is  now  recommended  that  you  give  the  legal  means  for  making  this 
contest  a  short  and  decisive  one ;  that  you  place  at  the  control  of  the 
Government,  for  the  work,  at  least  four  hundred  thousand  men  and 
$400,000,000.  That  number  of  men  is  about  one-tenth  of  those  of  proper 
ages  within  the  regions  where,  apparently,  all  are  willing  to  engage ;  and 
the  sum  is  less  than  a  twenty-third  part  of  the  money  value  owned  by 
the  men  who  seem  ready  to  devote  the  whole.  A  debt  of  $600,000,000 
now,  is  a  less  sum  per  head  than  was  the  debt  of  our  Revolution  when 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  193 

we  came  out  of  that  struggle;  and  the  money  value  in  the  country  now 
bears  even  a  greater  proportion  to  what  it  was  then,  than  does  the  popu 
lation.  Surely  each  man  has  as  strong  a  motive  now  to  preserve  our 
liberties,  as  each  had  then  to  establish  them. 

A  right  result,  at  this  time,  will  be  worth  more  to  the  world  than  ten 
times  the  men  and  ten  times  the  money.  The  evidence  reaching  us  from 
the  country  leaves  no  doubt  that  the  material  for  the  work  is  abundant, 
and  that  it  needs  only  the  hand  of  legislation  to  give  it  legal  sanction, 
and  the  hand  of  the  Executive  to  give  it  practical  shape  and  efficiency. 
One  of  the  greatest  perplexities  of  the  Government  is  to  avoid  receiving 
troops  faster  than  it  can  provide  for  them.  In  a  word,  the  people  will 
save  their  Government,  if  the  Government  itself  will  do  its  part  only 
indifferently  well. 

It  might  seem,  at  first  thought,  to  be  of  little  difference  whether  the 
present  movement  at  the  South  be  called  "secession"  or  "rebellion." 
The  movers,  however,  will  understand  the  difference.  At  the  beginning, 
they  knew  they  could  never  raise  their  treason  to  any  respectable 
magnitude  by  any  name  which  implies  violation  of  law.  They  knew 
their  people  possessed  as  much  of  moral  sense,  as  much  of  devotion  to 
law  and  order,  and  as  much  pride  in,  and  reverence  for  the  history  and 
Government  of  their  common  country,  as  any  other  civilized  and  patri 
otic  people.  They  knew  they  could  make  no  advancement  directly  in  the 
teeth  of  these  strong  and  noble  sentiments.  Accordingly,  they  com 
menced  by  an  insidious  debauching  of  the  public  mind.  They  invented 
an  ingenious  sophism,  which,  if  conceded,  was  followed  by  perfectly 
logical  steps,  through  all  the  incidents,  to  the  complete  destruction  of 
the  Union.  The  sophism  itself  is,  that  any  State  of  the  Union  may. 
consistently  with  the  National  Constitution,  and  therefore  lawfully  and 
peacefully,  withdraw  from  the  Union  without  the  consent  of  the  Union, 
or  of  any  other  State.  The  little  disguise  that  the  supposed  right  is  to 
be  exercised  only  for  just  cause,  themselves  to  be  the  sole  judges  of  its 
justice,  is  too  thin  to  merit  any  notice. 

With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated  they  have  been  drugging  the  public 
mind  of  their  section  for  more  than  thirty  years,  and  until  at  length  they 
have  brought  many  good  men  to  a  willingness  to  take  up  arms  against 
the  Government  the  day  after  some  assemblage  of  men  have  enacted  the 
farcical  pretence  of  taking  their  State  out  of  the  Union,  who  could  have 
been  brought  to  no  such  thing  the  day  before. 

This  sophism  derives  much,  perhaps  the  whole,  of  its  currency  trom 
the  assumption  that  there  is  some  omnipotent  and  sacred  supremacy 
pertaining  to  a  State — to  each  State  of  our  Federal  Union.  Our  States 
have  neither  more  nor  less  power  than  that  reserved  to  them  in  the 
Union  by  the  Constitution — no  one  of  them  ever  having  been  a  State  out 
of  the  Union.  The  original  ones  passed  into  the  Union  even  before  they 
cast  off  their  British  colonial  dependence ;  and  the  new  ones  each 
13 


194  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

into  the  Union  directly  from  a  condition  of  dependence,  excepting  Texas 
And  even  Texas,  in  its  temporary  independence,  was  never  designated  a 
State.  The  new  ones  only  took  the  designation  of  States  on  coming  int»: 
the  Union,  while  that  name  was  first  adopted  by  the  old  ones  in  and  bv 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Therein  the  "United  Colonies"  were 
declared  to  be  "free  and  independent  States;"  but,  even  then,  the  ob 
ject  plainly  was  not  to  declare  their  independence  of  one  another,  or  of 
the  Union,  but  directly  the  contrary ;  as  their  mutual  pledge  and  their 
mutual  action  before,  at  the  time,  and  afterwards,  abundantly  show.  The 
express  plighting  of  faith  by  each  and  all  of  the  original  thirteen  in  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  two  years  later,  that  the  Union  shall  be  per 
petual,  is  most  conclusive.  Having  never  been  States,  either  in  substance 
or  in  name,  outside  of  the  Union,  whence  this  magical  omnipotence  of 
"State  Rights,"  asserting  a  claim  of  power  to  lawfully  destroy  the  Union 
itself?  Much  is  said  about  the  "sovereignty"  of  the  States;  but  the 
word  even  is  not  in  the  National  Constitution ;  nor,  as  is  believed,  in  any 
of  the  State  constitutions.  What  is  "sovereignty"  in  the  political  sense 
of  the  term  ?  Would  it  be  far  wrong  to  define  it  "  a  political  community 
without  a  political  superior?"  Tested  by  this,  no  one  of  our  States,  ex 
cept  Texas,  ever  was  a  sovereignty.  And  even  Texas  gave  up  the  char 
acter  on  coming  into  the  Union ;  by  which  act  she  acknowledged  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the  laws  and  treaties  of  the  United 
States  made  in  pursuance  of  the  Constitution,  to  be  for  her  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land.  The  States  have  their  status  in  the  Union,  and  they 
have  no  other  legal  status.  If  they  break  from  this,  they  can  only  do  so 
against  law  and  by  revolution.  The  Union,  and  not  themselves  sepa 
rately,  procured  their  independence  and  their  liberty.  By  conquest  or 
purchase  the  Union  gave  each  of  them  whatever  of  independence  or 
liberty  it  has.  The  Union  is  older  than  any  of  the  States,  and,  in  fact,  it 
created  them  as  States.  Originally  some  dependent  colonies  made  the 
Union,  and,  in  turn,  the  Union  threw  off  their  old  dependence  for  them, 
and  made  them  States,  such  as  they  are.  Not  one  of  them  ever  had  a 
State  constitution  independent  of  the  Union.  Of  course,  it  is  not  for 
gotten  that  all  the  new  States  framed  their  constitutions  before  they  en 
tered  the  Union;  nevertheless  dependent  upon,  and  preparatory  to,  com 
ing  into  the  Union. 

Unquestionably  the  States  have  the  powers  and  rights  reserved  to  them 
in  and  by  the  National  Constitution;  but  among  these,  surely,  are  not 
included  all  conceivable  powers,  however  mischievous  or  destructive; 
but,  at  most,  such  only  as  were  known  in  the  world,  at  the  time,  as  gov 
ernmental  powers;  and,  certainly,  a  power  to  destroy  the  Government 
itself  had  never  been  known  as  a  governmental — as  a  merely  administra 
tive  power.  This  relative  matter  of  National  power  and  State  Rights, 
as  a  principle,  is  no  other  than  the  principle  of  generality  and  locality. 
Whatever  concerns  the  whole  should  be  confided  to  the  whole — to  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  195 

Cieneral  Government ;  while  whatever  concerns  only  the  State  should  be 
left  exclusively  to  the  State.  This  is  all  there  is  of  original  principle 
about  it.  Whether  the  National  Constitution,  in  denning  boundaries  be 
tween  the  two  has  applied  the  principle  with  exact  accuracy,  is  not  to  b^ 
.questioned.  We  are  all  bound  by  that  defining,  without  question. 

What  is  now  combated,  is  the  position  that  secession  is  consistent  with 
the  Constitution — is  lawful  and  peaceful.  It  is  not  contended  that  there 
is  any  express  law  for  it;  and  nothing  should  ever  be  implied  as  law  which 
leads  to  unjust  or  absurd  consequences.  The  Nation  purchased  with  money 
the  countries  out  of  which  several  of  these  States  were  formed;  is  it  just 
that  they  shall  go  off  without  leave  and  without  refunding  ?  The  Nation 
paid  very  large  sums  (in  the  aggregate,  I  believe,  nearly  a  hundred  mil 
lions)  to  relieve  Florida  of  the  aboriginal  tribes;  is  it  just  that  she  shall 
now  be  off  without  consent,  or  without  making  any  return?  The  Nation 
is  now  in  debt  for  money  applied  to  the  benefit  of  these  so-called  seceding 
States  in  common  with  the  rest ;  is  it  just  either  that  creditors  shall  go 
unpaid,  or  the  remaining  States  pay  the  whole?  A  part  of  the  present 
National  debt  was  contracted  to  pay  the  old  debts  of  Texas ;  is  it  just  that 
she  shall  leave  and  pay  no  part  of  this  herself? 

Again,  if  one  State  may  secede,  so  may  another;  and  when  all  shall 
have  seceded,  none  is  left  to  pay  the  debts.  Is  this  quite  just  to  creditors  ? 
Did  we  notify  them  of  this  sage  view  of  ours  when  we  borrowed  their 
money?  If  we  now  recognize  this  doctrine  by  allowing  the  seceders  to 
go  in  peace,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  we  can  do  if  others  choose  to  go,  or 
to  extort  terms  upon  which  they  will  promise  to  remain. 

The  seceders  insist  that  our  Constitution  admits  of  secession.  They  have 
assumed  to  make  a  national  constitution  of  their  own,  in  which,  of  neces 
sity,  they  have  either  discarded  or  retained  the  right  of  secession,  as  they 
insist  it  exists  in  ours.  If  they  have  discarded  it,  they  thereby  admit 
that,  on  principle,  it  ought  not  to  be  in  ours.  If  they  have  retained  it, 
by  their  own  construction  of  ours,  they  show  that  to  be  consistent  they 
must  secede  from  one  another  whenever  they  shall  find  it  the  easiest  way 
of  settling  their  debts,  or  effecting  any  other  selfish  or  unjust  object.  The 
principle  itself  is  one  of  disintegration,  and  upon  which  no  Government 
can  possibly  endure. 

If  all  the  States  save  one  should  assert  the  power  to  drive  that  one  out 
of  the  Union,  it  is  presumed  the  whole  class  of  seceder  politicians  would 
at  once  deny  the  power,  and  denounce  the  act  as  the  greatest  outrage 
upon  State  rights.  But  suppose  that  precisely  the  same  act,  instead  of 
being  called  "  driving  the  one  out,"  should  be  called  "  the  seceding  of  the 
others  from  that  one,"  it  would  be  exactly  what  the  seceders  claim  to  do  : 
unless,  indeed,  they  make  the  point  that  the  one,  because  it  is  a  minority, 
may  rightfully  do  what  the  others,  because  they  are  a  majority,  may  not 
rightfully  do.  These  politicians  are  subtile  and  profound  on  the  rights  of 
minorities.  They  are  not  partial  to  that  power  which  made  the  Constitu 
lion,  and  speaks  from  the  preamble,  calling  itself  "  We,  the  People." 


196  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

It  may  well  be  questioned  whether  there  is  to-day  a  majority  of  the 
legally  qualified  voters  of  any  State,  except,  perhaps,  South  Carolina,  in 
favor  of  disunion.  There  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  Union  men 
are  the  majority  in  many,  if  not  in  every  other  one,  of  the  so-called  sece 
ded  States.  The  contrary  has  not  been  demonstrated  in  any  one  of  them. 
It  is  ventured  to  affirm  this  even  of  Virginia  and  Tennessee ;  for  the  result 
of  an  election  held  in  military  camps,  where  the  bayonets  are  all  on  one 
side  of  the  question  voted  upon,  can  scarcely  be  considered  as  demonstra 
ting  popular  sentiment.  At  such  an  election,  all  that  large  class  who  are 
at  once  for  the  Union  and  against  coercion  would  be  coerced  to  vote  against 
the  Union. 

It  may  be  affirmed,  without  extravagance,  that  the  free  institutions  we 
enjoy  have  developed  the  powers  and  improved  the  condition  of  our  whole 
people  beyond  any  example  in  the  world.  Of  this  we  now  have  a  stri 
king  and  an  impressive  illustration.  So  large  an  army  as  the  Government 
has  now  on  foot  was  never  before  known  without  a  soldier  in  it  but  who 
had  taken  his  place  there  of  his  own  free  choice.  But  more  than  this : 
there  are  many  single  regiments  whose  members,  one  and  another,  possess 
full  practical  knowledge  of  all  the  arts,  sciences,  professions,  and  what 
ever  else,  whether  useful  or  elegant,  is  known  in  the  world ;  and  there  is 
scarcely  one  from  which  there  could  not  be  selected  a  President,  a  Cabi 
net,  a  Congress,  and  perhaps  a  court,  abundantly  competent  to  administer 
the  Government  itself.  Nor  do  I  say  this  is  not  true  also  in  the  army  of 
our  late  friends,  now  adversaries  in  this  contest ;  but  if  it  is,  so  much 
better  the  reason  why  the  Government  which  has  conferred  such  benefits 
on  both  them  and  us  should  not  be  broken  up.  Whoever,  in  any  section, 
proposes  to  abandon  such  a  Government,  would  do  well  to  consider  in 
deference  to  what  principle  it  is  that  he  does  it ;  what  better  he  is  likely  to 
get  in  its  stead ;  whether  the  substitute  will  give,  or  be  intended  to  give, 
so  much  of  good  to  the  people?  There  are  some  foreshadowings  on  this 
subject.  Our  adversaries  have  adopted  some  declarations  of  independence, 
in  which,  unlike  the  good  old  one,  penned  by  Jefferson,  they  omit  the 
words,  "all  men  are  created  equal."  Why?  They  have  adopted  a  tem 
porary  national  constitution,  in  the  preamble  of  which,  unlike  our  good 
old  one,  signed  by  Washington,  they  omit  u  We,  the  People,"  and  sub 
stitute,  "We,  the  deputies  of  the  sovereign  and  independent  States." 
Why?  Why  this  deliberate  pressing  out  of  view  the  rights  of  men  and 
the  authority  of  the  people  ? 

This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  On  the  side  of  the  Union  it  is  a 
struggle  for  maintaining  in  the  world  that  form  and  substance  of  Govern 
ment  whose  leading  object  is  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men ;  to  lift  arti 
ficial  weights  from  all  shoulders  ;  to  clear  the  paths  of  laudable  pursuits 
for  all ;  to  afford  all  an  unfettered  start  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of 
life.  Yielding  to  partial  and  temporary  departures,  from  necessity,  this  is 
the  leading  object  of  the  Government  for  whose  existence  we  contend. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  197 

I  am  most  happy  to  believe  that  the  plain  people  understand  and  appre 
ciate  tliis.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  that  while  in  this  the  Government's  hour 
of  trial,  large  numbers  of  those  in  the  army  and  navy  who  have  been 
favored  with  the  offices  have  resigned  and  proved  false  to  the  hand  which 
had  pampered  them,  not  one  common  soldier  or  common  sailor  is  known 
to  have  deserted  his  flag. 

Great  honor  is  due  to  those  officers  who  remained  true,  despite  the  ex 
ample  of  their  treacherous  associates ;  but  the  greatest  honor,  and  most 
important  fact  of  all,  is  the  unanimous  firmness  of  the  common  soldiers 
and  common  sailors.  To  the  last  man,  so  far  as  known,  they  have  suc 
cessfully  resisted  the  traitorous  efforts  of  those  whose  commands  but  an 
hour  before  they  obeyed  as  absolute  latv.  This  is  the  patriotic  instinct  of 
plain  people.  They  understand,  without  an  argument,  that  the  destroy 
ing  the  Government  which  was  made  by  Washington  means  no  good  to 
them. 

Our  popular  Government  has  often  been  called  an  experiment.  Two 
points  in  it  our  people  have  already  settled — the  successful  establishing 
and  the  successful  administering  of  it.  One  still  remains — its  successful 
maintenance  against  a  formidable  internal  attempt  to  overthrow  it.  It  is 
now  for  them  to  demonstrate  to  the  world  that  those  who  can  fairly  carry 
an  election  can  also  suppress  a  rebellion;  that  ballots  are  the  rightful  and 
peaceful  successors  of  bullets ;  and  that  when  ballots  have  fairly  and  con 
stitutionally  decided,  there  can  be  no  successful  appeal  back  to  bullets  • 
that  there  can  be  no  successful  appeal,  except  to  ballots  themselves,  at 
succeeding  elections.  Such  will  be  a  great  lesson  of  peace ;  teaching  men 
that  what  they  cannot  take  by  an  election,  neither  can  they  take  by  a 
war ;  teaching  all  the  folly  of  being  the  beginners  of  a  war. 

Lest  there  be  some  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  candid  men  as  to  what 
is  to  be  the  course  of  the  Government  towards  the  Southern  States  after 
the  rebellion  shall  have  been  suppressed,  the  Executive  deems  it  proper 
to  say,  it  will  be  his  purpose  then,  as  ever,  to  be  guided  by  the  Constitu 
tion  and  the  laws ;  and  that  he  probably  will  have  no  different  under 
standing  of  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  Federal  Government  relatively 
to  the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  people  under  the  Constitution  than  that 
expressed  in  the  Inaugural  Address. 

He  desires  to  preserve  the  Government,  that  it  may  be  administered  for 
all,  as  it  was  administered  by  the  men  who  made  it.  Loyal  citizens  every 
where  have  the  right  to  claim  this  of  their  Government,  and  the  Govern 
ment  has  no  right  to  withhold  or  neglect  it.  It  is  not  perceived  that  in 
giving  it  there  is  any  coercion,  any  conquest,  or  any  subjugation,  in  any 
just  sense  of  those  terms. 

The  Constitution  provides,  and  all  the  States  have  accepted  the  provi 
sion,  that  "the  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union 
a  republican  form  of  Government."  But  if  a  State  may  lawfully  go  out 
of  the  Union,  having  done  so,  it  may  also  discard  the  republican  form  of 


198  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Government;  so  that  to  prevent  its  going  out  is  an  indispensable  means 
to  the  end  of  maintaining  the  guarantee  mentioned ;  and  when  an  end  is 
lawful  and  obligatory,  the  indispensable  means  to  it  are  also  lawful  and 
obligatory. 

It  was  with  the  deepest  regret  that  the  Executive  found  the  duty  of  em 
ploying  the  war  power  in  defence  of  the  Go\rernment  forced  upon  him. 
He  could  but  perform  this  duty  or  surrender  the  existence  of  the  Govern 
ment.  No  compromise  by  public  servants  could  in  this  case  be  a  cure ; 
not  that  compromises  are  not  often  proper,  but  that  no  popular  Govern 
ment  can  long  survive  a  marked  precedent  that  those  who  carry  an  elec 
tion  can  only  save  the  Government  from  immediate  destruction  by  giving 
up  the  main  point  upon  which  the  people  gave  the  election.  The  people 
themselves,  and  not  their  servants,  can  safely  reverse  their  own  deliberate 
decisions. 

As  a  private  citizen  the  Executive  could  not  have  consented  that  these 
institutions  shall  perish;  much  less  could  he,  in  betrayal  of  so  vaet  and  so 
sacred  a  trust  as  these  free  people  have  confided  to  him.  He  felt  that  he 
had  no  moral  right  to  shrink,  or  even  to  count  the  chances  of  his  own  life, 
in  what  might  follow.  In  full  view  of  his  great  responsibility  he  has  so 
far  done  what  he  has  deemed  his  duty.  You  will  now,  according  to  your 
own  judgment,  perform  yours.  He  sincerely  hopes  that  your  views  and 
your  action  may  so  accord  with  his  as  to  assure  all  faithful  citizens  who 
have  been  disturbed  in  their  rights  of  a  certain  and  speedy  restoration  to 
them,  under  the  Constitution  and  the  laws. 

And  having  thus  chosen  our  course,  without  guile  and  with  pure  pur 
pose,  let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God,  and  go  forward  without  fear  and  with 
manly  hearts. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

July  4,  1861. 

Congress  imitated  the  President  in  confining  its  attention 
exclusively  to  the  rebellion  and  the  means  for  its  suppres 
sion.  The  zealous  and  enthusiastic  loyalty  of  the  people 
met  a  prompt  response  from  their  representatives.  The 
Judiciary  Committee  in  the  House  was  instructed  on  the  8th 
to  prepare  a  bill  to  confiscate  the  property  of  rebels  against 
the  Government ;  and  on  the  9th,  a  resolution  was  adopted 
(ayes  ninety-eight,  noes  fifty-five),  declaring  it  to  be 
"no  part  of  the  duty  of  the  soldiers  of  the  United  States 
to  capture  and  return  fugitive  slaves. ' '  A  bill  was 
promptly  introduced  to  declare  valid  all  the  acts  of  the 
President  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  previous 
to  the  meeting  of  Congress,  and  it  brought  on  a  general 
discussion  of  the  principles  involved  and  the  interests 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  199 

concerned  in  the  contest.  There  were  a  few  in  both 
Houses,  with  John  C.  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  at  their 
head,  who  still  insisted  that  any  resort  by  the  Govern 
ment  to  the  use  of  the  war  power  against  the  rebels  was 
unconstitutional,  and  could  only  end  in  the  destruction 
of  the  Union  ;  but  the  general  sentiment  of  both  Houses 
fully  sustained  the  President  in  the  steps  he  had  taken. 
The  subject  of  slavery  was  introduced  into  the  discussion 
commenced  by  Senator  Powell,  of  Kentucky,  who  pro 
posed  on  the  18th  to  amend  the  Army  Bill  by  adding  a 
section  that  no  part  of  the  army  should  be  employed  "in 
subjecting  or  holding  as  a  conquered  province  any  sov 
ereign  State  now  or  lately  one  of  the  United  States,  or 
in  abolishing  or  interfering  with  African  slavery  in  any  of 
the  States."  The  debate  which  ensued  elicited  the  senti 
ments  of  members  on  this  subject.  Mr.  Sherman,  of  Ohio, 
concurred  in  the  sentiment  that  the  war  was  "  not  to  be 
waged  for  the  purpose  of  subjugating  any  State  or  freeing 
any  slave,  or  to  interfere  with  the  social  or  domestic  insti 
tutions  of  any  State  or  any  people ;  it  was  to  preserve 
this  Union,  to  maintain  the  Constitution  as  it  is  in  all  its 
clauses,  in  all  its  guarantees,  without  change  or  limita 
tion."  Mr.  Dixon,  of  Connecticut,  assented  to  this,  but 
also  declared  that  if  the  South  should  protract  the  war, 
and  "it  should  turn  out  that  either  this  Government  or 
slavery  must  be  destroyed,  then  the  people  of  the  North 
—the  Conservative  people  of  the  North — would  say, 
rather  than  let  the  Government  perish,  let  slavery  perish." 
Mr.  Lane,  of  Kansas,  did  not  believe  that  slavery  could 
survive  in  any  State  the  march  of  the  Union  armies. 
These  seemed  to  be  the  sentiments  of  both  branches  of 
Congress.  The  amendment  was  rejected,  and  bills  were 
passed  ratifying  the  acts  of  the  President,  authorizing 
him  to  accept  the  services  of  half  a  million  of  volunteers, 
and  placing  five  hundred  millions  of  dollars  at  the  dispo 
sal  of  the  Government  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

On  the  15th  of  July,  Mr.  McClernand,  a  democrat  from 
Illinois,  offered  a  resolution  pledging  the  House  to  vote 
any  amount  of  money  and  any  number  of  men  necessary 


200  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

to  suppress  the  rebellion,  and  restore  the  authority  of  the 
Government,  which  was  adopted,  with  but  five  opposing 
votes ;  and  on  the  22d  of  July,  Mr.  Crittenden,  of  Ken 
tucky,  offered  the  following  resolution,  defining  the  objects 
of  the  war  : — 

Resolved  ~by  the  House  of  Representatives  cf  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  That  the  present  deplorable  civil  war  has  been  forced  upon  the 
country  by  the  disunionists  of  the  Southern  States,  now  in  arms  against 
the  Constitutional  Government,  and  in  arms  around  the  Capital ;  that  in 
this  national  emergency,  Congress,  banishing  all  feelings  of  mere  passion 
or  resentment,  will  recollect  only  its  duty  to  the  whole  country ;  that  this 
war  is  not  waged  on  their  part  in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  or  for  any  pur 
pose  of  conquest  or  subjugation,  or  purpose  of  overthrowing  or  interfering 
with  the  rights  or  established  institutions  of  those  States,  but  to  defend 
and  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution,  and  to  preserve  the 
Union  with  all  the  dignity,  equality,  and  rights  of  the  several  States  un 
impaired;  and  that  as  soon  as  these  objects  are  accomplished  the  war 
ought  to  cease. 

This  resolution  was  adopted,  with  but  two  dissenting 
votes.  li-  was  accepted  by  the  whole  country  as  defining 
the  objects  and  limiting  the  continuance  of  the  war,  and 
was  regarded  with  special  favor  by  the  loyal  citizens  of 
the  Border  States,  whose  sensitiveness  on  the  subject  of 
slavery  had  been  skilfully  and  zealously  played  upon  by 
the  agents  and  allies  of  the  rebel  confederacy.  The  war 
was  universally  represented  by  these  men  as  waged  for 
the  destruction  of  slavery,  and  as  aiming,  not  at  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  Union,  but  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  ; 
and  there  was  great  danger  that  these  appeals  to  the  pride, 
the  interest,  and  the  prejudices  of  the  Border  Slave  States 
might  bring  them  to  join  their  fortunes  to  those  of  the 
rebellion.  The  passage  of  this  resolution,  with  so  great  a 
degree  of  unanimity,  had  a  very  soothing  effect  upon  the 
apprehensions  of  these  States,  and  contributed  largely  to 
strengthen  the  Government  in  its  contest  with  the  rebellion. 

The  sentiments  of  Congress  on  this  matter,  as  well  as  on 
the  general  subject  of  the  war,  were  still  further  developed 
in  the  debates  which  followed  the  introduction  to  the  House 
of  a  bill  passed  by  the  Senate  to  "confiscate  property 
used  for  insurrectionary  purposes."  It  was  referred  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  201 

the  Judiciary  Committee,  and  reported  back  with  an  amend 
ment,  providing  that  whenever  any  slave  should  be 
required  or  permitted  by  his  master  to  take  up  arms,  or 
be  employed  in  any  fort,  dock-yard,  or  in  any  military 
service  in  aid  of  the  rebellion,  he  should  become  entitled 
to  his  freedom.  Mr.  Wickliffe  and  Mr.  Burnett,  of  Ken- 
tacky,  at  once  contested  the  passage  of  the  bill,  on  the 
ground  that  the  Government  had  no  right  to  interfere  in 
any  way  with  the  relation  existing  between  a  master  and 
his  slave  ;  and  they  were  answered  by  the  Northern  mem 
bers  with  the  argument  that  the  Government  certainly 
had  a  right  to  confiscate  property  of  any  kind  employed 
in  the  rebellion,  and  that  there  was  no  more  reason  for 
protecting  slavery  against  the  consequences  of  exercising 
this  right,  than  for  shielding  any  other  interest  that  might 
be  thus  involved.  The  advocates  of  the  bill  denied  that 
it  was  the  intention  of  the  law  to  emancipate  the  slaves, 
or  that  it  would  bear  any  such  construction  in  the  courts 
of  justice.  They  repudiated  the  idea  that  men  in  arms 
against  the  Union  and  Constitution  could  claim  the  pro 
tection  of  the  Constitution,  and  thus  derive  from  that 
instrument  increased  ability  to  secure  its  destruction  ;  but 
they  based  their  proposed  confiscation  of  slave  property 
solely  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  necessary  means  to  the 
prosecution  of  the  war,  and  not  in  any  sense  the  object 
for  which  the  war  was  waged.  After  a  protracted  debate, 
that  section  of  the  bill  which  related  to  this  subject  was 
passed— ayes  sixty,  noes  forty -eight— in  the  following 
form : — 

That  whenever,  hereafter,  during  the  present  insurrection  against  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  any  person  claimed  to  be  held  to  labor 
or  service  under  the  laws  of  any  State,  shall  be  required  or  permitted  by 
the  person  to  whom  such  labor  or  service  is  claimed  to  be  due,  or  by  the 
lawful  agent  of  such  person,  to  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States, 
or  shall  be  required  or  permitted  by  the  person  to  whom  such  service  or 
labor  is  claimed  to  be  due,  or  his  lawful  agent,  to  work  or  to  be  employed 
in  or  upon  any  fort,  navy-yard,  dock,  armory,  ship,  or  intrenchment,  or 
in  any  military  or  naval  service  whatever,  against  the  Government  and 
lawful  authority  of  the  United  States,  then,  and  in  every  such  case,  tho 
person  to  whom  such  service  is  claimed  to  be  due,  shall  forfeit  his  claim 


202  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

to  such  labor,  any  law  of  the  State,  or  of  the  United  States,  to  the  con 
trary  notwithstanding ;  and  whenever  thereafter  the  person  claiming  such 
labor  or  service  shall  seek  to  enforce  his  claim,  it  shall  be  a  full  and  suffi 
cient  answer  to  such  claim  that  the  person  whose  service  or  labor  is 
claimed,  had  been  employed  in  hostile  service  against  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  act. 

Congress  closed  its  extra  session  on  the  6th  of  August. 
It  had  taken  the  most  vigorous  and  effective  measures  for 
the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  having  clothed  the  Pres 
ident  with  even  greater  power  than  he  had  asked  for  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  war,  and  avoided  with  just  fidelty 
all  points  which  could  divide  and  weaken  the  loyal  sen 
timent  of  the  country.  The  people  responded  with  hearty 
applause  to  the  patriotic  action  of  their  representatives. 
The  universal  temper  of  the  country  was  one  of  buoyancy 
and  hope.  Throughout  the  early  part  of  the  summer  the 
rebels  had  been  steadily  pushing  troops  through  Virginia 
to  the  borders  of  the  Potomac,  menacing  the  National  Cap 
ital  with  capture,  until  in  the  latter  part  of  June  they  had 
an  army  of  not  far  from  thirty-five  thousand  men,  holding 
a  strong  position  along  the  Bull  Run  Creek — its  left  posted 
at  Winchester,  and  its  right  resting  at  Manassas.  It  was 
determined  to  attack  this  force  and  drive  it  from  the  vicin 
ity  of  Washington,  and  the  general  belief  of  the  country 
was  that  this  would  substantially  end  the  war.  The 
National  army,  numbering  about  thirty  thousand  men, 
moved  from  the  Potomac,  on  the  16th  of  July,  under 
General  McDowell,  and  the  main  attack  was  made  on  the 
21st.  It  resulted  in  the  defeat,  with  a  loss  of  four  hundred 
and  eighty  killed  and  one  thousand  wounded,  of  our 
forces,  and  their  falling  back,  in  the  utmost  disorder  and 
confusion,  upon  Washington.  Our  army  was  completely 
routed,  and  if  the  rebel  forces  had  known  the  extent  of 
their  success,  and  had  been  in  condition  to  avail  them 
selves  of  it  with  vigor  and  energy,  the  Capital  would 
easily  have  fallen  into  their  hands. 

The  result  of  this  battle  took  the  whole  country  by  sur 
prise.  The  most  sanguine  expectations  of  a  prompt  and 
decisive  victory  had  been  universally  entertained ;  and 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  203 

the  actual  issue  first  revealed  to  the  people  the  prospect 
of  a  long  and  bloody  war.  But  the  public  heart  was  not 
in  the  least  discouraged.  On  the  contrary,  the  effect  was 
to  rouse  still  higher  the  courage  and  determination  of  the 
people.  No  one  dreamed  for  an  instant  of  submission. 
The  most  vigorous  efforts  were  made  to  reorganize  the 
army,  to  increase  its  numbers  by  volunteering,  and  to 
establish  a  footing  for  National  troops  at  various  points 
along  the  rebel  coast.  On  the  28th  of  August  Fort  Hat- 
teras  was  surrendered  to  the  National  forces,  and  on  the 
31st  of  October  Port  Royal,  on  the  coast  of  South  Caro 
lina,  fell  into  possession  of  the  United  States.  On  the  3d 
of  December  Ship  Island,  lying  between  Mobile  and  New 
Orleans,  was  occupied.  Preparations  were  also  made  for 
an  expedition  against  New  Orleans,  and  by  a  series  of 
combined  movements  the  rebel  forces  were  driven  out  of 
Western  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri  —  States  in 
which  the  population  had  from  the  beginning  of  the  con 
test  been  divided  in  sentiment  and  action. 

On  the  31st  of  October  General  Scott,  finding  himself 
unable,  in  consequence  of  illness  and  advancing  age,  to 
take  the  field  or  discharge  the  duties  imposed  by  the 
enlarging  contest,  resigned  his  position  as  commander  of 
the  army,  in  the  following  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  War  :— 

HEAD-QUARTERS  OF  THE  AKMT,      I 
WASHINGTON,  October  31, 1861.  f 

The  Hon.  S.  CAMERON,  Secretary  of  War : — 

SIR  : — For  more  than  three  years  I  have  been  unable,  from  a  hurt,  to 
mount-  a  horse,  or  to  walk  more  than  a  few  paces  at  a  time,  and  that  with 
much  pain.  Other  and  new  infirmities — dropsy  and  vertigo — admonish 
me  that  repose  of  mind  and  body,  with  the  appliances  of  surgery  and 
medicine,  are  necessary  to  add  a  little  more  to  a  life  already  protracted 
mnch  beyond  the  usual  span  of  man. 

It  is  under  such  circumstances — made  doubly  painful  by  the  unnatural 
and  unjust  rebellion  now  raging  in  the  Southern  States  of  our  (so  late)  pros 
perous  and  happy  Union — that  I  am  compelled  to  request  that  my  name 
may  be  placed  on  the  list  of  army  officers  retired  from  active  service. 

As  this  request  is  founded  on  an  absolute  right,  granted  by  a  recent  act 
of  Congress,  I  am  entirely  at  liberty  to  say  it  is  with  deep  regret  that  I 
withdraw  myself,  in  these  momentous  times,  from  the  orders  of  a  Presi 
dent  who  has  treated  me  with  distinguished  kindness  and  courtesy,  wlion: 


204  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

I  know,  upon  much  personal  intercourse,  to  be  patriotic,  without  sectional 
oartialities  or  prejudices ;  to  be  highly  conscientious  in  the  performance 
of  every  duty,  and  of  unrivalled  activity  and  perseverance. 

And  to  you,  Mr.  Secretary,  whom  I  now  officially  address  for  the  last 
time,  I  beg  to  acknowledge  my  many  obligations,  for  the  uniform  high 
consideration  I  have  received  at  your  hands ;  and  have  the  honor  to 
remain,  sir,  with  high  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

WlNFIELD    SOOTT. 

President  Lincoln  waited  upon  General  Scott  at  his 
residence,  accompanied  by  his  Cabinet,  and  made  personal 
expression  to  him  of  the  deep  regret  which  he,  in  common 
with  the  whole  country,  felt  in  parting  with  a  public  ser 
vant  so  venerable  in  years  and  so  illustrious  for  the 
services  he  had  rendered.  He  also  issued  the  following 
order  : — 

On  the  first  day  of  November,  1861,  upon  his  own  application  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  Brevet  Lieutenaiit-General  Winfield  Scott 
is  ordered  to  be  placed,  and  hereby  is  placed,  upon  the  list  of  retired 
officers  of  the  army  of  the  United  States,  without  reduction  of  his  current 
pay,  subsistence,  or  allowances. 

The  American  people  will  hear  with  sadness  and  deep  emotion  that 
General  Scott  has  withdrawn  from  the  active  control  of  the  army,  while 
the  President  and  unanimous  Cabinet  express  their  own  and  the  Nation's 
sympathy  in  his  personal  affliction,  and  their  profound  sense  of  the  im 
portant  public  services  rendered  by  him  to  his  country  during  his  long 
and  brilliant  career,  among  which  will  ever  be  gratefully  distinguished  his 
faithful  devotion  to  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  the  Flag,  when 
assailed  by  parricidal  rebellion.  ABKAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  command  of  the  army  then  devolved  by  appoint 
rnent  upon  Major-General  McClellan,  who  had  been  re 
called  from  Western  Virginia  after  the  battle  of  Bull  Run, 
and  had  devoted  himself  to  the  task  of  recruiting  the 
army  in  front  of  Washington,  and  preparing  it  for  the 
defence  of  the  Capital,  and  for  a  fresh  advance  upon  the 
forces  of  the  rebellion. 

It  cannot  have  escaped  attention  that  thus  far,  in  its 
policy  concerning  the  war,  the  Government  had  been  very 
greatly  influenced  by  a  desire  to  prevent  the  Border  Slave 
States  from  joining  the  rebel  confederacy.  Their  accession 
would  have  added  immensely  to  the  forces  of  the  rebel 
lion,  and  would  have  increased  very  greatly  the  labor  and 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  205 

difficulty  of  its  suppression.  The  Administration  and 
Congress  had,  therefore,  avoided,  so  far  as  possible,  any 
measures  in  regard  to  slavery  which  could  needlessly  ex 
cite  the  hostile  prejudices  of  the  people  of  the  Border 
States.  The  Confiscation  Act  affected  only  those  slaves 
who  should  be  "  required  or  permitted"  by  their  masters 
to  render  service  to  the  rebel  cause.  It  did  not  in  any 
respect  change  the  condition  of  any  others.  The  Presi 
dent,  in  the  Executive  Department,  acted  upon  the  same 
principle.  The  question  first  arose  in  Virginia,  simulta 
neously  at  Fortress  Monroe,  and  in  the  western  part  of 
the  State.  On  the  26th  of  May,  General  McClellan  issued 
an  address  to  the  people  of  the  district  under  his  com  - 
mand,  in  which  he  said  to  them,  ' '  Understand  one  thing 
clearly:  not  only  will  we  abstain  from  all  interference 
with  your  slaves,  but  we  will,  on  the  contrary,  with  an 
iron  hand  crush  any  attempt  at  insurrection  on  their  part." 
On  the  27th  of  May,  General  Butler,  in  command  at 
Fortress  Monroe,  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War  that  he 
was  greatly  embarrassed  by  the  number  of  slaves  that 
were  coming  in  from  the  surrounding  country  and  seeking 
protection  within  the  lines  of  his  camp.  He  had  deter 
mined  to  regard  them  as  contraband  of  war,  and  to  em 
ploy  their  labor  at  a  fair  compensation,  against  which 
should  be  charged  the  expense  of  their  support— thb 
relative  value  to  be  adjusted  afterwards.  The  Secretary 
of  War,  in  a  letter  dated  May  30th,  expressed  the  approval 
by  the  Government  of  the  course  adopted  by  General 
Butler,  and  directed  him,  on  the  one  hand,  to  "  permit 
no  interference  by  the  persons  under  his  command  with 
the  relations  of  persons  held  to  service  under  the  laws  of 
any  State,"  and  on  the  other,  to  "refrain  from  surren 
dering  to  alleged  masters  any  such  persons  who  might 
come  within  his  lines." 

On  the  8th  of  August,  after  the  passage  of  the  Confisca 
tion  Act  by  Congress,  the  Secretary  of  War  again  wrote 
to  General  Butler,  setting  forth  somewhat  more  fully  the 
views  of  the  President  and  the  Administration  upon  this 
subject,  as  follows  : — 


206  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

It  is  the  desire  of  the  President  that  all  existing  rights  in  alt  the  States 
be  fully  respected  and  maintained.  The  war  now  prosecuted  on  the  part 
of  the  Federal  Government  is  fa  war  for  the  Union,  and  for  the  preserva 
tion  of  all  constitutional  rights  of  States  and  the  citizens  of  the  States  in 
the  Union.  Hence  no  question  can  arise  as  to  fugitives  from  service  within 
the  States  and  Territories  in  which  the  authority  of  the  Union  is  fully 
acknowledged.  The  ordinary  forms  of  judicial  proceeding,  which  must 
he  respected  hy  military  and  civil  authorities  alike,  will  suffice  for  the 
enforcement  of  all  legal  claims.  But  in  States  wholly  or  partially  under 
insurrectionary  control,  where  the  laws  of  the  United  States  are  so  far 
opposed  and  resisted  that  they  cannot  he  effectually  enforced,  it  is  obvi 
ous  that  rights  dependent  on  the  execution  of  those  laws  must  temporarily 
fail ;  and  it  is  equally  obvious  that  rights  dependent  on  the  laws  of  the 
States  within  which  military  operations  are  conducted  must  be  necessarily 
subordinated  to  the  military  exigencies  created  by  the  insurrection,  if  not 
wholly  forfeited  by  the  treasonable  conduct  of  parties  claiming  them.  To 
this  general  rule  rights  to  services  can  form  no  exception. 

The  act  of  Congress  approved  August  6th,  1861,  declares  that  if  per 
sons  held  to  service  shall  be  employed  in  hostility  to  the  United  States, 
the  right  to  their  services  shall  be  forfeited,  and  such  persons  shall  be 
discharged  therefrom.  It  follows  of  necessity  that  no  claim  can  be  recog 
nized  by  the  military  authorities  of  the  Union  to  the  services  of  such  per 
sons  when  fugitives. 

A  more  difficult  question  is  presented  in  respect  to  persons  escaping 
from  the  service  of  loyal  masters.  It  is  quite  apparent  that  the  laws  of 
the  State,  under  which  only  the  services  of  such  fugitives  can  be  claimed, 
must  needs  be  wholly,  or  almost  wholly  suspended,  as  to  remedies,  by  the 
insurrection  and  the  military  measures  necessitated  by  it ;  and  it  is  equally 
apparent  that  the  substitution  of  military  for  judicial  measures,  for  the 
enforcement  of  such  claims,  must  be  attended  by  great  inconveniences, 
embarrassments,  and  injuries. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  seems  quite  clear  that  the  substantial 
rights  of  loyal  masters  will  be  best  protected  by  receiving  such  fugitives, 
as  well  as  fugitives  from  disloyal  masters,  into  the  services  of  the  United 
States,  and  employing  them  under  such  organizations  and  in  such  occupa 
tions  as  circumstances  may  suggest  or  require.  Of  course  a  record  should 
be  kept,  showing  the  name  and  description  of  the  fugitives,  the  name  and 
the  character,  as  loyal  or  disloyal,  of  the  master,  and  such  facts  as  may 
be  necessary  to  a  correct  understanding  of  the  circumstances  of  each  case, 
after  tranquillity  shall  have  been  restored.  Upon  the  return  of  peace, 
Congress  will  doubtless  properly  provide  for  all  the  persons  thus  received 
into  the  service  of  the  Union,  and  for  just  compensation  to  loyal  masters. 
In  this  way  only,  it  would  seem,  can  the  duty  and  safety  of  the  Govern 
ment,  and  the  just  rights  of  all,  be  fully  reconciled  and  harmonized. 

You  will  therefore  consider  yourself  as  instructed  to  govern  your  future 
action,  in  respect  to  fugitives  from  service,  by  the  principles  herein  stated. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  207 

and  will  'eport  from  time  to  time,  and  at  least  twice  in  each  month,  your 
action  in  the  premises  to  this  Department,  Yon  will,  however,  neither 
authorize  nor  permit  any  interference,  by  the  troops  under  your  command, 
with  the  servants  of  peaceful  citizens,  in  house  or  field,  nor  will  you,  in 
any  way,  encourage  such  servants  to  leave  the  lawful  service  of  their 
masters;  nor  will  you,  except  in  cases  where  the  public  safety  may  seem 
to  require  it,  prevent  the  voluntary  return  of  any  fugitive  to  the  service 
from  which  he  may  have  escaped. 

The  same  policy  was  adopted  in  every  part  of  the  coun 
try.  All  interference  with  the  internal  institutions  of 
any  State  was  expressly  forbidden  ;  but  the  Government 
would  avail  itself  of  the  services  of  a  portion  of  the 
slaves,  taking  care  fully  to  provide  for  compensation  to 
loyal  masters.  On  the  16th  of  August,  Hon.  C.  B.  Smith, 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  in  a  speech  made  at  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  took  occasion  to  declare  the  policy  of  the 
Administration  upon  this  subject.  Its  theory,  said  he,  is, 
that  "the  States  are  sovereign  within  their  spheres;  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  has  no  more  right  to 
interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  South  Carolina 
than  it  has  to  interfere  with  the  peculiar  institution  of 
Rhode  Island,  whose  benefits  I  have  enjoyed." 

On  the  31st  of  August,  General  Fremont,  commanding 
the  Western  Department,  which  embraced  Missouri  and  a 
part  of  Kentucky,  issued  an  order  "extending  and  de 
Glaring  established  martial  law  throughout  the  State  of 
Missouri,"  and  declaring  that  "the  property,  real  and 
personal,  of  all  persons  in  the  State  of  Missouri,  who 
shall  take  up  arms  against  the  United  States,  or  who  shall 
be  directly  proven  to  have  taken  an  active  part  with  their 
enemies  in  the  field,  is  declared  to  be  confiscated  to  the 
public  use,  and  their  slaves,  if  any  they  have,  are  hereby 
declared,  free  men."  The  President  regarded  this  order 
as  transcending  the  authority  vested  in  him  by  the  Act  of 
Congress,  and  wrote  to  General  Fremont,  calling  his  at 
tention  to  this  point,  and  requesting  him  to  modify  his 
proclamation  so  as  to  make  it  conform  to  the  law.  Gen 
eral  Fremont,  desiring  to  throw  off  from  himself  the 
responsibility  of  changing  his  action,  desired  an  ex 


208  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

plicit  order — whereupon  the  President  thus  addressed 
him  : — 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  September  11,  1861. 

Major-General  JOHN  0.  FREMONT  : — 

SIR: — Yours  of  the  8th,  in  answer  to  mine  of  the  2d  instant,  was  just 
received.  Assured  that  you  upon  the  ground  could  better  judge  of  the 
necessities  of  your  position  than  I  could  at  this  distance,  on  seeing  your 
proclamation  of  August  30,  I  perceived  no  general  objection  to  it;  the 
particular  clause,  however,  in  relation  to  the  confiscation  of  property  and 
the  liberation  of  slaves,  appeared  to  me  to  be  objectionable,  in  its  non 
conformity  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  passed  the  6th  of  last  August,  upon 
the  same  subjects,  and  hence  I  wrote  you  expressing  my  wish  that  that 
clause  should  be  modified  accordingly.  Your  answer,  just  received,  ex 
presses  the  preference  on  your  part  that  I  should  make  an  open  order  for 
the  modification,  which  I  very  cheerfully  do.  It  is  therefore  ordered  that 
the  said  clause  of  said  proclamation  be  so  modified,  held,  and  construed, 
as  to  conform  with,  and  not  to  transcend,  the  provisions  on  the  same  sub 
ject  contained  in  the  act  of  Congress  entitled  "An  Act  to  confiscate  prop 
erty  used  for  insurrectionary  purposes,"  approved  August  6,  1861,  and 
the  said  act  be  published  at  length  with  this  order. 

Your  obedient  servant,  A.  LINCOLN. 

These  views  of  the  Government  were  still  farther  en 
forced  in  a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  War  to  General  T. 
W.  Sherman,  who  commanded  the  expedition  to  Port 
Royal,  and  in  orders  issued  by  General  Dix  in  Virginia, 
on  the  17th  of  November,  and  by  General  Halleck,  who 
succeeded  General  Fremont  in  the  Western  Department, 
prohibiting  fugitive  slaves  from  being  received  within 
the  lines  of  the  army.  During  all  this  time  strenuous 
efforts  were  made  in  various  quarters  to  induce  the  Presi 
dent  to  depart  from  this  policy,  and  not  only  to  proclaim 
a  general  emancipation  of  all  the  slaves,  but  to  put  arms 
in  their  hands,  and  employ  them  in  the  field  against  the 
rebels.  But  they  were  ineffectual.  The  President  ad 
hered  firmly  and  steadily  to  the  policy  which  the  then 
existing  circumstances  of  the  country,  in  his  judgment, 
rendered  wise  and  necessary ;  and  he  was  sustained  in 
this  action  by  the  public  sentiment  of  the  loyal  States, 
and  by  the  great  body  of  the  people  in  the  Slave  States 
along  the  border.  The  course  which  he  pursued  at  that 
time  contributed  largely,  beyond  doubt,  to  strengthen 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  209 

11 10  cause  of  the  Union  in  those  Border  States,  and  espe 
cially  to  withdraw  Tennessee  from  her  hastily  formed 
connection  with  the  rebel  Confederacy. 

In  the  early  part  of  November  an  incident  occurred 
which  threatened  for  a  time  to  involve  the  country  in 
open  war  with  England.  On  the  7th  of  that  month  the 
British  mail  steamer  Trent  left  Havana  for  St.  Thomas, 
having  on  board  Messrs.  J.  M.  Mason  and  John  Slidell, 
on  their  way  as  commissioners  from  the  Confederate 
States  to  England  and  France.  On  the  8th  the  Trent  was 
hailed  from  the  United  States  frigate  San'Jacinto,  Captain 
Wilkes,  and  brought-to  by  a  shot  across  her  bows.  Two 
officers  and  about  twenty  armed  men  from  the  latter  then 
went  on  board  the  Trent,  searched  her,  and  took  from 
her  by  force,  and  against  the  protest  of  the  British  offi 
cers,  the  two  rebel  commissioners,  with  Messrs.  Eustis 
and  McFarland,  their  Secretaries,  who  were  brought  to 
the  United  States  and  lodged  in  Fort  Warren,  the  Trent 
being  released  and  proceeding  on  her  way.  The  most 
intense  excitement  pervaded  the  country  when  news  of 
this  affair  was  received.  The  feeling  was  one  of  admira 
tion  at  the  boldness  of  Captain  Wilkes,  and  of  exultation 
at  the  capture  of  the  rebel  emissaries.  In  England  the 
most  intense  and  passionate  resentment  took  possession 
of  the  public  mind.  The  demand  for  instant  redress  was 
universal,  and,  in  obedience  to  it,  the  Government  at 
once  ordered  troops  to  Canada  and  the  outfit  of  vessels 
of  war. 

Our  Government  met  the  matter  with  prompt  and  self- 
possessed  decision.  On  the  30th  of  November  Mr.  Sew- 
ard  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams  a  general  statement  of  the  facts 
of  the  case,  accompanied  by  the  assurance  that  "in  the 
capture  of  Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell  Captain  Wilkes  had 
acted  without  any  instructions  from  the  Government," 
and  that  our  Government  was  prepared  to  discuss  the 
matter  in  a  perfectly  fair  and  friendly  spirit  as  soon  as 
the  ground  taken  by  the  British  Government  should  be 
made  known.  Earl  Russell,  under  the  same  date,  wrote 
to  lord  Lyons,  rehearsing  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  say 
14 


210  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ing  that  the  British  Government  was  "willing  to  believe 
that  the  naval  officer  who  committed  the  aggression  was 
not  acting  in  compliance  with  any  authority  from  his 
Government,"  because  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  "must  be  fully  aware  that  the  British  Government 
could  not  allow  such  an  affront  to  the  national  honor  to 
pass  without  full  reparation."  Earl  Russell  trusted, 
therefore,  that  when  the  matter  should  be  brought  under 
its  notice  the  United  States  Government  would,  "of  its 
own  accord,  offer  to  the  British  Government  such  redress 
as  alone  could  satisfy  the  British  nation,  namely,  the  lib 
eration  of  the  four  gentlemen  and  their  delivery  to  the 
British  minister,  that  they  may  again  be  placed  under 
British  protection,  and  a  suitable  apology  for  the  aggres 
sion  which  has  been  committed."  In  a  subsequent  note 
Lord  Lyons  was  instructed  to  wait  seven  days  after  its 
delivery  for  a  reply  to  this  demand,  and  in  case  no  an 
swer,  or  any  other  answer  than  a  compliance  with  its 
terms,  should  be  given  by  the  expiration  of  that  time,  he 
was  to  leave  Washington  with  the  archives  of  the  lega 
tion,  and  repair  immediately  to  London. 

On  the  26th  of  December  the  Secretary  of  State,  by  di 
rection  of  the  President,  sent  a  reply  to  this  dispatch,  in 
which  the  whole  question  was  discussed  at  length,  and 
with  conspicuous  ability.  The  Government  decided  that 
the  detention  of  the  vessel,  and  the  removal  from  her  of 
the  emissaries  of  the  rebel  confederacy,  was  justifiable  by 
the  laws  of  war  and  the  practice  and  precedents  of  the 
British  Government ;  but  that  in  assuming  to  decide  upon 
the  liability  of  these  persons  to  capture  for  himself,  in 
stead  of  sending  them  before  a  legal  tribunal  where  a 
regular  trial  could  be  had,  Captain  Wilkes  had  departed 
from  the  rule  of  international  law  uniformly  asserted  by 
the  American  Government,  and  forming  part  of  its  most 
cherished  policy.  The  Government  decided,  therefore, 
that  the  four  persons  in  question  would  be  i  i  cheerfully 
liberated."  This  decision,  sustained  by  the  reasoning 
advanced  in  its  support,  commanded  the  immediate  and 
universal  acquiescence  of  the  American  people  ;  while  in 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  211 

England  it  was  received  with  hearty  applause  "by  the 
friends  of  this  country,  especially  as  it  silenced  the  clam 
ors  and  disappointed  the  hostile  hopes  of  its  enemies. 
The  French  Government  had  joined  that  of  England  in 
its  representations  upon  this  subject,  and  the  decision  of 
our  Government  was  received  there  with  equal  satisfac 
tion.  The  effect  of  the  incident,  under  the  just  and  judi 
cious  course  adopted  by  the  Administration,  was  emi 
nently  favorable  to  the  United  States— increasing  the 
general  respect  for  its  adherence  to  sound  principles  of 
public  law,  and  silencing  effectually  the  slander  that  its 
Government  was  too  weak  to  disappoint  or  thwart  a  pop 
ular  clamor.  One  of  the  immediate  fruits  of  the  discus 
sion  was  the  prompt  rejection  of  all  demands  for  recog 
nizing  the  independence  of  the  Confederate  States. 


212  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SEII VICES,  AND 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE     REGULAR    SESSION    OF    CONGRESS,  DECEMBER,     1861.— THE 
MESSAGE.— DEBATES,  ETC. 

MEETING  OF  GoNGfiSSS. — PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE. — DISPOSITION  OF  CON 
GRESS. — SLAVERY  IN  TERRITORIES  AND  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA. — PRO 
POSED  AID  TO  EMANCIPATION  BY  SLAVE  STATES. — THE  DEBATE  IN 
CONGRESS. — THE  PRESIDENT  AND  GENERAL  HUNTER. — THE  BORDER 
STATE  REPRESENTATIVES.— THE  BORDER  STATE  REPLY. — THE  FINANCES. 
— THE  CONFISCATION  BILL. — THE  PRESIDENT'S  ACTION  AND  OPINIONS. — 
THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE. — MESSAGE  IN  REGARD  TO  MR.  CAMERON. — 
THE  PRESIDENT  AND  ms  CABINET. — CLOSE  OF  THE  SESSION  OF  CON 
GRESS. — THE  PRESIDENT'S  LETTER  TO  MR.  GREELEY. — THE  PRESIDENT 
A.ND  THE  CHICAGO  CONVENTION. — PROCLAMATION  OF  EMANCIPATION. 

CONGRESS  met  in  regular  session  (the  second  of  the 
Thirty-seventh  Congress)  on  the  2d  of  December,  1861. 
On  the  next  day  the  President  sent  in  his  Annual  Message, 
as  follows  : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  : 

In  the  midst  of  unprecedented  political  troubles,  we  have  cause  of  great 
gratitude  to  God  for  unusual  good  health  and  most  abundant  harvests. 

You  will  not  be  surprised  to  learn  that,  in  the  peculiar  exigencies  of  tho 
times,  our  intercourse  with  foreign  nations  has  been  attended  with  profound 
solicitude,  chiefly  turning  upon  our  own  domestic  affairs. 

A  disloyal  portion  of  the  American  people  have,  during  the  whole  year, 
been  engaged  in  an  attempt  to  divide  and  destroy  the  Union.  A  nation 
which  endures  factious  domestic  division  is  exposed  to  disrespect  abroad  ; 
and  one  party,  if  not  both,  is  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  invoke  ioreign  inter 
vention. 

Nations  thus  tempted  to  interfere  are  not  always  able  to  resist  the 
counsels  of  seeming  expediency  and  ungenerous  ambition,  although 
measures  adopted  under  such  influences  seldon  fail  to  be  unfortunate  and 
injurious  to  those  adopting  them. 

The  disloyal  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  have  offered  the  ruin  of 
v,  our  country,  in  return  for  the  aid  and  comfort  which  they  have  invoked 
y'abroad,  have  received  less  patronage  and  encouragement  than  they  prob 
ably  expected.  If  it  were  just  to  suppose,  as  the  insurgents  have  seemed 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  213 

to  assume,  that  foreign  nations,  in  this  case,  discarding  all  moral,  social, 
and  treaty  obligations,  would  act  solely  and  selfishly  for  the  most  speedy 
restoration  of  commerce,  including  especially  the  acquisition  of  cotton, 
those  nations  appear,  as  yet,  not  to  have  seen  their  way  to  their  object 
more  directly,  or  clearly,  through  the  destruction,  than  through  the  pres 
ervation,  of  the  Union.  If  we  could  dare  to  believe  that  foreign  nations 
are  actuated  by  no  higher  principle  than  this,  I  am  quite  sure  a  sound  ar 
gument  could  be  made  to  show  them  that  they  can  reach  their  aim  more 
readily  and  easily  by  aiding  to  crush  this  rebellion,  than  by  giving  en 
couragement  to  it. 

The  principal  lever  relied  on  by  the  insurgents  for  exciting  foreign 
nations  to  hostility  against  us,  as  already  intimated,  is  the  embarrassment 
of  commerce.  Those  nations,  however,  not  improbably,  saw  from  the 
first,  that  it  was  the  Union  which  made,  as  well  our  foreign  as  our  do 
mestic  commerce.  They  can  scarcely  have  failed  to  perceive  that  the  effort 
for  disunion  produced  the  existing  difficulty;  and  that  one  strong  nation 
promises  move  durable  peace,  and  a  more  extensive,  valuable,  and  reliable 
commerce,  than  can  the  same  nation  broken  into  hostile  fragments. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  review  our  discussions  with  foreign  states ; 
because  whatever  might  be  their  wishes  or  dispositions,  the  integrity  of 
our  country  and  the  stability  of  our  Government  mainly  depend,  not  upon 
them,  bat  on  the  loyalty,  virtue,  patriotism,  and  intelligence  of  the  Amer 
ican  people.  The  correspondence  itself,  with  the  usual  reservations,  ix 
herewith  submitted. 

I  venture  to  hope  it  will  appear  that  we  have  practised  prudence  and 
liberality  towards  foreign  powers,  averting  causes  of  irritation  ;  and  with 
firmness  maintaining  our  own  rights  and  honor. 

Since,  however,  it  is  apparent  that  here,  as  in  every  other  state,  foreign 
dangers  necessarily  attend  domestic  difficulties,  I  recommend  that  adequate 
and  ample  measures  be  adopted  for  maintaining  the  public  defences  on 
every  side.  While,  under  this  general  recommendation,  provision  for  defend 
ing  our  sea-coast  line  readily  occurs  to  the  mind,  I  also,  in  the  same  con 
nection,  ask  the  attention  of  Congress  to  our  great  lakes  and  rivers.  It  is 
believed  that  some  fortifications  and  depots  of  arms  and  munitions,  with 
harbor  and  navigation  improvements,  all  at  well-selected  points  upon 
these,  would  be  of  great  importance  to  the  national  defence  and  preserva 
tion.  I  ask  attention  to  the  views  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  expressed  in 
his  report,  upon  the  same  general  subject. 

I  deem  it  of  importance  that  the  loyal  regions  of  East  Tennessee  and 
Western  North  Carolina  should  be  connected  with  Kentucky  and  other 
faithful  parts  of  the  Union  by  railroad.  I  therefore  recommend,  as  a 
military  measure,  that  Congress  provide  for  the  construction  of  such  road 
as  speedily  as  possible. 

Kentucky  will  no  doubt  co-operate,  and  through  her  Legislature  make 
the  most  judicious  selection  of  a  line.  The  northern  terminus  must 


214  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

connect  with  some  existing  railroad,  and  whether  the  route  shall  be  from 
Lexington  or  Nicholasville  to  the  Cumberland  Gap,  or  from  Lebanon  to 
the  Tennesee  line,  in  the  direction  of  Knoxville,  or  on  some  still  different 
line,  can  easily  be  determined.  Kentucky  and  the  General  Government 
co-operating,  the  work  can  be  completed  in  a  very  short  time,  and  when 
done  it  will  be  not  only  of  vast  present  usefulness,  but  also  a  valuable 
permanent  improvement  worth  its  cost  in  all  the  future. 

Some  treaties,  designed  chiefly  for  the  interests  of  commerce,  and  having 
no  grave  political  importance,  have  been  negotiated,  and  will  be  submitted 
to  the  Senate  for  their  consideration.  Although  we  have  failed  to  induce 
some  of  the  commercial  Powers  to  adopt  a  desirable  melioration  of  the  rigor 
of  maritime  war,  we  have  removed  all  obstructions  from  the  way  of  this 
humane  reform,  except  such  as  are  merely  of  temporary  and  accidental 
occurrence. 

I  invite  your  attention  to  the  correspondence  between  her  Britannic 
Majesty's  Minister,  accredited  to  this  Government,  and  the  Secretary  of 
State,  relative  to  the  detention  of  the  British  ship  Perthshire  in  June  last 
by  the  United  States  steamer  Massachusetts,  for  a  supposed  breach  of  the 
blockade.  As  this  detention  was  occasioned  by  an  obvious  misapprehen 
sion  of  the  facts,  and  as  justice  requires  that  we  should  commit  no  belliger 
ent  act  not  founded  in  strict  right  as  sanctioned  by  public  law,  I  recom 
mend  that  an  appropriation  be  made  to  satisfy  the  reasonable  demand  of 
the  owners  of  the  vessel  for  her  detention. 

I  repeat  the  recommendation  of  my  predecessor  in  his  annual  message  to 
Congress  in  December  last  in  regard  to  the  disposition  of  the  surplus 
which  will  probably  remain  after  satisfying  the  claims  of  American  citizens 
against  China,  pursuant  to  the  awards  of  the  commissioners  under  the  act 
of  the  3d  of  March,  1859. 

If,  however,  it  should  not  be  deemed  advisable  to  carry  that  recom 
mendation  into  effect,  I  would  suggest  that  authority  be  given  for  invest 
ing  the  principal  over  the  proceeds  of  the  surplus  referred  to  in  good  se 
curities,  with  a  view  to  the  satisfaction  of  such  other  just  claim  of  our 
citizens  against  China  as  are  not  unlikely  to  arise  hereafter  in  the  course 
of  our  extensive  trade  with  that  empire. 

By  the  act  of  the  5th  of  August  last,  Congress  authorized  the  President 
to  instruct  the  commanders  of  suitable  vessels  to  defend  themselves  against 
and  to  capture  pirates.  This  authority  has  been  exercised  in  a  single  in 
stance  only. 

For  the  more  effectual  protection  of  our  extensive  and  valuable  com 
merce  in  the  Eastern  seas  especially,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  would  also  be 
advisable  to  authorize  the  commanders  of  sailing-vessels  to  recapture  any 
prizes  which  pirates  may  make  of  the  United  States  vessels  and  their  car 
goes,  and  the  Consular  Courts  established  by  law  in  Eastern  countries  to 
adjudicate  the  cases  in  the  event  that  this  should  not  be  objected  to  by 
the  local  authorities. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  215 

Tf  any  good  reason  exists  why  wo  should  persevere  longer  in  with 
holding  our  recognition  of  the  independence  and  sovereignty  of  Ilayti 
and  Liberia,  I  am  unable  to  discern  it.  Unwilling,  however,  to  inaugurate 
a  novel  policy  in  regard  to  them  without  the  approbation  of  Congress,  I 
submit  to  your  consideration  the  expediency  of  an  appropriation  for 
maintaining  a  Charge  V Affaires  near  each  of  chose  new  states.  It  do*s 
not  admit  of  doubt  that  important  commercial  advantages  might  be  secured 
by  favorable  treaties  with  them. 

The  operations  of  the  Treasury  during  the  period  which  has  elapsed 
since  your  adjournment  have  been  conducted  with  signal  success.  The 
patriotism  of  the  people  has  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government  the 
large  means  demanded  by  the  public  exigencies.  Much  of  the  national 
loan  has  been  taken  by  citizens  of  the  industrial  classes,  whose  confidence 
in  their  country's  faith,  and  zeal  for  their  country's  deliverance  from  its 
present  peril,  have  induced  them  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  the 
Government  the  whole  of  their  limited  acquisitions.  This  fact  imposes 
peculiar  obligations  to  economy  in  disbursement  and  energy  in  fiction. 
The  revenue  from  all  sources,  including  loans  for  the  financial  year  ending 
on  the  30th  of  .June,  1861,  was  $86,835,900  27;  and  the  expenditures  for 
the  same  period,  including  payments  on  account  of  the  public  debt,  were 
$84,578,034  47;  leaving  a  balance  in  the  treasury,  on  the  1st  of  July,  of 
$2,257,065  80  for  the  first  quarter  of  the  financial  year  ending  on  Sep 
tember  30,  1861.  The  receipts  from  all  sources,  including  the  balance  of 
July  1,  were  $102,532,509  27,  and  the  expenses  $98,239,733  09;  leaving 
a  balance,  on  the  1st  of  October,.  1861,  of  $4,292,776  18. 

Estimates  for  the  remaining  three-quarters  of  the  year  and  for  the 
financial  year  of  1863,  together  with  his  views  of  the  ways  and  means  for 
meeting  the  demands  contemplated  by  them,  will  be  submitted  to  Congress 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  the 
expenses  made  necessary  by  the  rebellion  are  not  beyond  the  resources  of 
the  loyal  people,  and  to  believe  that  the  same  patriotism  which  has  thus 
far  sustained  the  Government  will  continue  to  sustain  it  till  peace  and 
union  shall  again  bless  the  land.  I  respectfully  refer  to  the  report  of  the 
Secretary  of  War  for  information  respecting  the  numerical  strength  of  tho 
army,  and  for  recommendations  having  in  view  an  increase  of  its  efficiency, 
and  the  well-being  of  the  various  branches  of  the  service  intrusted  to  his 
care.  It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  the  patriotism  of  the-people  has  proved 
equal  to  the  occasion,  and  that  the  number  of  troops  tendered  greatly 
exceed  the  force  which  Congress  authorized  me  to  call  into  the  field.  I 
refer  with  pleasure  to  those  portions  of  his  report  which  make  allusion  to 
the  creditable  degree  of  discipline  already  attained  by  our  troops,  and  to 
the  excellent  sanitary  condition  of  the  entire  army.  The  recommendation 
of  tho  Secretary  for  an  organization  of  the  militia  upon  a  uniform  basis  is 
a  subject  of  vital  importance  to  the  future  safety  of  the  country,  and  is 
commended  to  the  serious  attention  of  Congress.  The  large  addition  to 


216  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  regular  army,  in  connection  with  the  defection  that  has  so  considera 
bly  diminished  the  number  of  its  officers,  gives  peculiar  importance  to  his 
recommendation  for  increasing  the  corps  of  cadets  to  the  greatest  capacity 
of  the  Military  Academy. 

By  mere  omission,  I  presume,  Congress  has  failed  to  provide  chaplains 
for  the  hospitals  occupied  by  the  volunteers.  This  subject  was  brought  to 
my  notice,  and  I  was  induced  to  draw  up  the  form  of  a  letter,  one  copy 
of  which,  properly  addressed,  has  been  delivered  to  each  of  the  persons, 
and  at  the  dates  respectively  named  and  stated  in  a  schedule,  containing, 
also,  the  form  of  the  letter  marked  A,  and  herewith  transmitted.  These 
gentlemen,  I  understand,  entered  upon  the  duties  designated  at  the  times 
respectively  stated  in  the  schedule,  and  have  labored  faithfully  therein 
ever  since.  I  therefore  recommend  that  they  be  compensated  at  the  same 
rate  as  chaplains  in  the  army.  I  further  suggest  that  general  provision  be 
made  for  chaplains  to  serve  at  hospitals,  as  well  as  with  regiments. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  presents,  in  detail,  the  opera 
tions  of  that  branch  of  the  service,  the  activity  and  energy  which  have 
characterized  its  administration,  and  the  results  of  measures  to  increase 
its  efficiency  and  power.  Such  have  been  the  additions,  by  construction 
and  purchase,  that  it  may  almost  be  said  a  navy  has  been  created  and 
brought  into  service  since  our  difficulties  commenced. 

Besides  blockading  our  extensive  coast,  squadrons  larger  than  ever 
before  assembled  under  our  flag  have  been  put  afloat,  and  performed  deeds 
which  have  increased  our  naval  renown. 

I  would  invite  special  attention  to  the  recommendation  of  the  Secretary 
for  a  more  perfect  organization  of  the  navy,  by  introducing  additional 
grades  in  the  service. 

The  present  organization  is  defective  and  unsatisfactory,  and  the  sug 
gestions  submitted  by  the  department  will,  it  is  believed,  if  adopted,  ob 
viate  the  difficulties  alluded  to,  promote  harmony,  and  increase  the  effi 
ciency  of  the  navy. 

There  are  three  vacancies  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court — two  bj 
the  decease  of  Justices  Daniel  and  McLean,  and  one  by  the  resignation  of 
Justice  Campbell.  I  have  so  far  forborne  making  nominations  to  fill  theso 
vacancies  for  reasons  which  I  will  now  state.  Two  of  the  outgoing  judges 
resided  within  the  States  now  overrun  by  revolt ;  so  that  if  successors 
were  appointed  in  the  same  localities,  they  could  not  now  serve  upon  their 
circuits;  and  many  of  the  most  competent  men  there  probably  would  not 
take  the  personal  hazard  of  accepting  to  serve,  even  here,  upon  the  su 
preme  bench.  I  have  been  unwilling  to  throw  all  the  appointments 
northward,  thus  disabling  myself  from  doing  justice  to  the  South  on  the 
return  of  peace;  although  I  may  remark,  that  to  transfer  to  the  North 
one  which  has  heretofore  been  in  the  South,  would  not,  with  reference  to 
territory  and  population,  be  unjust. 

During  the  long  and  brilliant  judicial  career  of  Judge  McLean,  his  cir- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  21.7 

cuit  grew  into  an  empire— altogether  too  large  for  any  one  judt:;e  to  give 
the  courts  therein  more  than  a  nominal  attendance— rising  in  population 
from  one  million  four  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  and  eighteen,  in  188:;, 
to  six  million  one  hundred  and  fifty-one  thousand  four  hundred  and  five, 
in  1800. 

Besides  this,  the  country  generally  has  outgrown  our  present  judicial 
system.  If  uniformity  was  at  all  intended,  the  system  requires  that  all 
the  States  shall  be  accommodated  with  Circuit  Courts,  attended  by  su 
preme  judges,  while,  in  fact,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Florida, 
Texas,  California,  and  Oregon,  have  never  had  any  such  courts.  Nor  can 
this  well  be  remedied  without  a  change  of  the  system  ;  because  the  add 
ing  of  judges  to  the  Supremo  Court,  enough  fcr  the  accommodation  of  all 
parts  of  the  country  with  Circuit  Courts,  would  create  a  court  altogether 
too  numerous  for  a  judicial  body  of  any  sort.  And  the  evil,  if  it  bo  one, 
will  increase  as  new  States  come  into  the  Union.  Circuit  Courts  are  use 
ful,  or  they  are  not  useful.  If  useful,  no  State  should  be  denied  them  ;  if 
not  useful,  no  State  should  have  them.  Let  them  be  provided  for  all,  or 
abolished  as  to  all. 

Three  modifications  occur  to  me,  either  of  which,  I  think,  would  be  an 
improvement  upon  our  present  system.  Let  the  Supreme  Court  be  of 
convenient  number  in  every  event.  Then,  first,  let  the  whole  country  be 
divided  into  circuits  of  convenient  size,  the  supreme  judges  to  serve  in  a 
number  of  them  corresponding  to  their  own  number,  and  independent 
circuit  judges  be  provided  for  all  the  rest.  Or,  secondly,  let  the  supreme 
judges  be  relieved  from  circuit  duties,  and  circuit  judges  provided  f'  r  all 
the  circuits.  Or,  thirdly,  dispense  with  circuit  courts  altogether,  leav'-.ig 
the  judicial  functions  wholly  to  the  district  courts  and  an  independent 
Supreme  Court. 

I  respectfully  recommend  to  the  consideration  of  Congress  the  present 
condition  of  the  statute  laws,  with  the  hope  that  Congress  will  be  able 
to  find  an  easy  remedy  for  many  of  the  inconveniences  and  evils  which 
constantly  embarrass  those  engaged  in  the  practical  administration  of 
them.  Since  the  organization  of  the  Government,  Congress  has  enacted 
some  five  thousand  acts  and  joint  resolutions,  which  fill  more  than  six 
thousand  closely-printed  pages,  and  are  scattered  through  many  volumes. 
Many  of  these  acts  have  beer,  drawn  in  haste  and  without  sufficient  cau 
tion,  so  that  their  provisions  are  often  obscure  in  themselves,  or  in  con 
flict  with  each  other,  or  at  least  so  doubtful  as  to  render  it  very  difficult 
for  even  the  best-informed  persons  to  ascertain  precisely  what  the  statute 
law  really  is. 

It  seems  to  me  very  important  that  the  statute  laws  should  be  made  as 
plain  and  intelligible  as  possible,  and  be  reduced  to  as  small  a  compass  as 
may  consist  with  the  fulness  and  precision  of  the  will  of  the  legislature 
and  the  perspicuity  of  its  language.  This,  well  done,  would,  I  think, 
greatly  facilitate  the  labors  of  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  assist  in  the  ad- 


218  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ministration  of  the  laws,  and  would  bo  a  lasting  benefit  to  the  people,  by 
placing  before  them,  in  a  more  accessible  and  intelligible  form,  the  laws 
which  so  deeply  concern  their  interests  and  their  duties. 

I  am  informed  by  some  whose  opinions  I  respect,  that  all  the  acts  of 
Congress  now  in  force,  and  of  a  permanent  and  general  nature,  might  be 
revised  and  rewritten,  so  as  to  be  embraced  in  one  volume  (or,  at  most, 
two  volumes)  of  ordinary  and  convenient  size.  And  1  respectfully  recom 
mend  to  Congress  to  consider  of  the  subject,  and,  if  my  suggestion  be  ap 
proved,  to  devise  such  plan  as  to  their  wisdom  shall  seem  most  proper  for 
the  attainment  of  the  end  proposed. 

One  of  the  unavoidable  consequences  of  the  present  insurrection  is  the 
entire  suppression,  in  many  places,  of  all  the  ordinary  means  of  admin 
istering  civil  justice  by  the  officers,  and  in  the  forms  of  existing  law.  This 
is  the  case,  in  whole  or  in  part,  in  all  the  insurgent  States ;  and  as  our 
armies  advance  upon  and  take  possession  of  parts  of  those  States,  the 
practical  evil  becomes  more  apparent.  There  are  no  courts  nor  officers  to 
whom  the  citizens  of  other  States  may  apply  for  the  enforcement  of  their 
lawful  claims  against  citizens  of  the  insurgent  States ;  and  there  is  a  vast 
amount  of  debt  constituting  such  claims.  Some  have  estimated  it  as  high 
as  two  hundred  million  dollars,  due,  in  large  part,  from  insurgents-  in  open 
rebellion  to  loyal  citizens  who  are,  even  now,  making  great  sacrifices  in 
the  discharge  of  their  patriotic  duty  to  support  the  Government. 

Under  these  circumstances,  I  have  been  urgently  solicited  to  establish, 
by  military  power,  courts  to  administer  summary  justice  in  such  cases.  I 
have  thus  fur  declined  to  do  it,  not  because  I  had  any  doubt  that  the  end 
proposed — the  collection  of  the  debts — was  just  and  right  in  itself,  but 
because  I  have  been  unwilling  to  go  beyond  the  pressure  of  necessity  in 
the  unusual  exercise  of  power.  But  the  powers  of  Congress,  I  suppose, 
are  equal  to  the  anomalous  occasion,  and  therefore  I  refer  the  whole  mat 
ter  to  Congress,  with  the  hope  that  a  plan  may  be  devised  for  the  admin 
istration  of  justice  in  all  such  parts  of  the  insurgent  States  and  Territories 
as  may  be  under  the  control  of  this  Government,  whether  by  a  voluntary 
return  to  allegiance  and  order,  or  by  the  power  of  our  arms ;  this,  how 
ever,  not  to  be  a  permanent  institution,  but  a  temporary  substitute,  and 
to  cease  as  soon  as  the  ordinary  courts  can  be  re-established  in  peace. 

It  is  important  that  some  more  convenient  means  should  be  provided, 
if  possible,  for  the  adjustment  of  claims  against  the  Government,  espe 
cially  in  view  of  their  increased  number  by  reason  of  the  war.  It  is  as 
much  the  duty  of  Government  to  render  prompt  justice  against  itself,  in 
favor  of  citizens,  as  it  is  to  administer  the  same  between  private  indi 
viduals.  The  investigation  and  adjudication  of  claims,  in  their  nature, 
belong  to  the  judicial  department ;  besides,  it  is  apparent  that  the  atten 
tion  of  Congress  will  be  more  than  usually  engaged,  for  some  time  to 
come,  with  great  national  questions.  It  was  intended,  by  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  Court  of  Claims,  mainly  to  remove  this  branch  of  business 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  219 

from  the  halls  of  Congress ;  but  while  tho  court  has  proved  to  be  an  ef 
fective  and  valuable  means  of  investigation,  it  in  great  degree  fails  to  effect 
the  object  of  its  creation,  for  want  of  power  to  make  its  judgments  final. 

Fully  aware  of  the  delicacy,  not  to  say  the  danger,  of  the  subject,  I  com 
mend  to  your  careful  consideration  whether  this  power  of  making  judg 
ments  iinul  may  not  properly  be  given  to  the  court,  reserving  the  right 
of  appeal  on  questions  of  law  to  the  Supreme  Court,  with  such  other 
provisions  as  experience  may  have  shown  to  be  necessary. 

I  ask  attention  to  the  report  of  the  Postmaster-General,  tne  following 
being  a  summary  statement  of  the  condition  of  the  department  : 

The  revenue  from  all  sources  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30, 
1861,  including  the  annual  permanent  appropriation  of  seven  hundred 
thousand  dollars  for  the  transportation  of  "free  mail  matter,"  was  nine 
million  forty-nine  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety-six  dollars  and  forty 
cents,  being  about  two  per  cent,  less  than  the  revenue  for  1860. 

The  expenditures  were  thirteen  million  six  hundred  and  six  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  fifty-nine  dollars  and  eleven  cents,  showing  a  decrease 
of  more  than  eight  per  cent,  as  compared  with  those  of  the  previous  year, 
and  leaving  an  excess  of  expenditure  over  the  revenue  for  the  last  fiscal 
year  of  four  million  five  hundred  and  fifty-seven  thousand  four  hundred 
and  sixty-two  dollars  and  seventy-one  cents. 

The  gross  revenue  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 1863,  is  estimated  at  an 
increase  of  four  per  cent,  on  that  of  1861,  making  eight  million  six  hun 
dred  and  eighty-three  thousand  dollars,  to  which  should  be  added  the 
earnings  of  the  department  in  carrying  free  matter,  viz.,  seven  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  making  nine  million  three  hundred  and  eighty-three 
thousand  dollars. 

The  total  expenditures  for  1863  are  estimated  at  twelve  million  five 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  thousand  dollars,  leaving  an  estimated  defi 
ciency  of  three  million  one  hundred  and  forty-five  thousand  dollars  to  be 
supplied  from  the  Treasury,  in  addition  to  the  permanent  appropriation. 

The  present  insurrection  shows,  I  think,  that  the  extension  of  this  dis 
trict  across  the  Potomac  River,  at  the  time  of  establishing  the  Capital 
here,  was  eminently  wise,  and  consequently  that  the  relinquishment  of 
that  portion  of  it  which  lies  within  the  State  of  Virginia  was  unwise  and 
dangerous.  I  submit  for  your  consideration  the  expediency  of  regaining 
that  part  of  the  district,  and  the  restoration  of  the  original  boundaries 
thereof,  through  negotiations  with  the  State  of  Virginia. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  with  the  accompanying 
documents,  exhibits  the  condition  of  the  several  branches  of  the  public 
business  pertaining  to  that  department.  The  depressing  influences  of  the 
insurrection  have  been  especially  felt  in  the  operations  of  the  Patent  and 
General  Land  Offices.  The  cash  receipts  from  the  sales  of  public  lands 
during  the  past  year  have  exceeded  the  expenses  of  our  land  system  only 
about  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  sales  have  been  entirely  sua- 


220  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

pended  in  the  Southern  States,  while  the  interruptions  to  the  business  of 
the  country,  and  the  diversion  of  large  numbers  of  men  from  labor  to 
military  service,  have  obstructed  settlements  in  the  new  States  and  Terri 
tories  of  the  Northwest. 

The  receipts  of  the  Patent  Office  have  declined  in  nine  months  about 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  rendering  a  large  reduction  of  the  force 
employed  necessary  to  make  it  self-sustaining. 

The  demands  upon  the  Pension  Office  will  be  largely  increased  by  the 
insurrection.  Numerous  applications  for  pensions,  based  upon  the  casual 
ties  of  the  existing  war,  have  already  been  made.  There  is  reason  to 
believe  that  many  who  are  now  upon  the  pension  rolls,  and  in  receipt  of 
the  bounty  of  the  Government,  are  in  the  ranks  of  the  insurgent  army,  or 
giving  them  aid  and  comfort.  The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  has  directed 
a  suspension  of  the  payment  of  the  pensions  of  such  persons  upon  proof 
of  their  disloyalty.  I  recommend  that  Congress  authorize  that  officer  to 
cause  th*  names  of  such  persons  to  be  stricken  from  the  pension  rolls. 

The  relations  of  the  Government  with  the  Indian  tribes  have  been 
greatly  disturbed  by  the  insurrection,  especially  in  the  southern  superin- 
tendency  and  in  that  of  New  Mexico.  The  Indian  country  south  of  Kansas 
is  in  the  possession  of  insurgents  from  Texas  and  Arkansas.  The  agents 
of  the  United  States  appointed  since  the  4th  of  March  for  this  snperin- 
tendency  have  been  unable  to  reach  their  posts,  while  the  most  of  those 
who  were  in  office  before  that  time  have  espoused  the  insurrectionary 
cause,  and  assume  to  exercise  the  powers  of  agents  by  virtue  of  com  mis 
sions  from  the  insurrectionists.  It  has  been  stated  in  the  public  press  that 
a  portion  of  those  Indians  have  been  organized  as  a  military  force,  and 
are  attached  to  the  army  of  the  insurgents.  Although  the  Government 
has  no  official  information  upon  this  subject,  letters  have  been  written  to 
the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  by  several  prominent  chiefs,  giving 
assurance  of  their  loyalty  to  the  United  States,  and  expressing  a  wish  for 
the  presence  of  Federal  troops  to  protect  them.  It  is  believed  that  upon 
the  repossession  of  the  country  by  the  Federal  forces,  the  Indians  will 
readily  cease  all  hostile  demonstrations,  and  resume  their  former  relations 
to  the  Government. 

Agriculture,  confessedly  the  largest  interest  of  the  nation,  has  not  a 
department,  nor  a  bureau,  but  a  clerkship  only,  assigned  to  it  in  the  Gov 
ernment.  While  it  is  fortunate  that  this  great  interest  is  so  independent 
in  its  nature  as  to  not  have  demanded  and  extorted  more  from  the  Gov 
ernment,  I  respectfully  ask  Congress  to  consider  whether  something  more 
cannot  be  given  voluntarily  with  general  advantage. 

Annual  reports  exhibiting  the  condition  of  our  agriculture,  commerce, 
and  manufactures,  would  present  a  fund  of  information  of  great  practical 
value  to  the  country.  "While  I  make  no  suggestion  as  to  details,  I  ven 
ture  the  opinion  that  an  agricultural  and  statistical  bureau  might  profit 
ably  be  organized. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  221 

The  execution  of  the  laws  for  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave-trade 
has  been  confided  to  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  It  is  a  subject  of  grat- 
ulation  that  the  efforts  which  have  been  made  for  the  suppression  of  thi* 
inhuman  traffic  have  been  recently  attended  with  unusual  success.  Five 
vessels  being  fitted  out  for  the  slave-trade  have  been  seized  and  con 
demned.  Two  mates  of  vessels  engaged  in  the  trade,  and  one  person  in 
equipping  a  vessel  as  a  slaver,  have  been  convicted  and  subjected  to  the 
penalty  of  fine  and  imprisonment,  and  one  captain,  taken  with  a  cargo  of 
Africans  on  board  his  vessel,  has  been  convicted  of  the  highest  grade  of 
offence  under  our  laws,  the  punishment  of  which  is  death. 

The  Territories  of  Colorado,  Dakotah,  and  Nevada,  created  by  the  last 
Congress,  have  been  organized,  and  civil  administration  has  been  inau 
gurated  therein  under  auspices  especially  gratifying,  when  it  is  considered 
that  the  leaven  of  treason  was  found  existing  in  some  of  these  new  coun  - 
tries  when  the  Federal  officers  arrived  there. 

The  abundant  natural  resources  of  these  Territories,  with  the  security 
and  protection  afforded  by  organized  government,  will  doubtless  invite  to 
them  a  large  immigration  when  peace  shall  restore  the  business  of  the 
country  to  its  accustomed  channels.  I  submit  the  resolutions  of  the  Legis 
lature  of  Colorado,  which  evidence  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  people  of 
the  Territory.  So  for  the  authority  of  the  United  States  has  been  upheld  in 
nil  the  Territories,  as  it  is  hoped  it  will  be  in  the  future.  I  commend  their 
interests  and  defence  to  the  enlightened  and  generous  care  of  Congress. 

I  recommend  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  Congress  the  interests 
of  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  insurrection  has  been  the  cause  of 
much  suffering  and  sacrifice  to  its  inhabitants,  and  as  they  have  no  rep 
resentative  in  Congress,  that  body  should  not  overlook  their  just  claims 
upon  the  Government. 

At  your  late  session  a  joint  resolution  was  adopted  authorizing  the 

Snresident  to  take  measures  for  facilitating  a  proper  representation  of  the 
ndustrial  interests  of  the  United  States  at  the  exhibition  of  the  industry 
of  all  nations  to  be  holden  at  London  in  the  year  1862.  I  regret  to  say 
I  have  been  unable  to  give  personal  attention  to  this  subject — a  subject  at 
once  so  interesting  in  itself,  and  so  extensively  and  intimately  connected 
with  the  material  prosperity  of  the  world.  Through  the  Secretaries  of 
State  and  of  the  Interior  a  plan  or  system  has  been  devised  and  partly 
matured,  and  which  will  be  laid  before  you. 

Under  and  by  virtue  of  the  act  of  Congress  entitled  "An  act  to  con 
fiscate  property  used  for  insurrectionary  purposes,"  approved  August  C, 
1661,  the  legal  claims  of  certain  persons  to  the  labor  and  service  of  cer 
tain  other  persons  have  become  forfeited;  and  numbers  of  the  latter,  thus 
liberated,  are  already  dependenc  on  the  United  States,  and  must  be  pro 
vided  for  in  some  way.  Besides  this,  it  is  not  impossible  that  some  of  the 
States  will  pass  similar  enactments  for  their  own  benefit  respectively, 
and  by  operation  of  which  persons  of  the  same  class  will  be  thrown  upon 


222  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

them  for  disposal.  In  such  case,  I  recommend  that  Congress  provide  for 
accepting  such  persons  from  such  States,  according  to  some  mode  of  val 
uation,  in  lieu,  pro  tanto,  of  direct  taxes,  or  upon  some  other  plan  to  bo 
agreed  on  with  such  States  respectively ;  that  such  persons,  on  such  ac 
ceptance  by  the  General  Government,  be  at  once  deemed  free ;  and  that, 
in  any  event,  steps  be  taken  for  colonizing  both  classes  (or  the  one  first 
mentioned,  if  the  other  shall  not  be  brought  into  existence)  at  some  place 
or  places  in  a  climate  congenial  to  them.  It  might  be  well  to  consider, 
too,  whether  the  free  colored  people  already  in  the  United  States  could 
not,  so  far  as  individuals  may  desire,  be  included  in  such  colonization. 

To  carry  out  the  plan  of  colonization  may  involve  the  acquiring  of  ter 
ritory,  and  also  the  appropriation  of  money  beyond  that  to  be  expended 
in  the  territorial  acquisition.  Having  practised  the  acquisition  of  ter 
ritory  for  nearly  sixty  years,  the  question  of  constitutional  power  to  do 
so  is  no  longer  an  open  one  with  us.  The  power  was  questioned  at  first 
by  Mr.  Jefferson,  who,  however,  in  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  yielded  his 
scruples  on  the  plea  of  great  expediency.  If  it  be  said  that  the  only 
legitimate  object  of  acquiring  territory  is  to  furnish  homes  for  white  men, 
this  measure  effects  that  object;  for  the  emigration  of  colored  men  leaves 
additional  room  for  white  men  remaining  or  coming  here.  Mr.  Jefferson, 
however,  placed  the  importance  of  procuring  Louisiana  more  on  political 
and  commercial  grounds  than  on  providing  room  for  population. 

On  this  whole  proposition,  including  the  appropriation  of  money  with 
the  acquisition  of  territory,  does  not  the  expediency  amount  to  absolute 
necessity — that,  without  which  the  Government  itself  cannot  bo  perpet 
uated? 

The  war  continues.  In  considering  the  policy  to  be  adopted  for  sup 
pressing  the  insurrection,  I  have  been  anxious  and  careful  that  the  inev 
itable  conflict  for  this  purpose  shall  not  degenerate  into  a  violent  and 
remorseless  revolutionary  struggle. 

In  the  exercise  of  my  best  discretion,  I  have  adhered  to  the  blockade  of 
the  ports  held  by  the  insurgents,  instead  of  putting  in  force  by  proclama 
tion  the  law  of  Congress  enacted  at  the  late  session  for  closing  those  ports. 

So,  also,  obeying  the  dictates  of  prudence,  as  well  as  the  obligations 
of  law,  instead  of  transcending  I  have  adhered  to  the  act  of  Congress  to 
confiscate  property  used  for  insurrectionary  purposes.  If  a  new  law 
upon  the  same  subject  shall  be  proposed,  its  propriety  will  be  duly  con 
sidered.  The  Union  must  be  preserved ;  and  hence  all  indispensable 
means  must  be  employed.  We  should  not  bo  in  haste  to  determine  that 
radical  and  extreme  measures,  which  may  reach  the  loyal  as  well  as  the 
disloyal,  are  indispensable. 

The  inaugural  address  at  the  beginning  of  the  Administration,  and 
the  message  to  Congress  at  the  late  special  session,  were  both  mainly 
devoted  to  the  domestic  controversy  out  of  which  the  insurrection  and 
consequent  war  have  sprung.  Nothing  now  occurs  to  add  or  subtract 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  223 

to  or  from  the  principles  or  general  purposes  stated  and  expressed  in  those 
documents. 

The  last  ray  of  hope  for  preserving  the  Union  peaceably  expired  ut 
the  assault  L.,»on  Fort  Sumter;  and  a  general  review  of  what  has  oc 
curred  since  may  not  be  unprofitable.  What  was  painfully  uncertain 
then  is  much  better  defined  arid  more  distinct  now ;  and  the  progress  o:% 
events  is  plainly  in  the  right  direction.  The  insurgents  confidently 
claimed  a  strong  support  from  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line ;  and  the 
friends  of  the  Union  were  not  free  from  apprehension  on  the  point. 
This,  however,  was  soon  settled  definitely,  and  on  the  right  side.  South 
of  the  line,  noble  little  Delaware  led  oflf  right  from  the  first.  Maryland 
was  made  to  seem  against  the  Union.  Our  soldiers  were  assaulted, 
bridges  were  burned,  and  railroads  torn  up  within  her  limits;  au;l  WQ 
were  many  days,  at  one  time,  without  the  ability  to  bring  a  single  regi 
ment  over  her  soil  to  the  Capital.  Now  her  bridges  and  railroads  arc 
repaired  and  open  to  the  Government;  she  already  gives  seven  regiments 
to  the  cause  of  the  Union,  and  none  to  the  enemy;  and  her  people,  at  a 
regular  election,  have  sustained  the  Union  by  a  larger  majority  and  a 
larger  aggregate  vote  than  they  ever  before  gave  to  any  candidate  01 
any  question.  Kentucky,  too,  for  some  time  in  doubt,  is  now  decidedly, 
and,  I  think,  unchangeably  ranged  on  the  side  of  the  Union.  Missouri 
is  comparatively  quiet,  and,  I  believe,  cannot  again  be  overrun  by  the 
insurrectionists.  These  three  States  of  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Mis 
souri,  neither  of  which  would  promise  a  single  soldier  at  first,  have  now 
an  aggregate  of  not  less  than  forty  thousand  in  the  field  for  the  Union ; 
while  of  their  citizens,  certainly  not  more  than  a  third  of  that  number, 
and  they  of  doubtful  whereabouts  and  doubtful  existence,  are  in  arms 
against  it.  After  a  somewhat  bloody  struggle  of  months,  winter  closes 
on  the  Union  people  of  Western  Virginia,  leaving  them  masters  of  their 
own  country. 

An  insurgent  force  of  about  fifteen  hundred,  for  months  dominating 
the  narrow  peninsular  region  constituting  the  counties  of  Accomac  and 
Northampton,  and  known  as  Eastern  Shore  of  Virginia,  together  with 
some  contiguous  parts  of  Maryland,  have  laid  down  their  arms;  and  the 
people  there  have  renewed  their  allegiance  to,  and  accepted  the  protec 
tion  of,  the  old  ilag.  This  leaves  no  armed  insurrectionist  north  of  the 
Potomac,  or  east  of  the  Chesapeake. 

Also  we  have  obtained  a  footing  at  each  of  the  isolated  points  on  the 
southern  coast  of  Hatteras,  Port  Royal,  Tybee  Island,  near  Savannah, 
and  Ship  Island;  and  we  likewise  have  some  general  accounts  of  popular 
movements  in  behalf  of  the  Union  in  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee. 

These  things  demonstrate  that  the  cause  of  the  Union  is  advancing 
steadily  and  certainly  southward. 

Since  your  last  adjournment  Lieutenant-General  Scott  has  retired  from 
the  head  of  the  army.  During  his  long  life  the  nation  has  not  been  un- 


224  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES, 

mindful  of  his  merit ;  yet.  on  calling  to  mind  how  faithfully,  ably,  ai?d 
brilliantly  he  has  served  the  country,  from  a  time  far  hack  in  our  history, 
when  few  of  the  now  living  had  been  born,  and  thenceforward  contin 
ually,  I  cannot  but  think  we  are  still  his  debtors.  I  submit,  therefore,  for 
your  consideration  what  further  mark  of  recognition  is  due  to  him,  and 
to  ourselves  as  a  grateful  people. 

With  the  retirement  of  General  Scott  came  the  executive  duty  of  ap 
pointing  in  his  stead  a  general-in-chief  of  the  army.  It  is  a  fortunate 
circumstance  that  neither  in  council  nor  country  was  there,  so  far  as  I 
know,  any  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  proper  person  to  be  selected. 
The  retiring  chief  repeatedly  expressed  his  judgment  in  favor  of  General 
McClellan  for  the  position ;  and  in  this  the  nation  seemed  to  give  a 
unanimous  concurrence.  The  designation  of  General  McClellan  is,  there 
fore,  in  considerable  degree,  the  selection  of  the  country  as  well  as  of 
the  Executive ;  and  hence  there  is  better  reason  to  hope  there  will  bo 
given  him  the  confidence  and  cordial  support  thus,  by  fair  implication, 
promised,  and  without  which  he  cannot,  with  so  full  efficiency,  serve  the 
country. 

It  has  been  said  that  one  bad  general  is  better  than  two  good  ones ; 
and  the  saying  is  true,  if  taken  to  mean  no  more  than  that  an  army  is 
oetter  directed  by  a  single  mind,  though  inferior,  than  by  two  superior 
ones  at  variance  and  cross-purposes  with  each  other. 

And  the  same  is  true  in  all  joint  operations  wherein  those  engaged  can 
have  none  but  a  common  end  in  view,  and  can  differ  only  as  to  the  choice 
of  means.  In  a  storm  at  sea,  no  one  on  board  can  wish  the  ship  to  sink  ; 
and  yet  not  unfrequently  all  go  down  together,  because  too  many  will 
direct,  and  no  single  mind  can  be  allowed  to  control. 

It  continues  to  develop  that  the  insurrection  is  largely,  if  not  exclu 
sively,  a  war  upon  the  first  principle  of  popular  government — the  rights 
of  the  people.  Conclusive  evidence  of  this  is  found  in  the  most  grave  arid 
maturely-considered  public  documents,  as  well  as  in  the  general  tone  of 
ihe  insurgents.  In  those  documents  we  find  the  abridgment  of  the  exist 
ing  right  of  suffrage,  and  the  denial  to  the  people  of  all  right  to  partici 
pate  in  the  selection  of  public  officers,  except  the  legislative,  boldly 
advocated,  with  labored  arguments  to  prove  that  large  control  of  the 
people  in  government  is  the  source  of  all  political  evil.  Monarchy  itself 
is  sometimes  hinted  at  as  a  possible  refuge  from  the  power  of  the  people. 

In  my  present  position,  I  could  scarely  be  justified  were  I  to  omit  rais 
ing  a  warning  voice  against  this  approach  of  returning  despotism. 

It  is  not  needed,  nor  fitting  here,  that  a  general  argument  should  be 
made  in  favor  of  popular  institutions;  but  there  is  one  point,  with  its 
connections,  not  so  hackneyed  as  most  others,  to  which  I  ask  a  brief  at 
tention.  It  is  the  effort  to  place  capital  on  an  equal  footing  with,  if  not 
above,  labor,  in  the  structure  of  government.  It  is  assumed  that  labor  is 
available  only  in  connection  with  capital;  that  nobody  labors  unless  somo- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  225 

body  else,  owning  capital,  somehow  by  the  use  of  it  induces  him  to  labor. 
This  assumed,  it  is  next  considered  whether  it  ib  best  that  capital  shall 
hire  laborers,  and  thus  induce  them  to  work  by  their  own  consent,  or  buy 
them,  and  drive  them  to  it  without  their  consent.  Having  proceeded  so 
far,  it  is  naturally  concluded  that  all  laborers  are  either  hired  laborers,  or 
what  we  call  slaves.  And  further,  it  is  assumed  that  whoever  is  once  a 
hired  laborer  is  fixed  in  that  condition  for  life. 

Now,  there  is  no  such  relation  between  capital  and  labor  as  assumed; 
nor  is  there  any  such  thing  as  a  free  man  being  fixed  for  life  in  the  con 
dition  of  a  hired  laborer.  Both  these  assumptions  are  false,  and  all  in 
ferences  from  them  are  groundless. 

Labor  is  prior  to  and  independent  of  capital.  Capital  is  only  the  fruit 
of  labor,  and  could  never  have  existed  if  labor  had  not  first  existed. 
Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital,  and  deserves  much  the  higher  considera 
tion.  Capital  has  its  rights,  which  are  as  worthy  of  protection  as  any 
other  rights.  Nor  is  it  denied  that  there  is,  and  probably  always  will  be, 
a  relation  between  labor  and  capital,  producing  mutual  benefits.  The 
error  is  in  assuming  that  the  whole  labor  of  community  exists  within  that 
relation.  A  few  men  own  capital,  and  those  few  avoid  labor  themselves, 
and,  with  their  capital,  hire  or  buy  another  few  to  labor  for  them.  A 
large  majority  belong  to  neither  class — neither  work  for  others,  nor  have 
others  working  for  them.  In  most  of  the  Southern  States,  a  majority  of 
the  whole  people  of  all  colors  are  neither  slaves  nor  masters ;  while  in 
the  Northern,  a  large  majority  are  neither  hirers  nor  hired.  Men,  with 
their  families — wives,  sons,  and  daughters — work  for  themselves  on  their 
farms,  in  their  houses,  and  in  their  shops,  taking  the  whole  product  to 
themselves,  and  asking  no  favors  of  capital  on  the  one  hand,  nor  of  hired 
laborers  or  slaves  on  the  other.  It  is  not  forgotten  that  a  considerable 
number  of  persons  mingle  their  own  labor  with  capital — that  is,  they 
labor  with  their  own  hands,  and  also  buy  or  hire  others  to  labor  for  them; 
but  this  is  only  a  mixed,  and  not  a  distinct  class.  No  principle  stated  is 
disturbed  by  the  existence  of  this  mixed  class. 

Again:  as  has  already  been  said,  there  is  not  of  necessity  any  such 
thing  as  the  free  hired  laborer  being  fixed  to  that  condition  for  life.  Many 
independent  men  everywhere  in  these  States,  a  few  years  back  in  their 
lives,  were  hired  laborers.  The  prudent,  penniless  beginner  in  the  world 
labors  for  wages  a  while,  saves  a  surplus  with  which  to  buy  tools  or  land 
for  himself,  then  labors  on  his  own  account  another  while,  and  at  length 
hires  another  new  beginner  to  help  him.  This  is  the  just,  and  generous, 
and  prosperous  system,  which  opens  the  way  to  all,  gives  hope  to  all,  and 
consequent  energy,  and  progress,  and  improvement  of  condition  to  all. 
No  men  living  are  more  worthy  to  be  trusted  than  those  who  toil  up  from 
poverty— none  less  inclined  to  take  or  touch  aught  which  they  have  not 
honestly  earned.  Let  them  beware  of  surrendering  a  political  power 
which  they  already  possess,  and  which,  if  surrendered,  will  surely  bo  nsed 
15 


226  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

to  close  the  door  of  advancement  against  such  as  they,  and  to  fix  new  dis 
abilities  and  burdens  upon  them,  till  all  of  liberty  shall  be  lost. 

From  the  first  taking  of  our  national  census  to  the  last  are  seventy 
years ;  and  we  find  our  population,  at  tho  end  of  the  period,  eight  times 
as  great  as  it  was  at  the  beginning.  The  increase  of  those  other  things 
which  men  deem  desirable  has  been  even  greater.  We  thus  have,  at  one 
view,  what  the  popular  principle,  applied  to  Government  through  the 
machinery  of  the  States  and  the  Union,  has  produced  in  a  given  time; 
and  also  what,  if  firmly  maintained,  it  promises  for  the  future.  There 
are  already  among  us  those  who,  if  the  Union  be  preserved,  will  live  to 
see  it  contain  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions.  The  struggle  of  to-day  is 
not  altogether  for  to-day  ;  it  is  for  a  vast  future  also.  With  a  reliance  on 
Providence,  all  the  more  firm  and  earnest,  let  us  proceed  in  the  great  task 
which  events  have  devolved  upon  us.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  actual  condition  of  the  country  and  the  progress 
of  the  war,  at  the  opening  of  the  session,  are  very  clearly 
stated  in  this  document ;  and  the  principles  upon  which 
the  President  had  "based  his  conduct  of  public  aifairs  are 
set  forth  with  great  distinctness  and  precision.  On  the 
subject  of  interfering  with  slavery,  the  President  had 
adhered  strictly  to  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  act  passed 
by  Congress  at  its  extra  session  ;  but  he  very  distinctly 
foresaw  that  it  might  become  necessary,  as  a  means  of 
Duelling  the  rebellion  and  preserving  the  Union,  to  resort 
to  a  much  more  vigorous  policy  than  was  contemplated 
by  that  act.  While  he  threw  out  a  timely  caution  against 
undue  haste  in  the  adoption  of  extreme  measures,  he 
promised  full  and  careful  consideration  of  any  new  law 
which  Congress  might  consider  it  wise  and  expedient  to 
pass. 

It  very  soon  became  evident  that  Congress  was  dis 
posed  to  make  very  considerable  advances  upon  the 
Legislation  of  the  extra  session.  The  resistance  of  the 
rebels  had  been  more  vigorous  and  effective  than  was 
anticipated,  and  the  defeat  at  Bull  Run  had  exasperated 
as  well  as  aroused  the  public  mind.  The  forbearance  of 
the  Government  in  regard  to  slavery  had  not  only  failed 
to  soften  the  hostility  of  the  rebels,  but  had  been  rep 
resented  to  Europe  by  the  rebel  authorities  as  proving 
it  determination  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to  protect 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  227 

and  perpetuate  slavery  by  restoring  the  authority  of  the 
Constitution  which  guaranteed  its  safety  ;  and  the  acts  of 
the  extra  session,  especially  the  Crittenden  resolution, 
denning  and  limiting  the  objects  of  the  war,  were  quoted 
in  rebel  dispatches  to  England  for  that  purpose.  It  was 
known,  also,  that  within  the  lines  of  the  rebel  army  slaves 
were  freely  employed  in  the  construction  of  fortifications, 
and  that  they  contributed  in  this  and  other  ways  very 
largely  to  the  strength  of  the  insurrection.  The  whole 
country,  under  the  influence  of  these  facts,  began  to  re 
gard  slavery  as  not  only  the  cause  of  the  rebellion,  but 
as  the  main  strength  of  its  armies  and  the  bond  of  union 
for  the  rebel  forces ; — and  Congress,  representing  and 
sharing  this  feeling,  entered  promptly  and  zealously  upon 
such  measures  as  it  would  naturally  suggest.  Resolu 
tions  at  the  very  outset  of  the  session  were  offered,  call 
ing  on  the  President  to  emancipate  slaves  whenever  and 
wherever  such  action  would  tend  to  weaken  the  rebel 
lion  ;  and  the  general  policy  of  the  Government  upon  this 
subject  became  the  theme  of  protracted  and  animated 
debate.  The  orders  issued  by  the  generals  of  the  army, 
especially  McClellan,  Halleck,  and  Dix,  by  which  fugi 
tive  slaves  were  prohibited  from  coining  within  the  army 
lines,  were  severely  censured.  All  the  resolutions  upon 
these  topics  were,  however,  referred  to  appropriate  com 
mittees,  generally  without  specific  instructions  as  to  the 
character  of  their  action  upon  them. 

Early  in  the  session  a  strong  disposition  was  evinced  in 
some  quarters  to  censure  the  Government  for  its  arbitrary 
arrests  of  persons  in  the  loyal  States,  suspected  of  aiding 
the  rebels,  its  suppression  of  disloyal  presses,  and  other 
acts  which  it  had  deemed  essential  to  the  safety  of  the 
country  ;  and  a  sharp  debate  took  place  in  the  Senate 
upon  a  resolution  of  inquiry  and  implied  censure  offered 
by  Mr.  Trumbull,  of  Illinois.  The  general  feeling,  how 
ever,  was  so  decidedly  in  favor  of  sustaining  the  Presi 
dent,  that  the  resolution  was  referred  to  the  Judiciary 
Committee,  by  a  vote  of  twenty-five  to  seventeen. 

On  the  19th  of  December,  in  the  Senate,  a  debate  on 


228  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  relation  of  slavery  to  the  rebellion  arose  upon  a  reso 
lution  offered  by  Mr.Willey,  of  West  Virginia,  who  con 
tested  the  opinion  that  slavery  was  the  cause  of  the  war, 
and  insisted  that  the  rebellion  had  its  origin  in  the 
hostility  of  the  Southern  political  leaders  to  the  demo 
cratic  principle  of  government ;  he  believed  that  when 
the  great  body  of  the  Southern  people  came  to  see  the 
real  purpose  and  aim  of  the  rebellion,  they  would  with 
draw  their  support,  and  restore  the  Union.  No  action 
was  taken  on  the  resolution,  which  merely  gave  occasion 
for  debate.  A  resolution  was  adopted  in  the  House, 
forbidding  the  employment  of  the  army  to  return  fugitive 
slaves  to  their  owners  ;  and  a  bill  was  passed  in  both 
Houses,  declaring  that  hereafter  there  shall  be  "  neither 
slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  any  of  the  Territories 
of  the  United  States,  now  existing,  or  which  may  at  any 
time  be  formed  or  acquired  by  the  United  States,  other 
wise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the  party 
shall  have  been  duly  convicted." 

In  the  Senate,  on  the  18th  of  March,  a  bill  was  taken 
up  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  ;  and 
an  amendment  was  offered,  directing  that  those  thus  set 
free  should  be  colonized  out  of  the  United  States.  The 
policy  of  colonization  was  fully  discussed  in  connection 
with  the  general  subject,  the  senators  from  the  Border 
States  opposing  the  bill  itself,  mainly  OIL  grounds  of 
expediency,  as  calculated  to  do  harm  under  the  existing 
circumstances  of  the  country.  The  bill  was  passed,  with 
an  amendment  appropriating  money  to  be  used  by  the 
President  in  colonizing  such  of  the  emancipated  slaves  as 
might  wish  to  leave  the  country.  It  received  in  the 
Senate  twenty-nine  votes  in  its  favor  and  fourteen  against 
it.  In  the  House  it  passed  by  a  vote  of  ninety-two  to 
thirty -eight. 

President  Lincoln  sent  in  the  following  message,  an 
nouncing  his  approval  of  the  bill : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPKESENTATIVES  : 
The  act  entitled  "  An  act  for  Ahe  release  of  certain  persons  held  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  229 

service  or  labor  in  the  District  of  Columbia,"  has  this  day  been  approved 
and  signed. 

I  have  never  doubted  the  constitutional  authority  of  Congress  to  abol 
ish  slavery  in  this  District ;  and  I  have  ever  desired  to  see  the  national 
capital  freed  from  the  institution  in  some  satisfactory  way.  Hence  there 
has  never  been  in  my  mind  any  question  upon  the  subject  except  the  one 
of  expediency,  arising  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances.  If  there  be  mat 
ters  within  and  about  this  act  which  might  have  taken  a  course  or  shape 
more  satisfactory  to  my  judgment,  I  do  not  attempt  to  specify  them.  I 
am  gratified  that  the  two  principles  of  compensation  and  colonization  are 
both  recognized  and  practically  applied  in  the  act. 

In  the  matter  of  compensation,  it  is  provided  that  claims  may  be  pre 
sented  within  ninety  days  from  the  passage  of  the  act,  "  but  not  there 
after  ;  "  and  there  is  no  saving  for  minors,  femmes  covert,  insane,  or  absent 
persons.  I  presume  this  is  an  omission  by  mere  oversight,  and  I  recom 
mend  that  it  be  supplied  by  an  amendatory  or  supplemental  act. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

April  10,  18G2. 

On  the  6th  of  March,  the  President  sent  to  Congress 
the  following  message  on  the  subject  of  aiding  such 
slaveholding  States  as  might  take  measures  to  emancipate 
their  slaves : 

WASHINGTON,  March  6,  18C2. 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  : 

I  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  joint  resolution  by  your  honorable 
body,  which  shall  be,  substantially,  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States,  in  order  to  co-operate  with  any  State 
which  may  adopt  gradual  abolition  of  slavery,  give  to  such  State  pecu 
niary  aid,  to  be  used  by  such  State,  in  its  discretion,  to  compensate  it  for 
the  inconvenience,  public  and  private,  produced  by  such  change  of  sys 
tem. 

If  the  proposition  contained  in  the  resolution  does  not  meet  the  ap 
proval  of  Congress  and  the  country,  there  is  an  end  of  it.  But  if  it  does 
command  such  approval,  I  deem  it  of  importance  that  the  States  and 
people  immediately  interested  should  be  at  once  distinctly  notified  of  the 
fact,  so  that  they  may  begin  to  consider  whether  to  accept  or  reject  it. 

The  Federal  Government  would  find  its  highest  interest  in  such  a  ineas- 
ure  as  one  of  the  most  important  means  of  self-preservation.  The  lead 
ers  of  the  existing  rebellion  entertain  the  hope  that  this  Government  will 
ultimately  be  forced  to  acknowledge  the  independence  of  some  part  of 
the  disaffected  region,  and  that  all  the  slave  States  north  of  such  part 
will  then  say,  "The  Union  for  which  we  have  struggled  being  already 
gone,  we  now  choose  to  go  with  the  Southern  section."  To  deprive 


230  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

them  of  this  hope  substantially  ends  the  rebellion  ;  and  the  initiation  oi 
emancipation  deprives  them  of  it,  and  of  all  the  States  initiating  it. 

The  point  is  not  that  all  the  States  tolerating  slavery  would  very  soon, 
if  at  all,  initiate  emancipation  ;  hut  while  the  offer  is  equally  made  to  all, 
the  more  Northern  shall,  by  such  initiation,  make  it  certain  to  the  moro 
Southern  that  in  no  event  will  the  former  ever  join  the  latter  in  their 
proposed  Confederacy.  I  say  initiation,  because,  in  my  judgment,  grad 
ual  and  not  sudden  emancipation  is  better  for  all. 

In  the  mere  financial  or  pecuniary  view,  any  member  of  Congress  with 
the  census  or  an  abstract  of  the  Treasury  report  before  him,  can  readily 
see  for  himself  how  very  soon  the  current  expenditures  of  this  war  would 
purchase,  at  a  fair  valuation,  all  the  slaves  in  any  named  State. 

Such  a  proposition  on  the  part  of  the  General  Government  sets  up  no 
claim  of  a  right  by  the  Federal  authority  to  interfere  with  slavery  within 
State  limits — referring  as  it  does  the  absolute  control  of  the  subject,  in 
each  case,  to  the  State  and  the  people  immediately  interested.  It  is  pro 
posed  as  a  matter  of  perfectly  free  choice  to  them. 

In  the  Annual  Message  last  December,  I  thought  fit  to  say  "  the  Union 
must  be  preserved,  and  hence  all  indispensable  means  must  be  employed." 
I  said  this,  not  hastily,  but  deliberately.  War  has  been  made,  and  con 
tinues  to  be  an  indispensable  means  to  this  end.  A  practical  reacknowl- 
edgment  of  the  national  authority  would  render  the  war  unnecessary, 
and  it  would  at  once  cease.  But  resistance  continues,  and  the  war  must 
also  continue  ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  all  the  incidents  which  may 
attend,  and  all  the  ruin  which  may  follow  it.  Such  as  may  seem  indis 
pensable,  or  may  obviously  promise  great  efficiency  towards  ending  the 
struggle,  must  and  will  come. 

The  proposition  now  made  (though  an  offer  only),  I  hope  it  may  be  es 
teemed  no  offence  to  ask  whether  the  pecuniary  consideration  tendered 
would  not  be  of  more  value  to  the  States  and  private  persons  concerned 
than  would  the  institution  and  property  in  it,  in  the  present  aspect  of 
affairs.  While  it  is  true  that  the  adoption  of  the  proposed  resolution 
would  be  merely  initiatory,  and  not  within  itself  a  practical  measure,  it 
is  recommended  in  the  hope  that  it  would  lead  to  important  practical 
results. 

In  full  view  of  my  great  responsibility  to  my  God  and  my  country,  I 
earnestly  beg  the  attention  of  Congress  and  the  people  to  the  subject. 

ABKAIIAM  LINCOLN. 

This  Message  indicates  very  clearly  the  tendency  of  the 
President's  reflections  upon  the  general  relations  of 
slavery  to  the  rebellion.  He  had  most  earnestly  endeav 
ored  to  arouse  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  to  a 
contemplation  of  the  fact  that,  if  they  persisted  in  their 
effort  to  overthrow  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LIMJOLN.  231 

the  fate  of  slavery  would  sooner  or  later  inevitably  be  in 
volved  in  the  conflict.  The  time  was  steadily  approach 
ing  when,  in  consequence  of  their  obstinate  persistence  in 
the  rebellion,  this  result  would  follow  ;  and  the  President, 
with  wise  forethought,  sought  anxiously  to  reconcile  the 
shock  which  the  contest  would  involve,  with  the  order  of 
the  country  and  the  permanent  prosperity  of  all  classes  of 
the  people.  The  general  feeling  of  the  country  at  that 
time  was  in  harmony  with  this  endeavor.  The  people 
were  still  disposed  to  exhaust  every  means  which  justice 
would  sanction,  to  withdraw  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States  from  the  disastrous  war  into  which  they  had  been 
plunged  by  their  leaders,  and  they  welcomed  this  sugges 
tion  of  the  President  a£  likely  to  produce  that  result,  if 
any  effort  in  that  direction  could. 

In  pursuance  of  the  recommendation  of  the  Message, 
Mr.  R.  Conkling,  of  New  York,  introduced,  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  on  the  10th  of  March,  the  following 
resolution  : — 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  co-operato 
with  any  State  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,  giving 
to  such  State  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by  such  State  in  its  discretion,  to 
compensate  for  the  inconveniences,  public  and  private,  produced  by  such 
a  change  of  system. 

The  debate  on  this  resolution  illustrated  the  feelings  of 
the  country  on  the  subject.  It  was  vehemently  opposed 
by  the  sympathizers  with  secession  from  both  sections,  as 
an  unconstitutional  interference  with  slavery,  and  hesita 
tingly  supported  by  the  anti-slavery  men  of  the  North,  as 
less  decided  in  its  hostility  than  they  had  a  right  to  ex 
pect.  The  sentiment  of  the  more  moderate  portion  of  the 
community  was  expressed  by  Mr.  Fisher,  of  Delaware, 
who  regarded  it  as  an  olive-branch  of  peace  and  harmony 
and  good  faith  presented  by  the  North,  and  as  well  calcu 
lated  to  bring  about  a  peaceful  solution  and  settlement  of 
the  slavery  question.  It  was  adopted  in  the  House  by  a 
vote  of  eighty-nine  to  thirty-one.  Coming  up  in  the 


232  THE  LIFF,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Senate  on  the  24th  of  March,  it  was  denounced  in  strong 
terms  by  Mr.  Saulsbury,  of  Delaware,  and  others — Mr 
Davis,  of  Kentucky,  opposing  the  terms  in  which  it  was 
couched,  but  approving  its  general  tenor.  It  subse 
quently  passed,  receiving  thirty-two  votes  in  its  favor, 
and  but  ten  against  it.  This  resolution  was  approved  by 
the  President  on  the  10th  of  April.  It  was  generally  re 
garded  by  the  people  and  by  the  President  himself  as 
rather  an  experiment  than  as  a  fixed  policy — as  intended 
to  test  the  temper  of  the  people  of  the  Southern  States-, 
and  offer  them  a  way  of  escape  from  the  evils  and  embar 
rassments  with  which  slavery  had  surrounded  them, 
rather  than  set  forth  a  distinct  line  of  conduct  which  was 
to  be  pressed  upon  the  country  at  all  hazards.  This  char 
acter,  indeed,  was  stamped  upon  it  by  the  fact  that  its 
practical  execution  was  made  to  depend  wholly  on  the 
people  of  the  Southern  States  themselves.  It  recognized 
their  complete  control  over  slavery,  within  their  own 
limits,  and  simply  tendered  them  the  aid  of  the  General 
Government  in  any  steps  they  might  feel  inclined  to  take 
to  rid  themselves  of  it. 

The  President  was  resolved  that  the  experiment  should 
have  a  full  and  a  fair  trial ;  and  while  he  would  not,  on 
the  one  hand,  permit  its  effect  to  be  impaired  by  the  nat 
ural  impatience  of  those  among  his  friends  who  were 
warmest  and  most  extreme  in  their  hostility  to  slavery, 
he,  on  the  other  hand,  lost  no  opportunity  to  press  the 
proposition  on  the  favorable  consideration  of  the  people 
of  the  Border  Slave  States. 

On  the  9th  of  May,  General  Hunter,  who  commanded 
the  Department  of  South  Carolina,  which  included  also 
the  States  of  Georgia  and  Florida,  issued  an  order  declar 
ing  all  the  slaves  within  that  department  to  be  thence 
forth  and  "  forever  free."     This  was  done,  not  from  any 
alleged  military  necessity  growing  out  of  the  operations 
in  his  department,  but  upon  a  theoretical  incompatibility 
between  slavery  and  martial  law.     The  President  there 
apon  at  once  issued  the  following  proclamation  :— 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  233 

Whereas,  There  appears  in  the  public  prints  what  purports  to  be  a 
proclamation  of  Major-General  Hunter,  in  the  words  and  figures  follow 
ing  : — 

HEAD-QTJARTKKB  DHPAKTMENT  OF  THE  SOUTH,     I 
HILTON  HKAD,  S.  C.,  Mai/  9,  1862.         j 
General  Order,  No.  11. 

The  three  States  of  Georgia,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina,  comprising 
the  Military  Department  of  the  South,  having  deliberately  declared  them 
selves  no  longer  under  the  United  States  of  America,  and  having  taken 
up  arms  against  the  United  States,  it  becomes  a  military  necessity  to  de 
clare  them  under  martial  law. 

This  was  accordingly  done  on  the  25th  day  of  April,  1862.  Slavery  and 
martial  law  in  a  free  country  are  altogether  incompatible.  The  persons 
in  these  States— Georgia,  Florida,  and  South  Carolina — heretofore  held 
as  slaves,  are  therefore  declared  forever  free. 

[OFFICIAL.] 

Signed,  DAVID  HUNTEK, 

Major-General  Commanding. 

ED.  W.  SMITH,  Acting  Assistant  Adj't-General. 

And,  whereas,  the  same  is  producing  some  excitement  and  misunder 
standing,  therefore  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
proclaim  and  declare  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had  no 
knowledge  or  belief  of  an  intention  on  the  part  of  General  Hunter  to  is 
sue  such  proclamation,  nor  has  it  yet  any  authentic  information  that  the 
document  is  genuine ;  and,  further,  that  neither  General  Hunter  nor  any 
other  commander  or  person  has  been  authorized  by  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  to  make  proclamation  declaring  the  slaves  of  any  State 
free,  and  that  the  supposed  proclamation  now  in  question,  whether  genu 
ine  or  false,  is  altogether  void  so  far  as  respects  such  declaration.  I  fur 
ther  make  known  that,  whether  it  be  competent  for  me,  as  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  to  declare  the  slaves  of  any  State  or 
States  free  ;  and  whether  at  any  time,  or  in  any  case,  it  shall  have  become 
a  necessity  indispensable  to  the  maintenance  of  the  Government  to  exer 
cise  such  supposed  power,  are  questions  which,  under  my  responsibility, 
I  reserve  to  myself,  and  which  I  cannot  feel  justified  in  leaving  to  the  de 
cision  of  commanders  in  the  field. 

These  are  totally  different  questions  from  those  of  police  regulations  in 
armies  or  in  camps. 

On  the  sixth  day  of  March  last,  by  a  special  Message,  I  recommended 
to  Congress  the  adoption  of  a  joint  resolution,  to  be  substantially  as 
follows ; — 

Resolved,  That  the  United  States  ought  to  co-operate  with  any  State 
which  may  adopt  a  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,  giving  to  such  State 
earnest  expression  to  compensate  for  its  inconveniences,  public  and  pri 
vate,  produced  by  such  change  of  system. 

The  resolution  in  the  language  above  quoted  was  adopted  by  large  ma 
jorities  in  both  branches  of  Congress,  and  now  stands  an  authentic,  defi 
nite,  and  solemn  proposal  of  the  Nation  to  the  States  and  people  most  in- 


234  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

terested  in  the  subject-matter.  To  the  people  of  these  States  now,  I 
mostly  appeal.  I  do  not  argue — I  beseech  you  to  make  the  arguments 
for  yourselves.  You  cannot,  if  you  would,  be  blind  to  the  signs  of  the 
times. 

I  beg  of  you  a  calm  and  enlarged  consideration  of  them,  ranging,  if  it 
may  be,  far  above  partisan  and  personal  politics. 

This  proposal  makes  common  cause  for  a  common  object,  casting  no 
reproaches  upon  any.  It  acts  not  the  Pharisee.  The  change  it  contem 
plates  would  come  gently  as  the  dews  of  Heaven,  not  rending  or  wreck 
ing  any  thing.  "Will  you  not  embrace  it?  So  much  good  has  not  been 
done  by  one  effort  in  all  past  time,  as  in  the  providence  of  God  it  is  now 
your  high  privilege  to  do.  May  the  vast  future  not  have  to  lament  that 
you  have  neglected  it. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  tire  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  hereunto  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  19th  day  of  May,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-sixth. 

(Signed)  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President : 

W.  H.  SKWAIJD,  Secretary  of  State. 

This  proclamation  silenced  the  clamorous  denunciation 
by  which  its  enemies  had  assailed  the  Administration  on 
the  strength  of  General  Hunter's  order,  and  renewed  the 
confidence,  which  for  the  moment  had  been  somewhat 
impaired,  in  the  President' s  adherence  to  the  principles 
of  action  he  had  laid  down.  Nothing  practical,  however, 
was  done  in  any  of  the  Border  States  indicating  any  dis 
position  to  act  upon  his  suggestions  and  avail  themselves 
of  the  aid  which  Congress  had  offered.  The  members  of 
Congress  from  those  States  had  taken  no  steps  towards 
inducing  action  in  regard  to  it  on  the  part  of  their  con 
stituents.  Feeling  the  deepest  interest  in  the  adoption 
of  some  measure  which  should  permanently  detach  the 
Border  Slave  States  from  the  rebel  Confederacy,  and 
believing  that  the  plan  he  had  recommended  would  tend 
to  accomplish  that  object,  President  Lincoln  sought  a 
conference  with  the  members  of  Congress  from  those 
States,  and  on  the  12th  of  July,  when  they  waited  upon 
him  at  the  Executive  mansion,  he  addressed  them  as 
follows :— 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  235 

GENTLEMEN:— After  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  now  near,  I  shall 
have  no  opportunity  of  seeing  you  for  several  months.  Believing  that 
vou  of  the  Border  States  hold  more  power  for  good  than  any  other  equal 
number  of  members,  I  feel  it  a  duty  which  I  cannot  justifiably  waive  to 
make  this  appeal  to  you. 

I  intend  no  reproach  or  complaint  when  I  assure  you  that,  in  my  opi% 
ion,  if  you  all  had  voted  for  the  resolution  in  the  gradual  emancipation 
Message  of  last  March,  the  war  would  now  be  substantially  ended.  And 
the  plan  therein  proposed  is  yet  one  of  the  most  potent  and  swift  means 
of  ending  it.  Let  the  States  which  are  in  rebellion  see  definitely  and  cer 
tainly  that  in  no  event  will  the  States  you  represent  ever  join  their  pro 
posed  Confederacy,  and  they  cannot  much  longer  maintain  the  contest. 
But  you  cannot  divest  them  of  their  hope  to  ultimately  have  you  with 
them  so  long  as  you  show  a  determination  to  perpetuate  the  institution 
within  your  own  States.  Beat  them  at  elections,  as  you  have  over 
whelmingly  done,  and,  nothing  daunted,  they  still  claim  you  as  their  own. 
You  and  I  know  what  the  lever  of  their  power  is.  Break  that  lever 
before  their  faces,  and  they  can  shake  you  no  more  forever. 

Most  of  you  have  treated  me  with  kindness  and  consideration,  and  I 
trust  you  will  not  now  think  I  improperly  touch  what  is  exclusively  your 
own,  when,  for  the  sake  of  the  whole  country,  I  ask,  Can  you,  for  your 
States,  do  better  than  to  take  the  course  I  urge  ?  Discarding  punctilio 
and  maxims  adapted  to  more  manageable  times,  and  looking  only  to  the 
unprecedentedly  stern  facts  of  our  case,  can  you  do  better  in  any  possible 
event  ?  You  prefer  that  the  constitutional  relation  of  the  States  to  the 
nation  shall  be  practically  restored  without  disturbance  of  the  institution : 
and  if  this  were  done,  my  whole  duty,  in  this  respect,  under  the  Consti 
tution  and  my  oath  of  office,  would  be  performed.  But  it  is  not  done, 
and  we  are  trying  to  accomplish  it  by  war.  The  incidents  of  the  war 
cannot  be  avoided.  If  the  war  continues  long,  as  it  must  if  the  object  be 
not  sooner  attained,  the  institution  in  your  States  will  be  extinguished  by 
mere  friction  and  abrasion — by  the  mere  incidents  of  the  war.  It  will  be 
gone,  and  you  will  have  nothing  valuable  in  lieu  of  it.  Much  of  its  value 
is  gone  already.  How  much  better  for  you  and  for  your  people  to  take 
the  step  which  at  once  shortens  the  war,  and  secures  substantial  compen 
sation  for  that  which  is  sure  to  be  wholly  lost  in  any  other  event !  How- 
much  better  to  thus  save  the  money  which  else  we  sink  forever  in  the 
war !  How  much  better  to  do  it  while  we  can,  lest  the  war  ere  long 
render  us  pecuniarily  unable  to  do  it!  How  much  better  for  you,  as 
seller,  and  the  nation,  as  buyer,  to  sell  out  and  buy  out  that  without 
which  the  war  could  never  have  been,  than  to  sink  both  the  thing  to  be 
sold  and  the  price  of  it  in  cutting  one  another's  throats  ! 

I  do  not  speak  of  emancipation  at  once,  but  of  a  decision  at  once  to 
emancipate  gradually.  Eoom  in  South  America  for  colonization  can  be 
obtained  cheaply,  and  in  abundance,  and  when  numbers  shall  be  large 


236  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  ANT 

enough  to  be  company  and  encouragement  for  one  another,  the  freed 
people  will  not  be  so  reluctant  to  go. 

I  am  pressed  with  a  difficulty  not  yet  mentioned — one  which  threatens 
division  among  thosa  who,  united,  are  none  too  strong.  An  instance  of 
it  is  known  to  you.  General  Hunter  is  an  honest  man.  He  was,  and  I 
hope  still  is,  my  friend.  I  valued  him  none  the  less  for  his  agreeing  with 
me  in  the  general  wish  that  all  men  everywhere  could  be  free.  He  pro 
claimed  all  men  free  within  certain  States,  and  I  repudiated  the  procla 
mation.  He  expected  more  good  and  less  harm  from  the  measure  than  I 
could  believe  would  follow.  Yet,  in  repudiating  it,  I  gave  dissatisfaction, 
if  not  offence,  to  many  whose  support  the  country  cannot  afford  to  lose. 
And  this  is  not  the  end  of  it.  The  pressure  in  this  direction  is  still  upon 
me,  and  is  increasing.  By  conceding  what  I  now  ask  you  can  relieve  me, 
and,  much  more,  can  relieve  the  country  in  this  important  point. 

Upon  these  considerations,  I  have  again  begged  your  attention  to  the 
Message  of  March  last.  Before  leaving  the  Capital,  consider  and  discuss 
it  among  yourselves.  You  are  patriots  and  statesmen,  and  as  such  I  pray 
you  consider  this  proposition ;  and,  at  the  least,  commend  it  to  the  con 
sideration  of  your  States  and  people.  As  you  would  perpetuate  popular 
government  for  the  best  people  in  the  world,  I  beseech  you  that  you  do 
in  nowise  omit  this.  Our  common  country  is  in  great  peril,  demanding 
the  loftiest  views  and  boldest  action  to  bring  a  speedy  relief.  Once 
relieved,  its  form  of  government  is  saved  to  the  world;  its  beloved  his 
tory  and  cherished  memories  are  vindicated,  and  its  happy  future  fully 
assured  and  rendered  inconceivably  grand.  To  you,  more  than  to  any 
others,  the  privilege  is  given  to  assure  that  happiness  and  swell  that 
grandeur,  and  to  link  your  own  names  therewith  forever. 

The  members  to  whom  the  President  thus  appealed 
were  divided  in  opinion  as  to  the  merits  of  the  proposi 
tion  which  he  had  laid  "before  them.  A  majority  of  them 
submitted  an  elaborate  reply,  in  which  they  dissented 
from  the  President's  opinion  that  the  adoption  of  this 
policy  would  terminate  the  war  or  serve  the  Union  cause. 
They  held  it  to  be  his  duty  to  avoid  all  interference, 
direct  or  indirect,  with  slavery  in  the  Southern  States, 
and  attributed  much  of  the  stubborn  hostility  which  the 
South  had  shown  in  prosecuting  the  war,  to  the  fact  that 
Congress  had  departed  in  various  instances  from  the 
spirit  and  objects  for  which  the  war  ought  to  be  prose 
cuted  by  the  Government.  A  minority  of  those  mem 
bers,  not  being  able  to  concur  in  this  reply,  submitted 
one  of  their  own,  in  which  they  thus  set  forth  their  view 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          237 

of  the  motives  of  the  President  in  the  course  he  had 
adopted,  and  expressed  their  substantial  concurrence  in 
its  justice  and  wisdom : — 

We  believe  that  the  whole  power  of  the  Government,  upheld  and  sus 
tained  by  all  the  influences  and  means  of  all  loyal  men  in  all  sections  and 
of  all  parties,  is  essentially  necessary  to  put  down  the  rebellion  and  preserve 
the  Union  and  the  Constitution.  We  understand  your  appeal  to  us  to 
have  been  made  for  the  purpose  of  securing  this  result.  A  very  large 
portion  of  the  people  in  the  Northern  States  believe  that  slavery  is  the 
"lever  power  of  the  rebellion."  It  matters  not  whether  this  opinion 
is  well  founded  or  not.  The  belief  does  exist,  and  we  have  to  deal  with 
things  as  they  are,  and  not  as  we  would  have  them  be.  In  consequence 
of  the  existence  of  this  belief,  we  understand  that  an  immense  pressure  is 
brought  to  bear  for  the  purpose  of  striking  down  this  institution  through 
the  exercise  of  military  authority.  The  Government  cannot  maintain 
this  great  struggle  if  the  support  and  influence  of  the  men  who  entertain 
these  opinions  be  withdrawn.  Neither  can  the  Government  hope  for 
early  success  if  the  support  of  that  element  called  "  conservative  "  be 
withdrawn. 

Such  being  the  condition  of  things,  the  President  appeals  to  the  Border 
State  men  to  step  forward  and  prove  their  patriotism  by  making  the  first 
sacrifice.  No  doubt,  like  appeals  have  been  made  to  extreme  men  in  the 
North,  to  meet  us  half  way,  in  order  that  the  whole  moral,  political, 
pecuniary,  and  physical  force  of  the  nation  may  be  firmly  and  earnestly 
united  in  one  grand  effort  to  save  the  Union  and  the  Constitution. 

Believing  that  such  were  the  motives  that  prompted  your  address,  and 
such  the  results  to  which  it  looked,  we  cannot  reconcile  it  to  our  sense  of 
duty,  in  this  trying  hour,  to  respond  in  a  spirit  of  fault-finding  or  queru- 
lousness  over  the  things  that  are  past.  We  are  not  disposed  to  seek  for 
the  cause  of  present  misfortunes  in  the  errors  and  wrongs  of  others  who 
propose  to  unite  with  us  in  a  common  purpose.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  meet  your  address  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was  made,  and,  as  loyal 
Americans,  declare  to  you  and  to  the  world,  that  there  is  no  sacrifice  that 
we  are  not  ready  to  make  to  save  the  Government  and  institutions  of  our 
fathers.  That  we,  few  of  us  though  there  may  be,  will  permit  no  men, 
from  the  North  or  from  the  South,  to  go  further  than  we  in  the  accom 
plishment  of  the  great  work  before  us.  That,  in  order  to  carry  out  these 
views,  we  will,  so  far  as  may  be  in  our  power,  ask  the  people  of  the  Bor 
der  States  calmly,  deliberately,  and  fairly,  to  consider  your  recommenda 
tions.  We  are  the  more  emboldened  to  assume  this  position  from  the 
fact,  now  become  history,  that  the  leaders  of  the  Southern  rebellion  have 
offered  to  abolish  slavery  amongst  them  as  a  condition  to  foreign  inter 
vention  in  favor  of  their  independence  as  a  nation. 

If  they  can  give  up  slavery  to   destroy  the   Union,    we   can   surely 


238  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  ANL 

ask   our  people  to  consider  the  question  of  emancipation   to  save  the 
Union. 

Hon.  Horace  Maynard,  of  Tennessee,  on  the  16th  of 
July  submitted  to  the  President  his  views  of  the  ques 
tion,  in  which  he  thus  set  forth  his  appreciation  of  the 
motives  which  had  induced  him  to  make  the  proposition 
in  question  to  the  Southern  States  :— 

Your  whole  administration  gives  the  highest  assurance  that  you  are 
moved,  not  so  much  from  a  desire  to  see  all  men  everywhere  made  free, 
as  from  a  desire  to  preserve  free  institutions  for  the  benefit  of  men 
already  free  ;  not  to  make  slaves  free  men,  but  to  prevent  free  men  from 
being  made  slaves  ;  not  to  destroy  an  institution  which  a  portion  of  us 
only  consider  bad,  but  to  save  an  institution  which  we  all  alike  consider 
good.  I  am  satisfied  that  you  would  not  ask  from  any  of  your  fellow- 
citizens  a  sacrifice  not  in  your  judgment  imperatively  required  by  the 
safety  of  the  country.  This  is  the  spirit  of  your  appeal,  and  I  respond  to 
it  in  the  same  spirit. 

Determined  to  leave  undone  nothing  which  it  was  in 
Ms  power  to  do  to  effect  the  object  he  had  so  much  at 
heart,  the  President,  on  the  12th  of  July,  sent  in  to  Con 
gress  a  Message  transmitting  the  draft  of  a  bill  upon  the 
subject,  as  follows  :  — 

Fellow-  Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  :  — 

Herewith  is  the  draft  of  the  bill  to  compensate  any  State  which  may 
abolish  slavery  within  its  limits,  the  passage  of  which,  substantially  as 
presented,  I  respectfully  and  earnestly  recommend. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


Be  it  enacted  ly  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled  :  —  That  whenever  the  President 
of  the  United  States  shall  be  satisfied  that  any  State  shall  have  lawfully 
abolished  slavery  within  and  throughout  such  State,  either  immediately 
or  gradually,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  President,  assisted  by  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury,  to  prepare  and  deliver  to  each  State  an  amount  of 
fcix  per  cent,  interest-bearing  bonds  of  the  United  States,  equal  to  the  ag 
gregate  value  at  --  dollars  per  head  of  all  the  slaves  within  such  State 
as  reported  by  the  census  of  1860;  the  whole  amount  for  any  one  State 
to  be  delivered  at  once,  if  the  abolishment  be  immediate,  or  in  equal 
annual  instalments,  if  it  be  gradual,  interest  to  begin  running  on  each 
bond  at  the  time  of  delivery,  and  not  before. 

And  It  it  further  enacted,  That  if  any  State,  having  so  received  anj 
such  bonds,  shall  at  any  time  afterwards  by  law  reintroduce  or  tolerate 
slavery  within  its  limits,  contrary  to  the  act  of  abolishment  upon  which 
such  bonds  shall  have  been  received,  said  bonds  so  received  by  said  State 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  239 

shall  at  once  be  null  and  void,  in  whosesoever  hands  they  may  be,  and  such 
State  shall  refund  to  the  United  States  all  interest  which  may  have  been 
paid  on  such  bonds. 

The  bill  was  referred  to  a  committee,  but  no  action  was 
taken  upon  it  in  Congress,  nor  did  any  of  the  Border 
States  respond  to  the  President's  invitation.  The  propo 
sition,  however,  served  a  most  excellent  purpose  in  test 
ing  the  sentiment  of  both  sections  of  the  country,  and  in 
preparing  the  way  for  the  more  vigorous  treatment  of  the 
subject  of  slavery  which  the  blind  and  stubborn  preju 
dices  of  the  slaveholding  communities  were  rapidly  ren 
dering  inevitable. 

Two  other  subjects  of  importance  engaged  the  atten 
tion  and  received  the  action  of  Congress  during  this  ses 
sion  :  the  provision  of  a  currency,  and  the  amendment  of 
the  law  to  confiscate  the  property  of  rebels.  A  bill  au 
thorizing  the  issue  of  Treasury  notes  to  the  amount  of 
$150,000,000,  and  making  them  a  legal  tender  in  all  busi 
ness  transactions,  was  reported  in  the  House  by  the  Fi 
nance  Committee,  of  which  Hon.  E.  Gr.  Spaulding,  of  New 
York,  was  Chairman,  and  taken  up  for  discussion  on  the 
17th  of  June.  It  was  advocated  mainly  on  the  score  of 
necessity,  and  was  opposed  on  the  ground  of  its  alleged 
unconstitutionality.  The  division  of  sentiment  on  the 
subject  was  not  a  party  one,  some  of  the  warmest  friends 
and  supporters  of  the  Administration  doubting  whether 
Congress  had  the  power  to  make  any  thing  but  silver  and 
gold  a  legal  tender  in  the  payment  of  debts.  The  same 
bill  provided  for  a  direct  tax,  involving  stamp  duties, 
taxes  upon  incomes,  etc.,  sufficient  with  the  duties  upon 
imports  to  raise  $150,000,000  per  annum,  and  also  for  the 
establishment  of  a  system  of  free  banking,  by  which  bank 
notes  to  be  circulated  as  currency  might  be  issued  upon 
the  basis  of  stocks  of  the  United  States  deposited  as  secu 
rity.  The  bill  was  discussed  at  length,  and  was  finally 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  ninety-three  to  fifty-nine.  In  the 
Senate  it  encountered  a  similar  opposition,  but  passed  by 
a  vote  of  thirty  to  seven,  a  motion  to  strike  out  the  legal- 
tender  clause  having  been  previously  rejected— seven- 


240  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

teen  voting  in  favor  of  striking  it  out,  and  twenty-two 
against  it. 

The  subject  of  confiscating  the  property  of  rebels  ex- 
cited  still  deeper  interest.  A  bill  for  that  purpose  was 
taken  up  in  the  Senate,  on  the  25th  of  February,  for  dis 
cussion.  By  one  of  its  sections  all  the  slaves  of  any  per 
son,  anywhere  in  the  United  States,  aiding  the  rebellion, 
were  declared  to  be  forever  free,  and  subsequent  sections 
provided  for  colonizing  slaves  thus  enfranchised.  The 
bill  was  advocated  on  the  ground  that  in  no  other  way 
could  the  property  of  rebels,  in  those  States  where  the 
judicial  authority  of  the  United  States. had  been  over 
borne,  be  reached ;  while  it  was  opposed  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  unconstitutional,  and  that  it  would  tend  to 
render  the  Southern  people  still  more  united  and  despe 
rate  in  their  rebellion.  By  the  confiscation  act  of  the  pre 
vious  session,  a  slave  who  had  been  employed  in  aiding 
the  rebellion  was  declared  to  be  free,  but  the  fact  that  he 
had  been  thus  employed  must  be  shown  by  due  judicial 
process ;  by  this  bill  all  the  slaves  of  any  person  who 
had  been  thus  engaged  were  set  free  without  the  inter 
vention  of  any  judicial  process  whatever.  This  feature 
of  the  bill  was  warmly  opposed  by  some  of  the  ablest 
and  most  reliable  of  the  supporters  of  the  Administration, 
as  a  departure  from  all  recognized  rules  of  proceeding, 
and  as  a  direct  interference  with  slavery  in  the  States, 
in  violation  of  the  most  solemn  pledge  of  the  Govern 
ment,  the  Republican  party,  and  individual  supporters 
of  the  Administration.  Senator  Collamer,  of  Vermont, 
urged  this  view  of  the  case  with  great  cogency,  citing  Mr. 
Sumner's  opinion  expressed  on  the  25th  of  February, 
1861,  when,  on  presenting  a  memorial  to  the  Senate  in 
favor  of  abolishing  slavery,  he  had  added:  "In  offering 
it,  I  take  this  occasion  to  declare  most  explicitly  that  I 
do  not  think  that  Congress  has  any  right  to  interfere  with 
slavery  in  a  State ;"  and  quoting  also  Senator  Fessenden's 
declaration  in  the  debate  on  abolishing  slavery  in  the 
Pistrict  of  Columbia,  when  he  said:  "I  have  held,  and 
T  hold  to-day,  and  I  say  to-day  what  I  have  said  in  my 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  241 

place  "before,  that  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  or 
the  people  of  the  United  States  through  the  Congress, 
under  the  Constitution  as  it  now  exists,  have  no  right 
whatever  to  touch  by  legislation  the  institution  of  slavery 
in  the  States  where  it  exists  by  law."  Mr.  Sherman's 
opinion,  expressed  in  the  same  debate,  that  uwe  ought 
religiously  to  adhere  to  the  promises  we  made  to  the  peo 
ple  of  this  country  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  Presi 
dent—we  ought  to  abstain  religiously  from  all  interfer 
ence  with  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  slave  or  the 
Free  States,"  was  also  quoted,  and  Mr.  Collamer  said  he 
did  not  see  how  it  was  possible  to  pass  the  bill  in  its 
present  form  without  giving  the  world  to  understand  that 
they  had  violated  those  pledges,  and  had  interfered  with 
slavery  in  the  States.  Mr.  Collamer  accordingly  offered 
an  amendment  to  the  bill,  obviating  the  objections  he  had 
urged  against  it ;  and  this,  with  other  amendments  offered 
by  other  Senators,  was  referred  to  a  Select  Committee, 
which  subsequently  reported  a  bill  designed,  as  the 
Chairman,  Mr.  Clark,  of  New  Hampshire,  explained,  to 
harmonize  the  various  shades  of  opinion  upon  the  sub 
ject,  and  secure  the  passage  of  some  measure  which 
should  meet  the  expectations  of  the  country  and  the 
emergency  of  the  case.  The  first  section  of  this  bill  pro 
vided,  that  every  person  who  should  hereafter  commit 
the  crime  of  treason  against  the  United  States,  and  be 
adjudged  guilty  thereof,  should  suffer  death,  and  all  his 
slaves,  if  any,  be  declared  and  made  free  ;  or  he  should 
be  imprisoned  not  less  than  five  years,  and  fined  not  less 
than  $10,000,  and  all  his  slaves,  if  any,  be  declared  and 
made  free. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  this  section,  as  distinguished 
from  the  corresponding  section  of  the  original  bill,  con 
sisted  in  the  fact  that  a  trial  and  conviction  were  required 
before  any  person  guilty  of  treason  could  be  punished, 
either  by  death,  imprisonment,  or  the  forfeiture  of  his 
property.  Jt  was  opposed,  on  the  one  hand,  by  Mr.  Trum- 
bull,  of  Illinois,  on  the  ground  that  it  "made  treason 
easy" — and  on  the  other,  by  Mr.  Davis,  of  Kentucky, 

16 


242  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

because  it  set  slaves  free.     Mr.  Sunnier  offered  a  substi 
tute  to  the  whole  bill,  which  in  his  judgment  did  not  go 
far  enough  in  giving  the  country  the  advantage  of  the  c '  op 
portunity  which  God,  in  His  beneficence,  had  afforded'' 
it  for  securing  universal  emancipation.     Mr.  Powell,  of 
Kentucky,   moved  to  strike  out  the  eleventh  section/ 
which  authorized  the  President  to  "  employ  as  many  per 
sons  of  African  descent  as  he  might  deem  necessary  and 
proper  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  and  to  organ 
ize  and  use  them  in  such  manner  as  he  might  judge  best 
for  the  public  welfare" — but  his  motion  was  rejected  by 
a  vote  of  eleven  to  twenty-five.     While  the  bill  was  thus 
denounced  by  one  class  of  Senators  as  too  violent  in  its 
method  of  dealing  with  the  rebels,  it  was  resisted  with 
still  greater  vehemence  by  another  class  as  entirely  de 
fective  in    that    respect.      Mr.    Sumner  was    especially 
severe  in  his  censure  of  Senators  who  proposed,  he  said, 
"when  the  life  of  our  Kepublic  is  struck  at,  to  proceed 
as  if  by  an  indictment  in  a  criminal  court. ' '    His  remarks 
gave  rise  to  considerable  personal  discussion — which  was 
interrupted  by  the  receipt  of  a  similar  bill  which  had  been 
passed  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  which  was 
decidedly  more  in  harmony  with  the  extreme  views  of 
Mr.  Sumner  and  his  friends,  than  the  Senate  bill.     It 
assumed  that  the  rebels  were  to  be  treated  like  a  foreign 
enemy,  without  regard  to  the  limitations  and  require 
ments  of  the  Constitution,  and  that  Congress,  instead  of 
the  President,  had  the  supreme  and  exclusive  control  of 
the  operations  of  the  war.     This  bill  on  coming  before  the 
Senate  was  set  aside,  and  the  bill  which  had  been  reported 
by  the  Senate  Committee  substituted  in  its  place,  by  a 
vote  of  twenty- one  to  seventeen,  and  the  latter  was  finally 
passed;   ayes  twenty-eight,  noes  thirteen.    The  House 
did  not  concur  in  this  amendment  to  its  own  bill ;  but  on 
receiving  the  report  of  a  Committee  of  Conference  which 
made  some  amendments  to  the  Senate  bill,  it  was  passed, 
as  amended,  by  both  Houses,  and  sent  to  the  President 
for  his  signature. 
The  provisions  of  this  bill  were  as  follows  :— 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  248 

1  enacted  that  every  person  who  should  after  its  passage  com 
mit  the  crime  of  treason  against  the  United  States,  and  be.  adjudged 
guilty  thereof,  should  suffer  death,  and  all  his  slaves,  if  any,  should  be 
declared  and  made  free ;  or  he  should  bo  imprisoned  for  not  less  than 
five  years,  and  fined  not  less  than  $10,000,  and  all  his  slaves  made  free. 

SECTION  2  declared  that  if  any  person  shall  hereafter  incite,  assist,  or 
engage  in  any  rebellion  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States  or  the 
laws  thereof,  or  give  aid  or  comfort  thereto,  or  to  any  existing  rebellion, 
and  be  convicted  thereof,  he  shall  be  imprisoned  for  ten  years  or  less, 
fined  not  more  than  $10,000,  and  all  his  slaves  shall  be  set  free. 

SECTION  3.  Every  person  guilty  of  these  offences  shall  be  forever  dis 
qualified  to  hold  any  office  under  the  United  States. 

SECTION  4.  This  act  was  not  to  affect  the  prosecution,  conviction,  or 
punishment  of  any  person  guilty  of  treason  before  the  passage  of  the  act, 
unless  convicted  under  it. 

SECTION  5  made  it  the  duty  of  the  President  to  seize  and  apply  to  the 
use  of  the  army  of  the  United  States  all  the  property  of  persons  who  had 
served  as  officers  of  the  rebel  army,  or  had  held  certain  civil  offices  under 
the  rebel  Government,  or  in  the  rebel  States,  provided  they  had  taken 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  rebel  authorities,  and  also  of  persons  who, 
having  property  in  any  of  the  loyal  States,  shall  hereafter  give  aid  to  the 
rebellion. 

SECTION  G  prescribed  that  if  any  other  persons  being  engaged  in  the 
rebellion  should  not,  within  sixty  days  after  public  proclamation  duly 
made  by  the  President,  ceaso  to  aid  the  rebellion,  all  their  property 
should  be  confiscated  in  the  same  manner. 

SECTION  V  directed  that  proceedings  in  rem  should  be  instituted  in  the 
name  of  the  United  States  in  the  court  of  the  district  within  which  such 
property  might  be  found,  and  if  said  property,  whether  real  or  personal, 
should  be  found  to  belong  to  any  person  engaged  in  rebellion,  it  should 
be  condemned  as  enemies'  property,  and  become  the  property  of  the 
United  States. 

SECTION  8  gave  the  several  District  Courts  of  the  United  States  author 
ity  and  power  to  make  such  orders  as  these  proceedings  might  require. 

SECTION  9  enacted  that  all  slaves  of  persons  who  shall  hereafter  be  en 
gaged  in  rebellion  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or  who 
shall  in  any  way  give  aid  or  comfort  thereto,  escaping  from  such  persons, 
and  taking  refuge  within  the  lines  of  the  army,  and  all  slaves  captured 
from  such  persons  or  deserted  by  them  and  coming  under  the  control  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  all  slaves  of  such  persons  found, 
or  being  within  any  place  occupied  by  rebel  forces,  and  afterwards  occu 
pied  by  the  forces  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  deemed  captives  of  war, 
and  shall  be  forever  free  of  their  servitude,  and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 

SECTION  10  enacted  that  no  slave  escaping  into  another  State  should 
be  delivered  up,  unless  the  claimant  should  make  oath  that  the  owner  or 


244  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

master  of  such  slave  had  never  borne  arms  against  the  United  States,  of 
given  any  aid  and  comfort  to  the  rebellion  ;  and  every  person  in  the  mili 
tary  service  of  the  United  States  was  prohibited  from  deciding  on  the 
validity  of  any  claim  to  the  services  of  any  escaped  slave,  on  pain  of  dis 
missal. 

SECTION  11  authorized  the  President  to  employ  as  many  persons  of  Af 
rican  descent  as  he  might  deem  necessary  and  proper  for  the  suppression 
of  the  rebellion,  and  to  organize  and  use  them  as  he  might  deem  best  for 
the  public  welfare. 

SECTION  12  authorized  the  President  to  make  provision  for  the  coloni 
zation,  with  their  own  consent,  of  persons  freed  under  this  act,  to  some 
country  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  having  first  obtained  the 
consent  of  the  Government  of  said  country  to  their  protection  and  settle 
ment,  with  all  the  privileges  of  free  men. 

SECTION  13  authorized  the  President  at  any  time  hereafter,  by  procla 
mation,  to  extend  to  persons  who  may  have  participated  in  this  rebellion, 
pardon  and  amnesty,  with  such  exceptions,  and  at  such  time,  and  on  such 
conditions  as  he  might  deem  expedient  for  the  public  welfare. 

SECTION  14  gave  the  courts  of  the  United  States  authority  to  institute 
snch  proceedings,  and  issue  such  orders  as  might  be  necessary  to  carry 
this  act  into  effect. 

It  soon  came  to  be  understood  that  the  President  had 
objections  to  certain  portions  of  the  "bill  which  would 
probably  prevent  him  from  signing  it.  A  joint  resolu 
tion  was  at  once  passed  in  the  House,  providing  that  the 
bill  should  be  so  construed  "  as  not  to  apply  to  any  acts 
done  prior  to  its  passage  ;  nor  to  include  any  member  of 
a  State  legislature,  or  judge  of  any  State  court  who  has 
not,  in  accepting  or  entering  upon  his  office,  taken  an 
oath  to  support  the  constitution  of  the  so-called  Confed 
erate  States  of  America."  When  this  reached  the  Senate, 
Mr.  Clark,  of  New  Hampshire,  offered  the  following,  to 
be  added  to  the  resolution  : — 

Nor  shall  any  punishment  or  proceedings  under  said  act  be  so  con 
strued  a3  to  work  a  forfeiture  of  the  real  estate  of  the  offender  beyond 
his  natural  life. 

This  provision  encountered  a  sharp  opposition:  Mr. 
Trumbull,  of  Illinois,  insisting  that  the  forfeiture  of  real 
estate  for  life  only  would  amount  to  nothing,  and  other 
Senators  objecting  to  being  influenced  in  their  action  by 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          245 

the  supposed  opinions  of  the  President.  Mr.  Clark  also 
proposed  another  amendment,  authorizing  the  President, 
in  granting  an  amnesty,  to  restore  to  the  offender  any 
property  which  might  have  been  seized  and  condemned 
under  this  act.  The  resolutions  and  amendments  were 
passed  by  the  Senate,  and  received  the  concurrence 
of  the  House.  On  the  17th  of  July  President  Lincoln  sent 
in  the  following  message,  announcing  that  he  had  signed 
the  bill,  and  specifying  his  objections  to  the  act  in  its 
original  shape : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  : 

Considering  the  bill  for  "  An  Act  to  suppress  insurrection,  to  punish 
treason  and  rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  the  property  of  rebels,  and 
for  other  purposes,"  and  the  joint  resolution  explanatory  of  said  act  as 
being  substantially  one,  I  have  approved  and  signed  both. 

Before  I  was  informed  of  the  resolution,  I  had  prepared  the  draft  of  a 
message,  stating  objections  to  the  bill  becoming  a  law,  a  copy  of  which 
draft  is  herewith  submitted.  ABP.AHAM  LINCOLN. 

July  12,  1862. 

[Copy.] 
FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPREESENTATIVES  : 

I  herewith  return  to  the  honorable  body  in  which  it  originated,  the 
bill  for  an  act  entitled  "  An  Act  to  suppress  treason  and  rebellion,  to 
seize  and  confiscate  the  property  of  rebels,  and  for  other  purposes,"  to 
gether  with  my  objections  to  its  becoming  a  law. 

There  is  much  in  the  bill  to  which  I  perceive  no  objection.  It  is 
wholly  prospective ;  and  it  touches  neither  person  nor  property  of  any 
'oval  citizen,  in  which  particular  it  is  just  and  proper. 

The  first  and  second  sections  provide  for  the  conviction  and  punish 
ment  of  persons  who  shall  be  guilty  of  treason,  and  persons  who  shall 
"  incite,  set  on  foot,  assist,  or  engage  in  any  rebellion  or  insurrection 
against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  or  the  laws  thereof,  or  shall 
give  aid  or  comfort  thereto,  or  shall  engage  in  or  give  aid  and  comfort  to 
any  such  existing  rebellion  or  insurrection."  By  fair  construction,  per 
sons  within  those  sections  are  not  punished  without  regular  trials  in  duly 
constituted  courts,  under  the  forms  and  all  the  substantial  provisions  of 
law  and  the  Constitution  applicable  to  their  several  cases.  To  this  I  per 
ceive  no  objection  ;  especially  as  such  persons  would  be  within  the  gen- 
oral  pardoning  power,  and  also  the  special  provision  for  pardon  and  am 
nesty  contained  in  this  act* 

It  is  also  provided  that  the  slaves  of  persons  convicted  under  these  tee- 


246  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


tions  fei.a.il  be  free.  I  think  there  is  an  unfortunate  form  of  expression, 
rather  than  a  substantial  objection,  in  this.  It  is  startling  to  say  that 
Congress  can  free  a  slave  within  a  State,  and  yet  if  it  were  said  the 
ownership  of  a  slave  had  first  been  transferred  to  the  nation,  and  Con 
gress  had  then  liberated  him,  the  difficulty  would  at  once  vanish.  And 
this  is  the  real  case.  The  traitor  against  the  General  Government  for 
feits  his  slave  at  least  as  justly  as  he  does  any  other  property  ;  and  he 
forfeits  both  to  the  Government  against  which  he  offends;  The  Govern 
ment,  so  far  as  there  can  be  ownership,  thus  owns  the  forfeited  slaves, 
and  the  question  for  Congress  in  regard  to  them  is,  "  Shall  they  be  made 
free  or  sold  to  new  masters?"  I  perceive  no  objection  to  Congress  de 
ciding  in  advance  that  they  shall  be  free.  To  the  high  honor  of  Ken 
tucky,  as  I  am  informed,  she  is  the  owner  of  some  slaves  by  escheat,  and 
has  sold  none,  but  liberated  all.  I  hope  the  same  is  true  of  some  other 
States.  Indeed,  I  do  not  believe  it  will  be  physically  possible  for  tho 
General  Government  to  return  persons  so  circumstanced  to  actual  slavery. 
J  believe  there  would  be  physical  resistance  to  it,  which  could  neither  be 
turned  aside  by  argument  nor  driven  away  by  force.  In  this  view  I  havo 
no  objection  to  this  feature  of  the  bill.  Another  matter  involved  in  these 
two  sections,  and  running  through  other  parts  of  the  act,  will  be  noticed 
hereafter. 

I  perceive  no  objections  to  the  third  or  fourth  sections. 

So  far  as  I  wish  to  notice  the  fifth  and  sixth  sections,  they  may  be  con 
sidered  together.  That  the  enforcement  of  these  sections  would  do  no 
injustice  to  the  persons  embraced  within  them,  is  clear.  That  those  who 
make  a  causeless  war  should  be  compelled  to  pay  the  cost  of  it,  is  too  ob 
viously  just  to  be  called  in  question.  To  give  governmental  protection 
to  the  property  of  persons  who  have  abandoned  it,  and  gone  on  a  crusado 
feo  overthrow  the  same  Government,  is  absurd,  if  considered  in  the  mere 
light  of  justice.  The  severest  justice  may  not  always  be  the  best  policy. 
The  principle  of  seizing  and  appropriating  the  property  of  the  person  em 
braced  within  these  sections  is  certainly  not  very  objectionable,  but  a 
justly  discriminating  application  of  it  would  be  very  difficult,  and,  to  a 
great  extent,  impossible.  And  would  it  not  be  wise  to  place  a  power  of 
remission  somewhere,  so  that  these  persons  may  know  they  have  some 
thing  to  lose  by  persisting,  and  something  to  gain  by  desisting  ?  I  am 
not  sure  whether  such  power  of  remission  is  or  is  not  in  section  thirteen. 
Without  any  special  act  of  Congress,  I  think  our  military  commanders, 
when,  in  military  phrase,  "they  are  within  the  enemy's  country,"  should, 
in  an  orderly  manner,  seize  and  use  whatever  of  real  or  personal  prop 
erty  may  be  necessary  or  convenient  for  their  commands  ;  at  tho  same 
timi  preserving,  in  some  way,  the  evidence  of  what  they  do. 

What  I  have  said  in  regard  to  slaves,  while  commenting  on  the  first 
and  second  sections,  is  applicable  to  the  ninth,  with  the  difference  that  no 
provision  is  made  in  the  whole  act  for  determining  whether  a  particular 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

individual  slave  does  or  docs  not  fall  within  the  classes  defined  in  that 
section.  He  is  to  be  free  upon  certain  conditions ;  but  whether  those 
conditions  do  or  do  not  pertain  to  him,  no  mode  of  ascertaining  is  pro 
vided.  This  could  be  easily  supplied. 

To  the  tenth  section  I  make  no  objection.  The  oath  therein  required 
seems  to  be  proper,  and  the  remainder  of  the  section  is  substantially  iden 
tical  with  a  law  already  existing. 

The  eleventh  section  simply  assumes  to  confer  discretionary  power 
upon  the  Executive.  Without  the  law,  I  have  no  hesitation  to  go  as  far 
in  the  direction  indicated  as  I  may  at  any  time  deem  expedient.  And  I 
am  ready  to  say  now,  I  think  it  is  proper  for  our  military  commanders 
to  employ,  as  laborers,  as  many  persons  of  African  descent  as  can  be 
used  to  advantage. 

The  twelfth  and  thirteenth  sections  are  something  better  than  unobjec 
tionable  ;  and  the  fourteenth  is  entirely  proper,  if  all  other  parts  of  the 
act  shall  stand. 

That  to  which  I  chiefly  object  pervades  most  part  of  the  act,  but  more 
distinctly  appears  in  the  first,  second,  seventh,  and  eighth  sections.  It  is 
the  sum  of  those  provisions  which  results  in  the  divesting  of  title  forever. 
For  the  causes  of  treason  and  ingredients  of  treason,  not  amounting  to 
the  full  crime,  it  declares  forfeiture  extending  beyond  the  lives  of  the 
guilty  parties ;  whereas  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  declares 
that  "no  attainder  of  treason  shall  work  corruption  of  blood  or  forfeiture 
except  during  the  life  of  the  person  attainted."  True,  there  is  to  be  no 
formal  attainder  in  this  case ;  still,  I  think  the  greater  punishment  can 
not  be  constitutionally  inflicted,  in  a  different  form,  for  the  same  offence. 
"With  great  respect  I  am  constrained  to  say  I  think  this  feature  of  the 
act  is  unconstitutional.  It  would  not  be  difficult  to  modify  it. 

I  may  remark  that  the  provision  of  the  Constitution,  put  in  language 
borrowed  from  Great  Britain,  applies  only  in  this  country,  as  I  under 
stand,  to  real  or  landed  estate. 

Again,  this  act,  in  rem,  forfeits  property  for  the  ingredients  of  treason 
without  a  conviction  of  the  supposed  criminal,  or  a  personal  hearing 
given  him  in  any  proceeding.  That  we  may  not  touch  property  lying 
within  our  reach,  because  we  cannot  give  personal  notice  to  an  owner 
who  is  absent  endeavoring  to  destroy  the  Government,  is  certainly  satis 
factory.  Still,  the  owner  may  not  be  thus  engaged ;  and  I  think  a  rea- 
eonable  time  should  be  provided  for  such  parties  to  appear  and  have  per 
sonal  hearings.  Similar  provisions  are  not  uncommon  in  connection  with 
proceedings  in  rem. 

For  the  reasons  stated,  I  return  the  bill  to  the  House  in  which  it  origi 
nated. 

The  passage  of  this  "bill  constituted  a  very  important 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  war  for  the  suppression  of 


24$  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  rebellion.  It  prescribed  definite  penalties  for  tlie 
crime  of  treason,  and  thus  supplied  a  defect  in  the  laws 
as  they  then  existed.  It  gave  the  rebels  distinctly  to  un 
derstand  that  one  of  these  penalties,  if  they  persisted  in 
their  resistance  to  the  authority  of  the  United  States, 
would  be  the  emancipation  of  their  slaves.  And  it  also 
authorized  the  employment  by  the  President  of  persons 
of  African  descent,  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  the  Rebel 
lion  in  any  way  which  he  might  deem  most  conducive  to 
the  public  welfare.  Yet  throughout  the  bill,  it  was 
clearly  made  evident  that  the  object  and  purpose  of  these 
measures  was  not  the  abolition  of  slavery,  but  the  preser 
vation  of  the  Union  and  the  restoration  of  the  authority 
of  the  Constitution. 

On  the  14th  of  January  Simon  Cameron  resigned  Ms 
position  as  Secretary  of  War.  On  the  30th  of  April  the 
House  of  Representatives  passed,  by  a  vote  of  seventy- 
five  to  forty-five,  a  resolution,  censuring  certain  official 
acts  performed  by  him  while  acting  as  Secretary  of  War ; 
whereupon,  on  the  27th  of  May,  President  Lincoln  trans 
mitted  to  the  House  the  following  message  :— 

To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  : 

The  insurrection  which  is  yet  existing  in  the  United  States,  and  aims 
at  the  overthrow  of  the  Federal  Constitution  and  the  Union,  was  clan 
destinely  prepared  during  the  winter  of  1860  and  1861,  and  assumed  an 
open  organization  in  the  form  of  a  treasonable  provisional  government  at 
Montgomery,  Alabama,  on  the  eighteenth  day  of  February,  1861.  On  the 
twelfth  day  of  April,  1861,  the  insurgents  committed  the  flagrant  act  of 
civil  war  by  the  bombardment  and  capture  of  Fort  Sumter,  which  cut 
off  the  hope  of  immediate  conciliation.  Immediately  afterwards  all  tho 
roads  and  avenues  to  this  city  were  obstructed,  and  the  Capital  was  put 
into  the  condition  of  a  siege.  The  mails  in  every  direction  were  stopped 
and  the  lines  of  telegraph  cut  off  by  the  insurgents,  and  military  and 
naval  forces  which  had  been  called  out  by  the  Government  for  the  de 
fence  of  Washington  were  prevented  from  reaching  the  city  by  organized 
and  combined  treasonable  resistance  in  the  State  of  Maryland.  There 
was  no  adequate  and  effective  organization  for  the  public  defence.  Con 
gress  had  indefinitely  adjourned.  There  was  no  time  to  convene  them. 
It  became  necessary  for  .me  to  choose  whether,  using  only  the  existing 
means,  agencies,  and  processes  which  Congress  had  provided,  I  should  let 
the  Government  fall  into  ruin,  or  whether,  availing  myself  of  the  broader 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  249 

powers  conferred  by  the  Constitution  in  cases  of  insurrection,  I  would 
make  an  effort  to  save  it,  with  all  its  blessings,  for  the  present  age  and  for 
posterity.  I  thereupon  summoned  my  constitutional  advisers,  the  heads 
of  all  the  departments,  to  meet  on  Sunday,  the  twentieth  day  of  April, 
1861,  at  the  office  of  the  Navy  Department,  and  then  and  there,  with  their 
unanimous  concurrence,  I  directed  that  an  armed  revenue  cutter  should 
proceed  to  sea  to  afford  protection  to  the  commercial  marine,  especially 
to  the  California  treasure-ships,  then  on  their  way  to  this  coast.  I  also 
directed  the  Commandant  of  the  Navy  Yard  at  Boston  to  purchase  or 
charter,  and  arm,  as  quickly  as  possible,  five  steamships  for  purposes  of 
public  defence.  I  directed  the  Commandant  of  the  Navy  Yard  at  Phila 
delphia  to  purchase  or  charter,  and  arm,  an  equal  number  for  the  same 
purpose.  I  directed  the  Commandant  at  New  York  to  purchase  or  char 
ter,  and  arm,  an  equal  number.  I  directed  Commander  Gillis  to  purchase 
or  charter,  and  arm  and  put  to  sea,  two  other  vessels.  Similar  directions 
were  given  to  Commodore  Du  Pont,  with  a  view  to  the  opening  of  pas 
sages  by  water  to  and  from  the  Capital.  I  directed  the  several  officers  to 
take  the  advice  and  obtain  the  aid  and  efficient  services  in  the  matter  of 
his  Excellency  Edwin  D.  Morgan,  the  Governor  of  New  York;  or,  in  his 
absence,  George  D.  Morgan,  Win.  M.  Evarts,  II.  M.  Blatchford,  and  Moses 
H.  Grinnell,  who  were,  by  my  directions,  especially  empowered  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  act  for  his  department  in  that  crisis,  in  matters 
pertaining  to  the  forwarding  of  troops  and  supplies  for  the  public  defence. 
On  the  same  occasion  I  directed  that  Governor  Morgan  and  Alexander 
Cummings,  of  the' City  of  New  York,  should  be  authorized  by  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  Simon  Cameron,  to  make  all  necessary  arrangements  for 
the  transportation  of  troops  and  munitions  of  war  in  aid  and  assist 
ance  of  the  officers  of  the  army  of  the  United  States,  until  communica 
tion  by  mails  and  telegraph  should  be  completely  re-established  between 
the  cities  of  Washington  and  New  York.  No  security  was  required  to 
be  given  by  them,  and  either  of  them  was  authorized  to  act  in  caao  of 
inability  to  consult  with  the  other.  On  the  same  occasion  I  authorized 
and  directed  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  advance,  without  requir 
ing  security,  two  millions  of  dollars  of  public  money  to  John  A.  Dix, 
George  Opdyke,  and  Richard  M.  Blatchford,  of  New  York,  to  be  used 
by  them  in  meeting  such  requisitions  as  should  be  directly  consequent 
upon  the  military  and  naval  measures  for  the  defence  and  support  of 
the  Government,  requiring  them  only  to  act  without  compensation,  and 
to  report  their  transactions  when  duly  called  upon.  The  several  de 
partments  of  the  Government  at  that  time  contained  so  large  a  number 
of  disloyal  persons  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  provide  safely- 
through  official  agents  only,  for  the  performance  of  the  duties  thus  con 
fided  to  citizens  favorably  known  for  their  ability,  loyalty,  and  patriot 
ism.  The  several  orders  issued  upon  these  occurrences  were  trans 
mitted  by  private  messengers,  who  pursued  a  circuitous  way  to  tha 


250  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

seaboard  cities,  inland  across  the  States  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  and 
the  northern  lakes.  I  believe  that  by  these  and  other  similar  measures 
taken  in  that  crisis,  some  of  which  were  without  any  authority  of  law, 
the  Government  was  saved  from  overthrow.  I  am  not  aware  that  a 
dollar  of  the  public  funds  thus  confided,  without  authority  of  law,  to  un 
official  persons,  was  either  lost  or  wasted,  although  apprehensions  of  sucli 
misdirections  occurred  to  me  as  objections  to  these  extraordinary  pro 
ceedings,  and  were  necessarily  overruled.  I  recall  these  transactions  now, 
because  my  attention  has  been  directed  to  a  resolution  which  was  passed 
by  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  on  the  thirtieth  of  last  month,  which  ia 
in  these  words : — 

Resolved,  That  Simon  Cameron,  late  Secretary  of  War,  by  intrusting 
Alexander  Cummings  with  the  control  of  large  sums  of  the  public  money, 
and  authority  to  purchase  military  supplies  without  restriction,  without 
requiring  from  him  any  guarantee  for  the  faithful  performance  of  hia 
duties,  while  the  services  of  competent  public  officers  were  available,  and 
by  involving  the  Government  in  a  vast  number  of  contracts  with  persons 
not  legitimately  engaged  in  the  business  pertaining  to  the  subject-matter 
of  such  contracts,  especially  in  the  purchase  of  arms  for  future  deliv 
ery,  has  adopted  a  policy  highly  injurious  to  the  public  service,  and 
deserves  the  censure  of  the  House. 

Congress  will  see  that  I  should  be  wanting  in  candor  and  in  justice  if  I 
should  leave  the  censure  expressed  in  this  resolution  to  rest  exclusively  or 
chiefly  upon  Mr.  Cameron.  The  same  sentiment  is  unanimously  enter 
tained  by  the  heads  of  the  departments,  who  participated  in  the  proceed 
ings  which  the  House  of  Representatives  has  censured.  It  is  due  to  Mr. 
Cameron  to  say,  that  although  he  fully  approved  the  proceedings,  they 
were  not  moved  nor  suggested  by  himself,  and  that  not  only  the  Presi 
dent,  but  all  the  other  heads  of  departments,  were  at  least  equally  respon 
sible  with  him  for  whatever  error,  wrong,  or  fault  was  committed  in  the 
premises.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

This  letter  was  in  strict  conformity  with,  the  position 
uniformly  held  by  the  President  in  regard  to  the  respon 
sibility  of  members  of  his  Cabinet  for  acts  of  the  Admin 
istration.  He  always  maintained  that  the  proper  duty  of 
each  Secretary  was,  to  direct  the  details  of  every  thing 
done  within  his  own  department,  and  to  tender  such  sug 
gestions,  information,  and  advice  to  the  President  as  he 
might  solicit  at  his  hands.  But  the  duty  and  responsi 
bility  of  deciding  what  line  of  policy  should  be  pursued, 
or  what  steps  should  be  taken  in  any  specific  case,  in  his 
judgment,  belonged  exclusively  to  the  President ;  and  he 
was  always  willing  and  ready  to  assume  it.  This  posi- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          251 

tion  lias  been  widely  and  sharply  assailed  in  various 
quarters,  as  contrary  to  the  precedents  of  our  early  his 
tory  ;  but  we  believe  it  to  be  substantially  in  accordance 
with  the  theory  of  the  Constitution  upon  this  subject. 

The  progress  of  our  armies  in  certain  portions  of  the 
Southern  States  had  warranted  the  suspension,  at  several 
ports,  of  the  restrictions  placed  upon  commerce  by  the 
blockade.  On  the  12th  of  May  the  President  accordingly 
issued  a  proclamation  declaring  that  the  blockade  of  the 
ports  of  Beaufort,  Port  Eoyal,  and  New  Orleans  should 
so  far  cease  from  the  1st  of  June,  that  commercial  inter 
course  from  those  ports,  except  as  to  contraband  of  war, 
might  be  resumed,  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  and  the  regulations  of  the  Treasury  Department.  ^ 

On  the  1st  of  July  he  issued  another  proclamation,  in 
pursuance  of  the  law  of  June  7th,  designating  the  States 
and  parts  of  States  that  were  then  in  insurrection,  so  that 
the  laws  of  the  United  States  concerning  the  collection  of 
taxes  could  not  be  enforced  within  their  limits,  and  de 
claring  that  "the  taxes  legally  chargeable  upon  real 
estate,  under  the  act  referred  to,  lying  within  the  States 
or  parts  of  States  thus  designated,  together  with  a  penalty 
of  fifty  per  cent,  of  said  taxes,  should  be  a  lien  upon  the 
tracts  or  lots  of  the  same,  severally  charged,  till  paid." 

On  the  20th  of  October,  finding  it  absolutely  necessary 
to  provide  judicial  proceedings  for  the  State  of  Louisiana, 
a  part  of  which  was  in  our  military  possession,  the  Presi 
dent  issued  an  order  establishing  a  Provisional  Court  in 
the  City  of  New  Orleans,  of  which  Charles  A.  Peabody 
was  made  Judge,  with  authority  to  try  all  causes,  civil 
and  criminal,  in  law,  equity,  revenue,  and  admiralty,  and 
particularly  to  exercise  all  such  power  and  jurisdiction 
as  belongs  to  the  Circuit  and  District  Courts  of  the  United 
States.  His  proceedings  were  to  be  conformed,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  the  course  of  proceedings  and  practice  usual 
in  the  Courts  of  the  United  States  of  Louisiana,  and  his 
judgment  was  to  be  final  and  conclusive. 

Congress  adjourned  on  the  17th  of  July,  having  adopted 
many  measures  of  marked  though  minor  importance,  be- 


252  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

sides  those  to  wliicli  we  have  referred,  to  aid  in  the  pros 
ecution  of  the  war.  Several  Senators  were  expelled  for 
adherence,  direct  or  indirect,  to  the  rebel  cause  ;  meas 
ures  were  taken  to  remove  from  the  several  departments 
of  the  Government  employes  more  or  less  openly  in  sym 
pathy  with  secession  ;  Hayti  and  Liberia  were  recognized 
as  independent  republics  ;  a  treaty  was  negotiated  and 
ratified  with  Great  Britain  which  conceded  the  right, 
within  certain  limits,  of  searching  suspected  slavers  car 
rying  the  American  flag,  and  the  most  liberal  grants  in 
men  and  money  were  made  to  the  Government  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  war.  The  President  had  appointed 
military  governors  for  several  of  the  Border  States,  where 
public  sentiment  was  divided,  enjoining  them  to  protect 
the  loyal  citizens,  and  to  regard  them  as  alone  entitled  to 
a  voice  in  the  direction  of  civil  affairs. 

Public  sentiment  throughout  the  loyal  States  sustained 
the  action  of  Congress  and  the  President,  as  adapted  to 
the  emergency,  and  well  calculated  to  aid  in  the  suppres 
sion  of  the  rebellion.  At  the  same  time  it  was  very  evi 
dent  that  the  conviction  was  rapidly  gaining  ground  that 
slavery  was  the  cause  of  the  rebellion ;  that  the  para 
mount  object  of  the  conspirators  against  the  Union  was 
to  obtain  new  guarantees  for  the  institution  ;  and  that  it 
was  this  interest  alone  which  gave  unity  and  vigor  to  the 
rebel  cause.  A  very  active  and  influential  party  at  the 
North  had  insisted  from  the  outset  that  the  most  direct 
way  of  crushing  the  rebellion  was  by  crushing  slavery, 
and  they  had  urged  upon  the  President  the  adoption  of  a 
policy  of  immediate  and  unconditional  emancipation,  as 
the  only  thing  necessary  to  bring  into  the  ranks  of  the 
Union  armies  hundreds  of  thousands  of  enfranchised 
slaves,  as  well  as  the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  the 
Northern  States  who  needed  this  stimulus  of  an  appeal  to 
their  moral  sentiment.  After  the  adjournment  of  Con 
gress  these  demands  became  still  more  clamorous  and 
importunate.  The  President  was  summoned  to  avail 
himself  of  the  opportunity  offered  by  the  passage  of  the 
Confiscation  Bill,  and  to  decree  the  instant  liberation  of 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  253 

every  slave  belonging  to  a  rebel  master.  These  demands 
soon  assumed,  with  the  more  impatient  and  intemperate 
portion  of  the  friends  of  the  Administration,  a  tone  of 
complaint  and  condemnation,  and  the  President  was 
charged  with  gross  and  culpable  remissness  in  the  dis 
charge  of  duties  imposed  upon  him  by  the  act  of  Con 
gress.  They  were  embodied  with  force  and  effect  in  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  President  by  Hon.  Horace  Greeley, 
and  published  in  the  New  York  Tribune  of  the  19th  of 
August,  to  which  President  Lincoln  made  the  following 
reply : — 

EJCKOCTIYX  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  Augutt  22, 18G2. 

HON.  HORACE  GREELEY  : 

DEAR  SIR — I  have  just  read  yours  of  the  19th  instant,  addressed  to  my 
self  through  the  New  York  Tribune. 

If  there  he  in  it  any  statements  or  assumptions  of  fact  which  I  may 
know  to  he  erroneous,  I  do  not  now  and  here  controvert  them. 

If  there  he  any  inferences  which  I  may  helieve  to  he  falsely  drawn,  I 
do  not  now  and  here  argue  against  them. 

If  there  he  perceptible  in  it  an  impatient  and  dictatorial  tone,  I  waive 
it  in  deference  to  an  old  friend  whose  heart  I  have  always  supposed  to  he 
right. 

As  to  the  policy  I  "seem  to  he  pursuing,"  as  you  say,  I  have  not  meant 
to  leave  any  one  in  douht.  I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  in 
the  shortest  way  under  the  Constitution. 

The  sooner  the  national  authority  can  he  restored,  the  nearer  the  Union 
will  he — the  Union  as  it  was. 

If  there  he  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could  at 
the  same  time  save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them. 

If  there  he  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could  at 
the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them. 

My  paramount  olject  is  to  save  the  Union,  and  not  either  to  save  or  to 
destroy  slavery. 

If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it — if  I 
could  save  it  hy  freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it — and  if  I  could  do  it 
hy  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that. 

What  I  do  ahout  slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I  do  hecause  I  helieve  it 
helps  to  save  this  Union ;  and  what  I  forhear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not 
believe  it  would  help  to  save  the  Union. 

I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the 
cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I  believe  doing  more  will  help  the 
cause. 

I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when  shown  to  be  errors,  and  I  shall  adopt 
new  views  so  fast  as  they  shall  appear  to  be  true  riewa. 


254  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

I  nave  here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my  views  of  official  duty, 
and  I  intend  no  modification  of  my  oft-expressed  personal  wish  that  ill 
men  everywhere  could  be  free.  Yours, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

It  was  impossible  to  mistake  the  President' s  meaning 
after  this  letter,  or  to  have  any  doubt  as  to  the  policy  by 
which  he  expected  to  re-establish  the  authority  of  the 
Constitution  over  the  whole  territory  of  the  United  States. 
His  "paramount  object,"  in  every  thing  he  did  and  in 
every  thing  he  abstained  from  doing,  was  to  usave  the 
Union."  He  regarded  all  the  power  conferred  on  him  by 
Congress  in  regard  to  slavery,  as  having  been  conferred 
to  aid  him  in  the  accomplishment  of  that  object — and  he 
was  resolved  to  wield  those  powers  so  as  best,  according 
to  his  own  judgment,  to  aid  in  its  attainment.  He  for 
bore,  therefore,  for  a  long  time,  the  issue  of  such  a  proc 
lamation  as  he  was  authorized  to  make  by  the  sixth  sec 
tion  of  the  Confiscation  Act  of  Congress — awaiting  the 
developments  of  public  sentiment  on  the  subject,  and 
being  especially  anxious  that  when  it  was  issued  it 
should  receive  the  moral  support  of  the  great  body  of 
the  people  of  the  whole  country,  without  regard  to  party 
distinctions.  He  sought,  therefore,  with  assiduous  care, 
every  opportunity  of  informing  himself  as  to  the  drift 
of  public  sentiment  on  this  subject.  He  received  and 
conversed  freely  with  all  who  came  to  see  him  and  to 
urge  upon  him  the  adoption  of  their  peculiar  views ;  and 
on  the  13th  of  September  gave  formal  audience  to  a  depu 
tation  from  all  the  religious  denominations  of  the  City  of 
Chicago,  which  had  been  appointed  on  the  7th,  to  wait 
upon  him.  The  committee  presented  a  memorial,  request 
ing  him  at  once  to  issue  a  proclamation  of  universal  eman 
cipation,  and  the  chairman  followed  it  by  some  remarks 
in  support  of  this  request. 

The  President  listened  attentively  to  the  memorial,  and 
then  made  to  those  who  had  presented  it  the  following 
reply  :— 

The  subject  presented  in  the  memorial  is  one  upon  which  I  have  thought 
much  for  weeks  past,  and  I  may  even  say  for  months.  I  ain  approached 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  255 

with  the  most  opposite  opinions  and  advice,  and  that  by  religious  men, 
who  are  equally  certain  that  they  represent  the  Divine  will.  I  am  sure 
that  either  the  one  or  the  other  class  is  mistaken  in  that  belief,  and  per 
haps  in  some  respects  both.  I  hope  it  will  not  be  irreverent  for  me  to 
say  that  if  it  is  probable  that  God  would  reveal  his  will  to  others,  on  a 
point  so  connected  with  my  duty,  it  might  be  supposed  he  would  reveal 
it  directly  to  me ;  for,  unless  I  am  more  deceived  in  myself  than  I  often 
am,  it  is  my  earnest  desire  to  know  the  will  of  Providence  in  this  matter. 
And  if  I  can  learn  what  it  is  I  will  do  it !  These  are  not,  however,  the 
days  of  miracles,  and  I  suppose  it  will  be  granted  that  I  am  not  to  expect 
a  direct  revelation.  I  must  study  the  plain  physical  facts  of  the  case, 
ascertain  what  is  possible,  and  learn  what  appears  to  be  wise  and  right. 

The  subject  is  difficult,  and  good  men  do  not  agree.  For  instance,  the 
other  day,  four  gentlemen  of  standing  and  intelligence  from  New  York 
called  as  a  delegation  on  business  connected  with  the  war;  but  before 
leaving  two  of  them  earnestly  besought  me  to  proclaim  general  emanci 
pation,  upon  which  the  other  two  at  once  attacked  them.  You  know 
also  that  the  last  session  of  Congress  had  a  decided  majority  of  anti- 
slavery  men,  yet  they  could  not  unite  on  this  policy.  And  the  same  is 
true  of  the  religious  people.  Why,  the  rebel  soldiers  are  praying  with 
a  great  deal  more  earnestness,  I  fear,  than  our  own  troops,  and  expect 
ing  God  to  favor  their  side :  for  one  of  our  soldiers  who  had  been  taken 
prisoner  told  Senator  Wilson  a  few  days  since  that  he  met  nothing  so 
discouraging  as  the  evident  sincerity  of  those  he  was  among  in  their 
prayers.  But  we  will  talk  over  the  merits  of  the  case. 

What  good  would  a  proclamation  of  emancipation  from  me  do,  espe 
cially  as  we  are  now  situated?  I  do  not  want  to  issue  a  document  that 
the  whole  world  will  see  must  necessarily  bo  inoperative,  like  the  Pope's 
bull  against  the  comet !  Would  my  word  free  the  slaves,  when  I  cannot 
even  enforce  the  Constitution  in  the  rebel  States?  Is  there  a  single 
court,  or  magistrate,  or  individual  that  would  be  influenced  by  it  there  ? 
And  what  reason  is  there  to  think  it  would  have  any  greater  effect  upon 
the  slaves  than  the  late  law  of  Congress,  which  I  approved,  and  which 
offers  protection  and  freedom  to  the  slaves  of  rebel  masters  who  come 
within  our  lines?  Yet  I  cannot  learn  that  that  law  has  caused  a  single 
slave  to  come  over  to  us.  And  suppose  they  could  be  induced  by  a  proc- 
lation  of  freedom  from  me  to  throw  themselves  upon  us,  what  should 
we  do  with  them?  How  can  we  feed  and  care  for  such  a  multitude? 
General  Butler  wrote  me  a  few  days  since  that  he  was  issuing  more 
rations  to  the  slaves  who  have  rushed  to  him  than  to  all  the  white 
troops  under  his  command.  They  eat,  and  that  is  all ;  though  it  is  true 
General  Butler  is  feeding  the  whites  also  by  the  thousand ;  for  it  nearly 
amounts  to  a  famine  there.  If,  now,  the  pressure  of  the  war  should  call 
off  our  forces  from  New  Orleans  to  defend  some  other  point,  what  is  to 
prevent  the  masters  from  reducing  the  blacks  to  slavery  again  ?  for  I 


256  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

am  told  that  whenever  the  rebels  take  any  black  prisoners,  free  or  slave, 
they  immediately  auction  them  off!  They  did  so  with  those  they  took 
from  a  boat  that  was  aground  in  the  Tennessee  River  a  few  days  ago. 
And  then  1  am  very  ungenerously  attacked  for  it !  For  instance,  when, 
after  the  late  battles  at  and  near  Bull  Run,  an  expedition  went  out  from 
"Washington  under  a  flag  of  truce  to  bury  the  dead  and  bring  in  tho 
wonnded,  and  the  rebels  seized  the  blacks  who  went  along  to  help,  arid 
sent  them  into  slavery,  Horace  Greeley  said  in  his  paper  that  the  Govern 
ment  would  probably  do  nothing  about  it.  "What  could  I  do? 

Now,  then,  tell  me,  if  you  please,  what  possible  result  of  good  would 
follow  the  issuing  of  such  a  proclamation  as  you  desire  ?  Understand, 
I  raise  no  objections  against  it  on  legal  or  constitutional  grounds,  for,  as 
commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  in  time  of  war  I  suppose  I 
have  a  right  to  take  any  measure  which  may  best  subdue  the  enemy ; 
nor  do  I  urge  objections  of  a  moral  nature,  in  view  of  possible  conse 
quences  of  insurrection  and  massacre  at  the  South.  I  view  this  matter 
as  a  practical  war  measure,  to  be  decided  on  according  to  the  advantages 
or  disadvantages  it  may  offer  to  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion. 

The  Committee  replied  to  these  remarks,  insisting  that 
a  proclamation  of  emancipation  would  secure  at  once  the 
sympathy  of  Europe  and  the  civilized  world ;  and  that 
as  slavery  was  clearly  the  cause  and  origin  of  the  rebel 
lion,  it  was  simply  just,  and  in  accordance  with  the  word 
of  God,  that  it  should  "be  abolished.  To  these  remarks 
the  President  responded  as  follows : — 

I  admit  that  slavery  is  at  the  root  of  the  rebellion,  or  at  least  its  sine 
qua  non.  The  ambition  of  politicians  may  have  instigated  them  to  act, 
but  they  would  have  been  impotent  without  slavery  as  their  instrument. 
I  will  also  concede  that  emancipation  would  help  us  in  Europe,  and  con 
vince  them  that  we  are  incited  by  something  more  than  ambition.  I 
grant,  further,  that  it  would  help  somewhat  at  the  North,  though  not  so 
much,  I  fear,  as  you  and  those  you  represent  imagine.  Still,  some  addi 
tional  strength  would  be  added  in  that  way  to  the  war,  and  then,  un 
questionably,  it  would  weaken  the  rebels  by  drawing  off  their  laborers, 
which  is  of  great  importance ;  but  I  am  not  so  sure  we  could  do  much 
with  the  blacks.  If  we  were  to  arm  them,  I  fear  that  in  a  few  weeks 
the  arms  would  be  in  the  hands  of  the  rebels ;  and,  indeed,  thus  far,  we 
have  not  had  arms  enough  to  equip  our  white  troops.  I  will  mention 
another  thing,  though  it  meet  only  your  scorn  and  contempt.  There  are 
fifty  thousand  bayonets  in  the  Union  army  from  the  Border  Slave  States 
It  would  be  a  serious  matter  if,  in  consequence  of  a  proclamation  such 
**  vou  desire,  they  should  go  over  to  the  rebels.  I  do  not  think  they  all 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  257 

would — not  so  many,  indeed,  as  a  year  ago,  or  as  six  months  ago — not  BO 
many  to-day  as  yesterday.  Every  day  increases  their  Union  feeling. 
They  are  also  getting  their  pride  enlisted,  and  want  to  beat  the  rebels. 
Let  me  say  one  thing  more :  I  think  you  should  admit  that  we  already 
have  an  important  principle  to  rally  and  unite  the  people,  in  the  fact  that 
constitutional  government  is  at  stake.  This  is  a  fundamental  idea  going 
down  about  as  deep  as  any  thing. 

The  Committee  replied  to  this  in  some  brief  remarks,  to 
which  the  President  made  the  following  response : — 

Do  not  misunderstand  me  because  I  have  mentioned  these  objections. 
They  indicate  the  difficulties  that  have  thus  far  prevented  my  action  in 
some  such  way  as  you  desire.  I  have  not  decided  against  a  proclamation 
of  liberty  to  the  slaves,  but  hold  the  matter  under  advisement.  And  I 
can  assure  you  that  the  subject  is  on  my  mind,  by  day  and  night,  more 
than  any  other.  Whatever  shall  appear  to  be  God's  will  I  will  do.  I 
trust  that  in  the  freedom  with  which  I  have  canvassed  your  views  I  have 
not  in  any  respect  injured  your  feelings. 

After  free  deliberation,  and  being  satisfied  that  the 
public  welfare  would  be  promoted  by  such  a  step,  and 
that  public  sentiment  would  sustain  it,  on  the  22d  of  Sep 
tember  the  President  issued  the  following  preliminary 

PROCLAMATION  OF  EMANCIPATION. 

I,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and  navy  thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim 
and  declare  that  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for 
the  object  of  practically  restoring  the  constitutional  relation  between  the 
United  States  and  each  of  the  States,  and  the  people  thereof,  in  which 
States  that  relation  is  or  may  be  suspended  or  disturbed. 

That  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  the  next  meeting  of  Congress,  to  again 
recommend  the  adoption  of  a  practical  measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid 
to  the  free  acceptance  or  rejection  of  all  slave  States,  so  called,  the  people 
whereof  may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  and 
which  States  may  then  have  voluntarily  adopted,  or  thereafter  may  vol 
untarily  adopt,  immediate  or  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery  within  their 
respective  limits;  and  that  the  eifort  to  colonize  persons  of  African 
descent,  with  their  consent,  upon  this  continent  or  elsewhere,  with  tho 
previously  obtained  consent  of  the  governments  existing  there,  will  be 
continued. 

That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  State, 
or  designated  part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in  rebellion 
17 


258  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thenceforward,  and  forever  fre« ; 
and  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mili 
tary  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom 
of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any 
of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January  aforesaid,  by  proo 
lamation,  designate  the  States  and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the 
people  thereof  respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States ;  and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that 
day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  by 
members  chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified 
voters  of  such  State  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of  strong 
countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence  that  such  State, 
and  the  people  thereof,  are  not  then  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States. 

That  attention  is  hereby  called  to  an  act  of  Congress  entitled  "An  Act 
to  make  an  additional  Article  of  War,"  approved  March  18th,  1862,  and 
which  act  is  in  the  words  and  figures  following : — 

Be  it  enacted  ~by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  hereafter  the  following 
shall  be  promulgated  as  an  additional  article  of  war  for  the  government 
of  the  army  of  the  United  States,  and  shall  be  obeyed  and  observed  as 
such : — 

SECTION  1. — All  officers  or  persons  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of 
the  United  States  are  prohibited  from  employing  any  of  the  forces  under 
their  respective  commands  for  the  purpose  of  returning  fugitives  from 
service  or  labor  who  may  have  escaped  from  any  persons  to  whom  such 
service  or  labor  is  claimed  to  be  due  ;  and  any  officer  who  shall  be  found 
guilty  by  a  court-martial  of  violating  this  article  shall  be  dismissed  from 
the  service. 

SEO.  2.  And  le  it  further  enacted,  That  this  act  shall  take  effect  from 
and  after  its  passage. 

Also,  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections  of  an  act  entitled  "  An  Act  to 
Suppress  Insurrection,  to  Punish  Treason  and  Rebellion,  to  Seize  and 
Confiscate  Property  of  Rebels,  and  for  other  Purposes,"  approved  July 
16,  1862,  and  whl^h  sections  are  in  the  words  and  figures  following: — 

SEO.  9.  And  le  it  further  enacted,  That  all  slaves  of  persons  who  shall 
hereafter  be  engaged  in  rebellion  against  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  or  who  shall  in  any  way  give  aid  or  comfort  thereto,  escaping  from 
such  persons  and  taking  refuge  within  the  lines  of  the  army ;  and  all 
slaves  captured  from  such  persons,  or  deserted  by  them  and  coming 
under  the  control  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States ;  and  all  slaves 
of  such  persons  found  on  [or]  being  within  any  place  occupied  by  rebel 
forces  and  afterwards  occupied  by  forces  of  the  United  States,  shall  ba 
deemed  captives  of  war,  and  shall  be  forever  free  of  their  servitude,  and 
not  again  held  as  slaves. 

SEO.  10.  And  le  it  further  enacted,  That  no  slave  escaping  into  any 
Btate,  Territory,  or  the  District  of  Columbia,  from  any  other  State,  shall 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          259 

be  delivered  up,  or  in  any  way  impeded  or  hindered  of  his  liberty,  except 
for  crime,  or  some  offence  against  the  laws,  unless  the  person  claiming 
said  fugitive  shall  first  make  oath  that  the  person  to  whom  the  labor  or 
eervice  of  such  fugitive  is  alleged  to  be  due  is  his  lawful  owner,  and  haa 
not  borne  arms  against  the  United  States  in  the  present  rebellion,  nor  in 
any  way  given  aid  and  comfort  thereto ;  and  no  person  engaged  in  the 
military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States  shall,  under  any  pretence 
whatever,  assume  to  decide  on  the  validity  of  the  claim  of  any  person  to 
the  service  or  labor  of  any  other  person,  or  surrender  up  any  such  per 
son  to  the  claimant,  on  pain  of  being  dismissed  from  the  service. 

And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  and  order  all  persons  engaged  in  the 
military  and  naval  service  of  the  United  States  to  observe,  obey,  and  en 
force,  within  their  respective  spheres  of  service,  the  act  and  sections 
at  )ve  recited. 

And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time  recommend  that  all  citizens  of  the 
United  States  who  shall  have  remained  loyal  thereto  throughout  the 
rebellion,  shall  (upon  the  restoration  of  the  constitutional  relation  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  their  respective  States  and  people,  if 
that  relation  shall  have  been  suspended  or  disturbed)  be  compensated 
for  all  losses  by  acts  of  the  United  States,  including  the  loss  of 
slaves. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twenty-second  day  of  Sep 
tember,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
[L.  B.]     sixty-two,  and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  the 
eighty-seventh. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President : 

"WILLIAM  H.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

The  issuing  of  this  proclamation  created  the  deepest 
interest,  not  unmixed  with  anxiety,  in  the  public  mind. 
The  opponents  of  the  Administration  in  the  loyal  States, 
as  well  as  the  sympathizers  with  secession  everywhere, 
insisted  that  it  afforded  unmistakable  evidence  that  the 
object  of  the  war  was,  what  they  had  always  declared  it 
to  be,  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  not  the  restoration  of 
the  Union  ;  and  they  put  forth  the  most  vigorous  efforts 
to  arouse  public  sentiment  against  the  Administration  on 
this  ground.  They  were  met,  however,  by  the  clear  and 
explicit  declaration  of  the  document  itself,  in  which  the 
President  "  proclaimed  and  declared"  that  " hereafter,  as 
heretofore,  the  war  will  be  prosecuted  for  the  object  of 
practically  restoring  the  constitutional  relation  "between 


260  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  United  States  and  each  of  the  States  and  the  people 
thereof,  in  which  that  relation  is  or  may  be  suspended  or 
disturbed."  This  at  once  made  it  evident  that  emancipa 
tion,  as  provided  for  in  the  proclamation,  as  a  war  meas 
ure,  was  subsidiary  and  subordinate  to  the  paramount 
object  of  the  war — the  restoration  of  the  Union  and  the 
re-establishment  of  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  ;  and 
in  this  sense  it  was  favorably  received  by  the  great  body 
of  the  loyal  people  of  the  United  States. 

It  only  remains  to  be  added,  in  this  connection,  that  on 
the  1st  of  January,  1863,  the  President  followed  this 
measure  by  issuing  the  following 

PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  on  the  22d  day  of  September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  ono 
thousand  eight  hundrpd  and  sixty-two,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  containing,  among  other  things,  the  fol 
lowing,  to  wit: — 

That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any 
States  or  designated  part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof  shall  then  be  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then,  thenceforward,  and 
forever  free ;  and  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  in 
eluding  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and 
maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts  to  re 
press  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their 
actual  freedom. 

That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January  aforesaid,  by  proc 
lamation,  designate  the  States  and  parts  of  States,  if  any,  in  which  the 
people  thereof  respectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States ;  and  the  fact  that  any  State,  or  the  people  thereof,  shall  on  that 
day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  by 
members  chosen  thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified 
voters  of  such  State  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in  the  absence  of 
strong  countervailing  testimony,  be  deemed  conclusive  evidence  that  such 
State,  and  the  people  thereof,  are  not  then  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army 
and  navy  of  the  United  States  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion  against 
the  authority  and  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  as  a  fit  and 
necessary  war  measure  for  suppressing  said  rebellion,  do,  on  this  first  day 
of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-three,  and  in  accordance  with  my  purpose  so  to  do,  publicly  pro 
claimed  for  the  full  period  of  one  hundred  days  from  the  day  first  above 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  261 

mentioned,  order  and  designate,  as  the  States  and  parts  of  States  wherein 
the  people  thereof  respectively  are  this  day  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States,  the  following,  to  wit : 

Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana  (except  the  parishes  of  St.  Bernard,  Plaque- 
mines,  Jefferson,  St.  John,  St.  Charles,  St.  James,  Ascension,  Assumption, 
Terre  Bonne,  Lafourche,  Ste.  Marie,  St.  Martin,  and  Orleans,  including 
the  City  of  New  Orleans),  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  South 
Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia  (except  the  forty-eight  counties 
designated  as  West  Virginia,  and  also  the  counties  of  Berkeley,  Accomac, 
Northampton,  Elizabeth  City,  York,  Princess  Anne,  and  Norfolk,  inclu 
ding  the  cities  of  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth),  and  which  excepted  parts  are 
for  the  present  left  precisely  as  if  this  proclamation  were  not  issued. 

And  by  virtue  of  the  power  and  for  the  purpose  aforesaid,  I  do  order 
and  declare  that  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  said  designated  States 
and  parts  of  States  are,  and  henceforward  shall  be,  free ;  and  that  the 
Executive  Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  military  and 
naval  authorities  thereof,  will  recognize  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  said 
persons. 

And  I  hereby  enjoin  upon  the  people  so  declared  to  be  free  to  abstain 
from  all  violence,  unless  in  necessary  self-defence ;  and  I  recommend  to 
them  that,  in  all  cases  when  allowed,  they  labor  faithfully  for  reasonable 
wages. 

And  I  further  declare  and  make  known  that  such  persons,  of  suitable 
condition,  will  be  received  into  the  armed  service  of  the  United  States,  to 
garrison  forts,  positions,  stations,  and  other  places,  and  to  man  vessels  of 
all  sorts  in  said  service. 

And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of  justice,  warranted 
by  the  Constitution  upon  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate 
judgment  of  mankind,  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  name,  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of 
^  ^  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-seventh. 

By  the  President :  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 


262  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE  MILITARY  ADMINISTRATION  OF  1862.— THE  PRESIDENT'  AND 
GENERAL  McCLELLAN. 

GENERAL  MCCLELLAN  SUCCEEDS  MCDOWELL. — THE  PRESIDENT'S  ORDER  FOB 
AN  ADVANCE. — THE  MOVEMENT  TO  THE  PENINSULA. — REBEL  EVACUATION 
OF  MANASSAS. — ARRANGEMENTS  FOR  THE  PENINSULAR  MOVEMENT. — THB 
PRESIDENT'S  LETTER  TO  GENERAL  MOC/LELLAN. — THE  REBEL  STRENGTH 

AT  YORKTOWN. THE  BATTLE  OF  WlLLIAMSBURG. McC/LELLAN'S  FEAR 

OF  BEING  OVERWHELMED. — THE  PRESIDENT  TO  MCCLELLAN. — JACKSON'S 
RAID  IN  THE  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY. — THE  PRESIDENT  TO  MCCLELLAN. — 
SEVEN  PINES  AND  FAIR  OAKS. — MCCLELLAN'S  COMPLAINTS  OF  MC 
DOWELL. — His  CONTINUED  DELAYS. — PREPARES  FOR  DEFEAT. — CALLS 
FOR  MORE  MEN. — His  ADVICE  TO  THE  PRESIDENT. — PREPARATIONS  TO 
CONCENTRATE  THE  ARMY. — GENERAL  HALLECK  TO  MCCLELLAN. — AP 
POINTMENT  OF  GENERAL  POPE. — IMPERATIVE  ORDERS  TO  MCCLELLAN. — 

McCLELLAN's  FAILURE  TO  AID  POPE. — HlS  EXCUSES  FOR  DELAY. — PRO 
POSES  TO  LEAVE. — POPE  UNAIDED. — EXCUSES  FOR  FRANKLIN'S  DELAY. — 

His  EXCUSES  PROVED  GROUNDLESS. — His  ALLEGED  LACK  OF  SUPPLIES. — 
ADVANCE  INTO  MARYLAND. — THE  PRESIDENT'S  LETTER  TO  MOCLELLAN. 
— HE  PROTESTS  AGAINST  DELAY. — MCCLELLAN  RELIEVED  FROM  COM 
MAND. — SPEECH  BY  THE  PRESIDENT. 

THE  repulse  of  the  national  forces  at  the  battle  of  Bull 
Eun  in  July,  1861,  "aroused  the  people  of  the  loyal  States 
to  a  sense  of  the  magnitude  of  the  contest  which  had  "been 
forced  upon  them.  It  stimulated  to  intoxication  the  pride 
and  ambition  of  the  rebels,  and  gave  infinite  encourage 
ment  to  their  efforts  to  raise  fresh  troops,  and  increase  the 
military  resources  of  their  Confederation.  Nor  did  the 
reverse  the  national  cause  had  sustained  for  an  instant 
damp  the  ardor  or  check  the  determination  of  the  Govern 
ment  and  people  of  the  loyal  States.  General  McDowell, 
the  able  and  accomplished  officer  who  commanded  the 
army  of  the  United  States  in  that  engagement,  conducted 
the  operations  of  the  day  with  signal  ability  ;  and  his 
defeat  was  due,  as  subsequent  disclosures  have  clearly 
shown,  far  more  to  accidents  for  which  others  were  re- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LTCCOLN.  263 

eponsible,  than  to  any  lack  of  skill  in  planning  the  "bat 
tle,  or  of  courage  and  generalship  on  the  field.  But  it 
was  the  first  considerable  engagement  of  the  war,  and  its 
loss  was  a  serious  and  startling  disappointment  to  the 
sanguine  expectations  of  the  people :  it  was  deemed  neces 
sary  therefore,  to  place  a  new  commander  at  the  head  of 
the  army  in  front  of  Washington.  General  McClellan, 
who  had  been  charged,  at  the  outset  of  the  war,  with 
operations  in  the  Department  of  the  Ohio,  and  who  had 
achieved  marked  success  in  clearing  Western  Virginia  of 
the  rebel  troops,  was  summoned  to  Washington  on  the 
22d  of  July,  and  on  the  27th  assumed  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  Although  then  in  command  only 
of  a  department,  General  McClellan,  with  an  ambition 
and  a  presumption  natural,  perhaps,  to  his  age  and  the 
circumstances  of  his  advancement,  addressed  his  atten 
tion  to  the  general  conduct  of  the  war  in  all  sections  of 
the  country,  and  favored  the  Government  and  Lieutenant- 
General  Scott  with  several  elaborate  and  meritorious  let 
ters  of  advice,  as  to  the  method  most  proper  to  be  pur 
sued  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  He  soon,  how 
ever,  found  it  necessary  to  attend  to  the  preparation  of 
the  army  under  his  command  for  an  immediate  resumption 
of  hostilities.  Fresh  troops  in  great  numbers  speedily 
poured  in  from  the  Northern  States,  and  were  organized 
and  disciplined  for  prompt  and  effective  service.  The 
number  of  troops  in  and  about  the  Capital  when  General 
McClellan  assumed  command,  was  a  little  over  fifty  thou 
sand,  and  the  brigade  organization  of  General  McDowell 
formed  the  basis  for  the  distribution  of  these  new  forces. 
By  the  middle  of  October  this  army  had  been  raised  to 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men,  with  an  artil 
lery  force  of  nearly  five  hundred  pieces — all  in  a  state  of 
excellent  discipline,  under  skilful  officers,  and  animated 
by  a  zealous  and  impatient  eagerness  to  renew  the  contest 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution  and  Government 
of  the  United  States.  The  President  and  Secretary  of 
War  had  urged  the  division  of  the  army  into  corps 
d'armee,  for  the  purpose  of  more  effective  service ;  but 


264  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

General  McClellan  had  discouraged  and  thwarted  their 
endeavors  in  this  direction,  mainly  on  the  ground  that 
there  were  not  officers  enough  of  tried  ability  in  the  army 
to  be  intrusted  with  such  high  commands  as  this  division 
would  create. 

On  the  22d  of  October,  a  portion  of  our  forces  which 
had  been  ordered  to  cross  the  Potomac  above  Washing 
ton,  in  the  direction  of  Leesburg,  were  met  by  a  heavy 
force  of  the  enemy  at  Ball' s  Bluif,  repulsed  with  severe 
loss,  and  compelled  to  return.  The  circumstances  of  this 
disaster  excited  a  great  deal  of  dissatisfaction  in  the  pub 
lic  mind,  and  this  was  still  further  aggravated  by  the  fact 
that  the  rebels  had  obtained,  and  been  allowed  to  hold, 
complete  control  of  the  Potomac  below  Washington,  so 
as  to  establish  a  virtual  and  effective  blockade  of  the 
Capital  from  that  direction.  Special  efforts  were  repeat 
edly  made  by  the  President  and  Navy  Department  to 
clear  the  banks  of  the  river  of  the  rebel  forces,  known  to 
be  small  in  number,  which  held  them,  but  it  was  found 
impossible  to  induce  General  McClellan  to  take  any  steps 
to  aid  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  result.  In  October 
he  had  promised  that  on  a  day  named,  four  thousand 
troops  should  be  ready  to  proceed  down  the  river  to  co 
operate  with  the  Potomac  flotilla  under  Captain  Craven  ; 
but  at  the  time  appointed  the  troops  did  not  arrive,  and 
General  McClellan  alleged,  as  a  reason  for  having  changed 
his  mind,  that  his  engineers  had  informed  him  that  so 
large  a  body  of  troops  could  not  be  landed.  The  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy  replied  that  the  landing  of  the  troops 
was  a  matter  of  which  that  department  assumed  the 
responsibility ;  and  it  was  then  agreed  that  the  troops 
should  be  sent  down  the  next  night.  They  were  not 
sent,  however,  either  then  or  at  any  other  time,  for  which 
General  McClellan  assigned  as  a  reason  the  fear  that  such 
an  attempt  might  bring  on  a  general  engagement.  Cap 
tain  Craven  upon  this  threw  up  his  command,  and  the 
Potomac  remained  closed  to  the  vessels  and  transports  of 
the  United  States  until  it  was  opened  in  March  of  the  next 
year  by  the  voluntary  withdrawal  of  the  rebel  forces. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  265 

On  the  1st  of  November,  General  McClellan  was  ap 
pointed  by  the  President  to  succeed  General  Scott  in  the 
command  of  all  the  armies  of  the  Union,  remaining  in 
personal  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  His 
attention  was  then  of  necessity  turned  to  the  direction  of 
army  movements,  and  to  the  conduct  of  political  affairs, 
so  far  as  they  came  under  military  control,  in  the  more 
distant  sections  of  the  country.  But  no  movement  took 
place  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

The  season  had  been  unusually  favorable  for  military 
operations — the  troops  were  admirably  organized  and  dis 
ciplined,  and  in  the  highest  state  of  efficiency — in  num 
bers  they  were  known  to  be  far  superior  to  those  of  the 
rebels  opposed  to  them,  who  were  nevertheless  permit 
ted  steadily  to  push  their  approaches  towards  Washing 
ton,  while,  from  the  highest  officer  to  the  humblest  pri 
vate,  our  forces  were  all  animated  with  an  eager  desire  to 
be  led  against  the  enemies  of  their  country.  As  winter 
approached  without  any  indications  of  an  intended  move 
ment  of  our  armies,  the  public  impatience  rose  to  the 
highest  point  of  discontent.  The  Administration  was 
everywhere  held  responsible  for  these  unaccountable  de 
lays,  and  was  freely  charged  by  its  opponents  with  a  de 
sign  to  protract  the  war  for  selfish  political  purposes  of 
its  own  ;  and  at  the  fall  election  the  public  dissatisfaction 
made  itself  manifest  by  adverse  votes  in  every  considera 
ble  State  where  elections  were  held. 

"Unable  longer  to  endure  this  state  of  things,  President 
Lincoln  put  an  end  to  it  on  the  27th  of  January,  1862,  by 
issuing  the  following  order  :— 

Exjsotmva  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  January  27,  1862. 

Ordeftd)  That  the  twenty-second  day  of  February,  1862,  be  the  day  for 
a  general  movement  of  the  land  and  naval  forces  of  the  Unttr  J  States 
against  the  insurgent  forces.  That  especially  the  army  at  and  about  For 
tress  Monroe,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  the  Army  of  Western  Virginia, 
the  army  near  Munfordsville,  Kentucky,  the  army  and  flotilla  at  Cairo, 
and  a  naval  force  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  be  ready  to  move  on  that  day. 

That  all  other  forces,  both  land  and  naval,  with  their  respective  com 
manders,  obey  existing  orders  for  the  time,  and  be  ready  to  obey  addi 
tional  orders  when  duly  given. 


266  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

That  the  heads  of  departments,  and  especially  the  Secretaries  of  War 
and  of  the  Navy,  with  all  their  subordinates,  and  the  General-in-Chief, 
with  all  other  commanders  and  subordinates  of  land  and  naval  forces, 
will  severally  be  held  to  their  strict  and  full  responsibilities  for  prompt 
execution  of  this  order.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

This  order,  which,  applied  to  all  the  armies  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  was  followed  four  days  afterwards  "by  the  fol 
lowing  special  order  directed  to  General  McClellan  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  January  81, 1S61 

Ordered,  That  all  the  disposable  force  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
after  providing  safely  for  the  defence  of  Washington,  be  formed  into  an 
expedition  for  the  immediate  object  of  seizing  and  occupying  a  point 
upon  the  railroad  southwest  of  what  is  known  as  Manassas  Junction,  all 
details  to  be  in  the  discretion  of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  and  the  expe 
dition  to  move  before  or  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  February  next. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  object  of  this  order  was  to  engage  the  rebel  army 
in  front  of  Washington  by  a  flank  attack,  and  by  its  de 
feat  relieve  the  Capital,  put  Eichmond  at  our  mercy,  and 
break  the  main  strength  of  the  rebellion  by  destroying 
the  principal  army  arrayed  in  its  support.  Instead  of 
obeying  it,  General  McClellan  remonstrated  against  its 
execution,  and  urged  the  adoption  of  a  different  plan  of 
attack,  which  was  to  move  upon  Eichmond  by  way  of 
the  Chesapeake  Bay,  the  Eappahannock  Eiver,  and  a 
land  march  across  the  country  from  Urbana,  leaving  the 
rebel  forces  in  position  at  Manassas  to  be  held  in  check, 
if  they  should  attempt  a  forward  movement,  only  by  the 
troops  in  the  fortifications  around  Washington.  As  the 
result  of  several  conferences  with  the  President,  he  ob 
tained  permission  to  state  in  writing  his  objections  to  his 
plan — the  President  meantime  sending  him  the  following 
letter  of  inquiry : — 

EXBCUTIVB  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  February  3, 1863. 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — You  and  I  have  distinct  and  different  plans  for  a 
movement  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac :  yours  to  be  done  by  the  Chesa 
peake,  up  the  Rappahannock  to  Urbana,  and  across  land  to  the  terminus 
of  the  railroal  on  the  York  River ;  mine  to  move  directly  to  a  point  on 
the  railroad  southwest  of  Manassas. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          267 

If  you  will  give  satisfactory  answers  to  the  following  questions,  I  shall 
gladly  yield  my  plan  to  yours : — 

1st.  Does  not  your  plan  involve  a  greatly  larger  expenditure  of  time 
and  money  than  mine? 

2d.  Wherein  is  a  victory  more  certain  by  your  plan  than  mine  ? 

3d.  "Wherein  is  a  victory  more  valuable  by  your  plan  than  mine? 

4th.  In  fact,  would  it  not  be  less  valuable  in  this :  that  it  would  break 
no  great  line  of  the  enemy's  communications,  while  mine  would  ? 

5th.  In  case  of  disaster,  would  not  a  retreat  be  more  difficult  by  your 

plan  than  mine  ? 

Yours,  truly,  ABKAIIAM  LINCOLN. 

Major-General  MOCLELLAN. 

General  McClellan  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  un 
der  date  of  February  3d,  a  very  long  letter,  presenting 
strongly  the  advantage  possessed  by  the  rebels  in  hold 
ing  a  central  defensive  position,  from  which  they  could 
with  a  small  force  resist  any  attack  on  either  flank,  con 
centrating  their  main  strength  upon  the  other  for  a  deci 
sive  action.  The  uncertainties  of  the  weather,  the  neces 
sity  of  having  long  lines  of  communication,  and  the  prob 
able  indecisiveness  even  of  a  victory,  if  one  should  be 
gained,  were  urged  against  the  President's  plan.  So 
strongly  was  General  McClellan  in  favor  of  his  own  plan 
of  operations,  that  he  said  he  "  should  prefer  the  move 
from  Fortress  Monroe  as  a  base,  to  an  attack  upon  Ma- 
nassas."  The  President  was  by  no  means  convinced  by 
General  McClellan' s  reasoning ;  but  in  consequence  of 
his  steady  resistance  and  unwillingness  to  enter  upon  the 
execution  of  any  other  plan,  he  assented  to  a  submission 
of  the  matter  to  a  council  of  twelve  officers  held  late  in 
February,  at  head-quarters.  The  result  of  that  council 
was,  a  decision  in  favor  of  moving  by  way  of  the  lower 
Chesapeake  and  the  Kappahannock — seven  of  the  Gen 
erals  present,  viz.,  Fitz-John  Porter,  Franklin,  W.  F. 
Smith,  McCall,  Blenker,  Andrew  Porter,  and  Naglee, 
voting  in  favor  of  it,  as  did  Keyes  also,  with  the  qualifi 
cation  that  the  army  should  not  move  until  the  rebels 
were  driven  from  the  Potomac,  and  Generals  McDowell, 
Sumner,  Heintzelman,  and  Barnard,  voting  against  it. 

In  this  decision  the  President  acquiesced,  and  on  the 


268  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

8th  of  Marcli  issued  two  general  war  orders,  the  first 
directing  the  Major-General  commanding  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  to  proceed  forthwith  to  organize  that  part  of 
said  army  destined  to  enter  upon  active  operations  into 
four  army  corps,  to  be  commanded,  the  first  by  General 
McDowell,  the  second  by  General  Sunnier,  the  third  by 
General  Heintzelman,  and  the  fourth  by  General  Keyes. 
General  Banks  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  a  fifth 
corps.  It  also  appointed  General  Wadsworth  Military 
Governor  at  Washington,  and  directed  the  order  to  be 
"  executed  with  such  promptness  and  dispatch  as  nc  t  to 
delay  the  commencement  of  the  operations  already  di 
rected  to  be  undertaken  by  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  ' 
The  second  of  these  orders  was  as  follows : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  March.  8, 1862. 

Ordered,  That  no  change  of  the  base  of  operations  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  shall  be  made  without  leaving  in  and  about  Washington 
such  a  force  as,  in  the  opinion  of  the  General-in-Chief  and  the  com 
manders  of  army  corps,  shall  leave  said  city  entirely  secure. 

That  no  more  than  two  army  corps  (about  fifty  thousand  troops)  of 
said  Army  of  the  Potomac  shall  be  moved  en  route  for  a  new  base  of 
operations  until  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac,  from  "Washington  to  the 
Chesapeake  Bay,  shall  be  freed  from  the  enemy's  batteries,  and  other 
obstructions,  or  until  the  President  shall  hereafter  give  express  per 
mission. 

That  any  movement  as  aforesaid,  en  route  for  a  new  base  of  operations, 
which  may  be  ordered  by  the  General-in-Chief,  and  which  may  be  in 
tended  to  move  upon  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  shall  begin  to  move  upon  the 
bay  as  early  as  the  eighteenth  March  instant,  and  the  General-in-Chief 
shall  be  responsible  that  it  moves  as  early  as  that  day. 

Ordered,  That  the  army  and  navy  co-operate  in  an  immediate  effort  to 
capture  the  enemy's  batteries  upon  the  Potomac  between  Washington 
and  the  Chesapeake  Bay.  ABBAHAM  LINCOLN. 

L.  THOMAS,  Adjutant- General. 

This  order  was  issued  on  the  8th  of  March.  On  the 
9th,  information  was  received  by  General  McClellan,  at 
Washington,  that  the  enemy  had  abandoned  his  position 
in  front  of  that  city.  He  at  once  crossed  the  Potomac, 
and  on  the  same  night  issued  orders  for  an  immediate  ad 
vance  of  the  whole  army  towards  Manassas — not  with 


STATE  PAPFTIS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          269 

any  intention,  as  lie  has  since  explained,  of  pursuing  the 
rebels,  and  taking  advantage  of  their  retreat,  but  to  "get 
rid  of  superfluous  baggage  and  other  impediments  which 
accumulate  so  easily  around  an  army  encamped  for  a  long 
time  in  one  locality"— to  give  the  troops  "  some  expe 
rience  on  the  march  and  bivouac  preparatory  to  the  cam 
paign,"  and  to  afford  them  also  a  "good  intermediate 
step  between  the  quiet  and  comparative  comfort  of  the 
camps  around  Washington  and  the  vigor  of  active  opera 
tions."*  These  objects,  in  General  McClellan's  opinion, 
were  sufficiently  accomplished  by  what  the  Prince  de 
Joinville,  of  his  staff,  styles  a  "promenade"  of  the  army 
to  Manassas,  where  they  learned,  from  personal  inspec 
tion,  that  the  rebels  had  actually  evacuated  that  position  ; 
and  on  the  15th,  orders  were  issued  for  a  return  of  the 
forces  to  Alexandria. 

On  the  llth  of  March,  the  President  issued  another  or 
der,  stating  that  "  Major-General  McClellan  having  per 
sonally  taken  the  field  at  the  head  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  until  otherwise  ordered,  he  is  relieved  from  the 
command  of  the  other  military  departments,  retaining 
command  of  the  Department  of  the  Potomac."  Major- 
General  Halleck  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  De 
partment  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Mountain  Depart 
ment  was  created  for  Major-General  Fremont.  All  the 
commanders  of  departments  were  also  required  to  report 
directly  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 

On  the  13th  of  March,  a  council  of  war  was  held  at 
head-quarters,  then  at  Fairfax  Court-House,  by  which  it 
was  decided  that,  as  the  enemy  had  retreated  behind  the 
Rappahannock,  operations  against  Richmond  could  best 
be  conducted  from  Fortress  Monroe,  provided : — 

1st.  That  tho  enemy's  vessel,  Merrimac,  can  be  neutralized. 

2d.  That  the  means  of  transportation,  sufficient  for  an  immediate  trans 
fer  of  the  force  to  its  new  base,  can  be  ready  at  Washington  and  Alexan 
dria  to  move  down  the  Potomac ;  and, 

3d.  That  a  naval  auxiliary  force  can  be  had  to  silence,  or  aid  in  silen- 
ting,  the  enemy's  batteries  on  the  York  River. 

*  Seo  General  McClellan's  Koport,  dated  August  4,  1863. 


270  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

4th.  That  the  force  to  be  left  to  cover  Washington  shall  be  such  as  to 
tfive  an  entire  feeling  of  security  for  its  safety  from  menace. 

NOTE. — That  with  the  forts  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Potomac  fully 
garrisoned,  and  those  on  the  left  bank  occupied,  a  covering  force  in  front 
of  the  Virginia  line  of  twenty-five  thousand  men  would  suffice.  (Keyes, 
Heintzelman,  and  McDowell.) 

A  total  of  forty  thousand  men  for  the  defence  of  the  city  would 
suffice.  (Sunmer.) 

Upon  receiving  a  report  of  this  decision,  the  following 
communication  was  at  once  addressed  to  the  commanding 
general : — 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  March  13, 1S62. 

The  President  having  considered  the  plan  of  operations  agreed  upon 
by  yourself  and  the  commanders  of  army  corps,  makes  no  objection  to 
the  same,  but  gives  the  following  directions  as  to  its  execution : — 

1st.  Leave  such  force  at  Manassas  Junction  as  shall  make  it  entirely 
certain  that  the  enemy  shall  not  repossess  himself  of  that  position  and 
line  of  communication. 

2d.  Leave  Washington  entirely  secure. 

3d.  Move  the  remainder  of  the  force  down  the  Potomac,  choosing  a 
new  base  at  Fortress  Monroe,  or  anywhere  between  here  and  there  ;  or, 
at  all  events,  move  such  remainder  of  the  army  at  once  in  pursuit  of  the 
enemy  by  some  route.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 
Major-General  GKOEGE  B.  MOCLELLAN. 


It  will  readily  "be  seen,  from  these  successive  orders, 
that  the  President,  in  common  with  the  whole  country, 
had  been  greatly  pained  by  the  long  delay  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  to  move  against  the  enemy  while  en 
camped  at  Manassas,  and  that  this  feeling  was  converted 
into  chagrin  and  mortification  when  the  rebels  were 
allowed  to  withdraw  from  that  position  without  the 
slightest  molestation,  and  without  their  design  being  even 
suspected  until  it  had  been  carried  into  complete  and  suc 
cessful  execution.  He  was  impatiently  anxious,  there 
fore,  that  no  more  time  should  be  lost  in  delays.  In 
reply  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  General  McClellan,  before 
embarking  for  the  Peninsula,  communicated  his  intention 
of  reaching,  without  loss  of  time,  the  field  of  what  he 
believed  would  be  a  decisive  battle,  which  he  expected 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  271 

to  fight  "between  West  Point  and  Richmond.  On  the  31st 
of  March,  the  President,  out  of  deference  to  the  importu 
nities  of  General  Fremont  and  his  friends,  and  from  a  be 
lief  that  this  officer  could  make  good  use  of  a  larger  force 
than  he  then  had  at  his  command  in  the  Mountain  Depart 
ment,  ordered  General  Blenker's  division  to  leave  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  and  join  him ;  a  decision  which  he 
announced  to  General  McClellan  in  the  following  let 
ter :- 

EXECUTIVE  MAKSIOW,  WABHIWGTOK,  March  81, 1862. 

MY  DKAK  SIR: — This  morning  I  felt  constrained  to  order  Blenker's 
division  to  Fremont,  and  I  write  this  to  assure  you  that  I  did  so  with 
great  pain,  understanding  that  you  would  wish  it  otherwise.  If  you  could 
know  the  full  pressure  of  the  case,  I  am  confident  that  you  would  justify 
it,  even  beyond  a  mere  acknowledgment  that  the  Coinmander-m-Chief 
may  order  what  he  pleases. 

Yours,  very  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

Major-General  MCCLELLAN. 

General  Banks,  who  had  at  first  been  ordered  by  Gen 
eral  McClellan  to  occupy  Manassas,  and  thus  cover 
Washington,  was  directed  by  him,  on  the  1st  of  April,  to 
throw  the  rebel  General  Jackson  well  back  from  Win 
chester,  and  then  move  on  Staunton  at  a  time  "  nearly 
coincident  with  his  own  move  on  Richmond  ;"  though 
General  McClellan  expressed  the  fear  that  General  Banks 
"  could  not  be  ready  in  time"  for  that  movement.  The 
four  corps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  destined  for  active 
operations  by  way  of  the  Peninsula,  were  ordered  to  em 
bark,  and  forwarded  as  rapidly  as  possible  to  Fortress 
Monroe.  On  the  1st  of  April,  General  McClellan  wrote 
to  the  Secretary  of  war,  giving  a  report  of  the  dispositions 
he  had  made  for  the  defence  of  Washington  ;  and  on  the 
2d,  General  Wads  worth  submitted  a  statement  of  the  forces 
under  his  command,  which  he  regarded  as  entirely  inade 
quate  to  the  service  required  of  them.  The  President  re 
ferred  the  matter  to  Adjutant- General  Thomas  and  General 
E.  A.  Hitchcock,  who  made  a  report  on  the  same  day,  in 
which  they  decided  that  the  force  left  by  General  McClel 
lan  was  not  sufficient  to  make  Washington  "  entirely 


272  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

secure,"  as  the  President  had  required  in  Ins  order  of 
March  13 ;  nor  was  it  as  large  as  the  council  of  officers 
held  at  Fairfax  Court-House  on  the  same  day  had  ad 
judged  to  "be  necessary.  In  accordance  with  this  decision, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the  Capital  safe,  the  army 
corps  of  General  McDowell  was  detached  from  General 
McClellan's  immediate  command,  and  ordered  to  report 
to  the  Secretary  of  War. 

On  reaching  Fortress  Monroe,  General  McClellan  found 
Commodore  Goldsborough,  who  commanded  on  that 
naval  station,  unwilling  to  send  any  considerable  portion 
of  his  force  up  the  York  River,  as  he  was  employed  in 
watching  the  Merrimack,  which  had  closed  the  James 
River  against  us.  He  therefore  landed  at  the  Fortress, 
and  commenced  his  march  up  the  Peninsula,  having 
reached  the  Warwick  River,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
Yorktown,  which  had  been  fortified,  and  was  held  by  a 
rebel  force  of  about  eleven  thousand  men,  under  General 
Magruder— a  part  of  them,  however,  being  across  the 
river  at  Gloucester.  He  here  halted  to  reconnoitre  the 
position ;  and  on  the  6th  wrote  to  the  President  that  he 
had  but  eighty-five  thousand  men  fit  for  duty — that  the 
whole  line  of  the  Warwick  River  was  strongly  fortified — 
that  it  was  pretty  certain  he  was  to  "have  the  whole 
force  of  the  enemy  on  his  hands,  probably  not  less  than 
a  hundred  thousand  men,  and  probably  more,"  and  that 
he  should  commence  siege  operations  as  soon  as  he  could 
get  up  his  train.  He  entered,  accordingly,  upon  this 
work,  telegraphing  from  time  to  time  complaints  that  he 
was  not  properly  supported  by  the  Government,  and 
asking  for  re-enforcements. 

On  the  9th  of  April,  President  Lincoln  addressed  him 
the  following  letter : — 

WASHINGTON,  April  9, 1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — Yonr  dispatches,  complaining  that  you  are  not  prop 
erly  sustained,  while  they  do  not  offend  me,  do  pain  me  very  much. 

Blenker's  division  was  withdrawn  from  you  before  you  left  here,  and 
you  know  the  pressure  under  which  I  did  it,  and,  as  I  thought,  acqui 
esced  in  it — certainly  not  without  reluctance. 

After  you  left,  I  ascertained  that  less  than  twenty  thousand  unorgan- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  273 

izcd  men,  without  a  single  field  battery,  were  all  you  designed  to  be  left 
for  the  defence  of  "Washington  and  Manassas  Junction,  and  part  of  this 
even  was  to  go  to  General  Hooker's  old  position.  General  Banks's  corps, 
once  designed  for  Manassas  Junction,  was  diverted  and  tied  up  on  the 
line  of  Winchester  and  Strasburg,  and  could  not  leave  it  without  again 
exposing  the  Upper  Potomac  and  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad.  This 
presented,  or  would  present,  when  McDowell  and  Sumner  should  be  gone, 
a  great  temptation  to  the  enemy  to  turn  back  from  the  Eappahannock  and 
sack  Washington.  My  implicit  order  that  Washington  should,  by  the 
judgment  of  all  the  commanders  of  army  corps,  be  left  entirely  secure, 
had  been  neglected.  It  was  precisely  this  that  drove  me  to  detain  Mc 
Dowell. 

I  do  not  forget  that  I  was  satisfied  with  your  arrangement  to  leave 
Banks  at  Manassas  Junction :  but  when  that  arrangement  was  broken 
up,  and  nothing  was  substituted  for  it,  of  course  I  was  constrained  to 
substitute  something  for  it  myself.  And  allow  me  to  ask,  do  you  really 
think  I  should  permit  the  line  from  Richmond,  via  Manassas  Junction,  to 
this  city,  to  be  entirely  open,  except  what  resistance  could  be  presented 
by  less  than  twenty  thousand  unorganized  troops  ?  This  is  a  question 
which  the  country  will  not  allow  me  to  evade. 

There  is  a  curious  mystery  about  the  number  of  troops  now  with  you. 
When  I  telegraphed  you  on  the  sixth,  saying  you  had  over  a  hundred 
thousand  with  you,  I  had  just  obtained  from  the  Secretary  of  War  a  state 
ment  taken,  as  he  said,  from  your  own  returns,  making  one  hundred  and 
eight  thousand  then  with  you  and  en  route  to  you.  You  now  say  you 
will  have  but  eighty-five  thousand  when  all  en  route  to  you  shall  have 
reached  you.  How  can  the  discrepancy  of  twenty-three  thousand  be 
accounted  for? 

As  to  General  Wool's  command,  I  understand  it  is  doing  for  you  pre 
cisely  what  a  like  number  of  your  own  would  have  to  do  if  that  command 
was  away. 

I  suppose  the  whole  force  which  has  gone  forward  for  you  is  with  you 
by  this  time.  And  if  so,  I  think  it  is  the  precise  time  for  you  to  strike  a 
blow.  By  delay,  the  enemy  will  relatively  gain  upon  you— that  is,  he 
will  gain  faster  by  fortifications  and  re-enforcements  than  you  can  by  re- 
enforcements  alone.  And  once  more  let  me  tell  you,  it  is  indispensable 
to  you  that  you  strike  a  blow.  I  am  powerless  to  help  this.  You  will 
do  me  the  justice  to  remember  I  always  insisted  that  going  down  the  bay 
in  search  of  a  field,  instead  of  fighting  at  or  near  Manassas,  was  only 
shifting,  and  not  surmounting  a  difficulty  ;  that  we  would  find  the  same 
enemy,  and  the  same  or  equal  intrenchments,  at  either  place.  The  coun 
try  will  not  fail  to  note,  is  now  noting,  that  the  present  hesitation  to 
move  upon  an  intrenched  enemy  is  but  the  story  of  Manassas  repeated. 

I  beg  to  assure  you  that  I  have  never  written  you  or  spoken  to  you  in 
greater  kindness  of  feeling  than  now,  nor  with  a  fuller  purpose  to  sustain 
18 


274  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

you,  so  far  as,  in  my  most  anxious  judgment,  I  consistently  cam     Bw 
you  must  act.  Yours,  very  truly, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
Major-General  MOCLELLAN. 

In  this  letter  the  President  only  echoed  the  impatience 
and  eagerness  of  the  whole  country.  The  most  careful 
inquiries  which  General  Wool,  in  command  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  had  been  able  to  make,  satisfied  him  that  York- 
town  was  not  held  by  any  considerable  force ;  and  sub 
sequent  disclosures  have  made  it  quite  certain  that  this 
force  was  so  utterly  inadequate  to  the  defence  of  the 
position,  that  a  prompt  movement  upon  it  would  have 
caused  its  immediate  surrender,  and  enabled  our  army  to 
advance  at  once  upon  Richmond.  General  McClellan 
decided,  however,  to  approach  it  by  a  regular  siege  ;  and 
it  was  not  until  this  design  had  become  apparent,  that  the 
rebel  Government  began  to  re-enforce  Magruder.*  He 

*  The  following  extract  from  the  official  report  of  Major-General  Magruler, 
dated  May  3d,  1862,  and  published  by  order  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  is  con 
clusive  as  to  the  real  strength  of  the  force  which  General  McClellan  had  in  front 
of  him  at  Yorktown  : — 

HEADQUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  PENINSULA,  ) 
LEE'S  FARM.  May  3, 1862.  > 

General  S.  COOPER,  A.  and  I.  G.  C.  S.  A. : 

GENERAL  :— Deeming  it  of  vital  importance  to  hold  Yorktown  on  York  Kiver,  and  Mulberry 
Island  on  James  Kiver,  and  to  keep  the  enemy  in  check  by  an  intervening  line  until  the  author 
ities  might  take  such  steps  as  should  be  deemed  necessary  to  meet  a  serious  advance  of  the  ene 
my  in  the  Peninsula,  I  felt  compelled  to  dispose  of  my  forces  in  such  a  manner  as  to  accomplish 
these  objects  with  the  least  risk  possible  under  the  circumstances  of  great  hazard  which  sur 
rounded  the  little  army  1  commanded. 

I  had  prepared,  as  my  real  line  of  defence,  positions  in  advance  at  Harwood'a  and  Young's 
Mills.  Both  flanks  of  this  line  were  defended  by  boggy  and  difficult  streams  and  swamps. 
*  *  *  In  my  opinion,  this  advanced  line,  with  its  flank  defences,  might  have  been  held 
by  twenty  thousand  troops.  *  *  *  Finding  my  forces  too  weak  to  attempt  the,  de 
fence  of  this  line,  I  was  compelled  to  prepare  to  receive  the  enemy  on  a  second  line  on  War 
wick  River.  This  line  was  incomplete  in  its  preparations.  Keeping  then  only  small  bodies  of 
troops  at  Harwood's  and  Young's  Mills,  and  on  Ship  Point,  I  distributed  my  remaining  forces 
along  the  "Warwick  line,  embracing  a  front  from  Yorktown  to  Minor's  farm  of  twelve  miles,  and 
from  the  latter  place  to  Mulberry  Island  Point  one  and  a  half  miles.  I  was  compelled  to  place 
in  Gloucester  Point,  Yorktown,  and  Mulberry  Island,  fixed  garrisons,  amounting  to  six  thou 
sand  men,  my  whole  force  being  eleven  thousand,  so  that  it  icill  be  seen  that  the  balance  of 
Vie  line,  embracing  a  length  of  thirteen  miles,  was  defended  by  about  Jive  thousand 
men. 

After  the  reconnoissances  in  great  force  from  Fortress  Monroe  and  Newport  News,  the  enemy, 
on  the  3d  of  April,  advanced  and  took  possession  of  Harwood's  Mill.  He  advanced  in  two  heavy 
columns,  one  along  the  old  York  road,  and  the  other  along  the  Warwick  road,  and  on  the  5th  of 
April  appeared  simultaneously  along  the  whole  part  of  our  line  from  Minor's  farm  to  Yorktown. 
I  h*  fe  no  accurate  data  upon  which  to  bas«  an  exact  statement  of  his  force ;  but  from  variom 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          275 

continued  his  applications  to  the  Government  for  more 
troops,  more  cannon,  more  transportation — all  which  were 
sent  forward  to  him  as  rapidly  as  possible,  "being  taken 
mainly  from  McDowell's  corps.  On  the  14th  of  April, 
General  Franklin,  detached  from  that  corps,  reported  to 
General  McClellan,  near  Yorktown,  but  his  troops  re 
mained  on  board  the  transports.  A  month  was  spent  in 
this  way,  the  President  urging  action  in  the  most  earnest 
manner,  and  the  commanding  general  delaying  from  day 
to  day  his  reiterated  promises  to  commence  operations 
immediately.  At  last,  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  May, 
it  was  discovered  that  the  rebels  had  been  busy  for  a  day 
or  two  in  evacuating  Yorktown,  and  that  the  last  of  their 
columns  had  left  that  place,  all  their  supply  trains  hav 
ing  been  previously  removed  on  the  day  and  night  pre 
ceding.  General  McClellan,  in  announcing  this  event  to 
the  Government,  added  that  "  no  time  would  be  lost"  in 
the  pursuit,  and  that  he  should  "push  the  enemy  to  the 
wall."  General  Stoneman,  with  a  column  of  cavalry, 
was  at  once  sent  forward  to  overtake  the  retreating 
enemy,  which  he  succeeded  in  doing  on  the  same  day, 
and  was  repulsed.  On  the  5th,  the  forces  ordered  for 
ward  by  General  McClellan  came  up,  and  found  a  very 
strong  rear-guard  of  the  rebels  strongly  fortified,  about 
two  miles  east  of  Williamsburg,  and  prepared  to  dispute 
the  advance  of  the  pursuing  troops.  It  had  been  known 

sources  of  information  I  was  satisfied  that  I  had  before  me  the  enemy's  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
under  the  command  of  General  McClellan,  with  the  exception  of  the  two  corps  d'armeo  of 
Banks  and  McDowell  respectively— forming  an  aggregate  number  certainly  of  not  less  than  OIK- 
hundred  thousand,  since  ascertained  to  have  been  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men. 

On  every  portion  of  my  lines  he  attacked  us  with  a  fnrious  cannonading  and  musketry,  whieh 
was  responded  to  with  effect  by  our  batteries  and  troops  of  the  line.  His  skirmishers  also  wero 
well  thrown  forward  on  this  and  the  succeeding  day,  and  energetically  felt  our  whole  line,  bui 
were  everywhere  repulsed  by  the  steadiness  of  our  troops.  Thus,  with  five  thousand  mer,, 
exclusive  of  the  garrisons,  we  stopped  and  held  in  check  over  one  hundred  thousand  of  Vic 
enemy.  Every  preparation  was  made  in  anticipation  of  another  attack  by  the  enemy.  Tho 
men  slept  in  the  trenches  and  under  arms,  but,  to  my  utter  surprise,  he  permitted  day  after 
day  to  elapse  without  an  assault. 

In  a  few  days  the  object  of  his  delay  was  apparent.  In  every  direction  in  front  of  our  lines, 
through  the  intervening  woods  and  along  the  open  fields,  earthworks  "began  to  appear. 
Through  the  energetic  action  of  the  Government  re-enforcements  began  to  pour  In,  and  eaoh 
hour  the  army  of  the  Peninsula  grew  stronger  and  stronger,  until  anxiety  passed  from  my 
mind  as  to  the  result  of  an  attack  upon  tw.  *  *  * 

J.  BAXKHKAD  MXGEUDEB,  Major-Qtntral. 


276  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

from  the  beginning  that  a  very  formidable  line  of  forts 
had  been  erected  here,  and  it  ought  to  have  been  equally 
well  known  by  the  commanding  general  that  the  retreat 
ing  enemy  would  avail  himself  of  them  to  delay  the 
pursuit.  General  McClellan,  however,  had  evidently 
anticipated  no  resistance.  He  remained  at  his  head-quar 
ters,  two  miles  in  the  rear  of  Yorktown,  until  summoned 
by  special  messenger  in  the  afternoon  of  the  5th,  who 
announced  to  him  that  our  troops  had  encountered  the 
enemy  strongly  posted,  that  a  bloody  battle  was  in 
progress,  and  that  his  presence  on  the  field  was  impera 
tively  required.  Replying  to  the  messenger  that  he  had 
supposed  our  troops  in  front  "  could  attend  to  that  little 
matter,"  General  McClellan  left  his  head-quarters  at  about 
half-past  two,  P.  M.,  and  reached  the  field  at  five.  Gen 
eral  Hooker,  General  Heintzelman,  and  General  Sumner 
had  been  fighting  under  enormous  difficulties,  and  with 
heavy  losses,  during  all  the  early  part  of  the  day ;  and 
just  as  the  commanding  general  arrived,  General  Kearney 
had  re-enforced  General  Hooker,  and  General  Hancock 
had  executed  a  brilliant  flank  movement,  which  turned 
the  fortunes  of  the  day,  and  left  our  forces  in  possession 
of  the  field. 

General  McClellan  does  not  seem  to  have  understood 
that  this  affair  was  simply  an  attempt  of  the  rebel  rear 
guard  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  main  force,  and  that 
when  it  had  delayed  the  pursuit  it  had  accomplished  its 
whole  purpose.  He  countermanded  an  order  for  the 
advance  of  two  divisions,  and  ordered  them  back  to 
Yorktown ;  and  in  a  dispatch  sent  to  the  War  Depart 
ment  the  same  night,  he  treats  the  battle  as  an  engage 
ment  with  the  whole  rebel  army.  "I  find,"  he  says, 
' '  General  Joe  Johnston  in  front  of  me  in  strong  force, 
probably  greater,  a  good  deal,  than  my  own."  He  again 
complains  of  the  inferiority  of  his  command,  says  he  will 
do  all  he  can  "  with  the  force  at  his  disposal,"  and  that 
he  should  "run  the  risk  of  at  least  holding  them  in  check 
here  (at  Williamsburg)  while  he  resumed  the  original 
plan" — which  was  to  send  Franklin  to  West  Point  by 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          277 

water.  Bat  the  direct  pursuit  of  the  retreating  rebel 
army  was  abandoned — owing,  as  the  General  said,  to  the 
bad  state  of  the  roads,  which  rendered  it  impracticable. 
Some  five  days  were  spent  at  Williamsburg,  which  en 
abled  the  rebels,  notwithstanding  the  "  state  of  the 
roads,"  to  withdraw  their  whole  force  across  the  Chick- 
ahominy,  and  establish  themselves  within  the  fortifica 
tions  in  front  of  Richmond.  On  the  morning  of  the  7th, 
General  Franklin  landed  at  West  Point,  but  too  late  to 
intercept  the  main  body  of  the  retreating  army  ;  he  was 
met  by  a  strong  rear-guard,  with  whom  he  had  a  sharp 
but  fruitless  engagement. 

The  York  River  had  been  selected  as  the  base  of 
operations,  in  preference  to  the  James,  because  it  "was 
in  a  better  position  to  effect  a  junction  with  any  troops 
that  might  move  from  Washington  on  the  Fredericksburg 
line  ;"*  and  arrangements  were  made  to  procure  supplies 
for  the  army  by  that  route.  On  the  9th,  Norfolk  was 
evacuated  by  the  rebels,  all  the  troops  withdrawing  in 
safety  to  Richmond ;  and  the  city,  on  the  next  day,  was 
occupied  by  General  Wool.  On  the  llth,  the  formidable 
steamer  MerrimacTc,  which  had  held  our  whole  naval  force 
at  Fortress  Monroe  completely  in  check,  was  blown  up 
by  the  rebels  themselves,  and  our  vessels  attempted  to 
reopen  the  navigation  of  the  James  River,  but  were 
repulsed  by  a  heavy  battery  at  Drury's  Bluff,  eight 
miles  below  Richmond.  After  waiting  for  several  days 
for  the  roads  to  improve,  the  main  body  of  the  army  was 
put  in  motion  on  the  road  towards  Richmond,  which  was 
about  forty  miles  from  Williamsburg  ;  and,  on  the  16th, 
head-quarters  were  established  at  White  House,  at  the 
point  where  the  Richmond  Railroad  crosses  the  Pamun- 
key,  an  affluent  of  the  York  River — the  main  body  of  the 
army  lying  along  the  south  bank  of  the  Chickahominy,  a 
swampy  stream,  behind  which  the  rebel  army  had  in 
trenched  itself  for  the  defence  of  Richmond. 

General  McClellan  began  again  to  prepare  for  fighting 

*  See  General  McClellan's  testimony— Report  of  Committee  on  Conduct  of  th« 
War,  vol.  L,  p.  431. 


278  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  "  decisive  battle"  wliicli  he  had  been  predicting  ever 
since  the  rebels  withdrew  from  Manassas,  but  which  they 
had  so  far  succeeded  in  avoiding.  A  good  deal  of  his  at 
tention,  however,  was  devoted  to  making  out  a  case  of 
neglect  against  the  Government.  On  the  10th  of  May, 
when  he  had  advanced  but  three  miles  beyond  Williams- 
burg,  he  sent  a  long  dispatch  to  the  War  Department, 
reiterating  his  conviction  that  the  rebels  were  about  to 
dispute  his  advance  with  their  whole  force,  and  asking 
for  " every  man"  the  Government  could  send  him.  If 
not  re-enforced,  he  said  he  should  probably  be  "obliged 
to  fight  nearly  double  his  numbers  strongly  intrenched." 
Ten  days  previously  the  official  returns  showed  that  he 
had  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men  under  his  com 
mand.  On  the  14th,  he  telegraphed  the  President,  reit 
erating  his  fears  that  he  was  to  be  met  by  overwhelming 
numbers,  saying  that  he  could  not  bring  more  than  eighty 
thousand  men  into  the  field,  and  again  asking  for  "  every 
man"  that  the  War  Department  could  send  him.  Even 
if  more  troops  should  not  be  needed  for  military  pur 
poses,  he  thought  a  great  display  of  imposing  force  in 
the  capital  of  the  rebel  government  would  have  the  best 
moral  effect.  To  these  repeated  demands  the  President, 
through  the  Secretary  of  War,  on  the  18th  of  May,  made 
the  following  reply  :— 

WASHINGTON,  Nay  18—2  p.  ji. 

GENEEAL: — Tour  dispatch,  to  the  President,  asking  re-enforcements, 
Las  been  received  and  carefully  considered. 

The  President  is  not  willing  to  uncover  the  Capital  entirely ;  and  it  is 
believed  that  even  if  this  were  prudent,  it  would  require  more  time  to 
effect  a  junction  between  your  army  and  that  of  the  Rappahannock  by  tho 
way  of  the  Potomac  and  York  River,  than  by  a  land  march.  In  order, 
therefore,  to  increase  the  strength  of  the  attack  upon  Richmond  at  the 
earliest  moment.  General  McDowell  has  been  ordered  to  march  upon  that 
city  by  the  shortest  route.  He  is  ordered,  keeping  himself  always  in  posi 
tion,  to  save  the  Capital  from  all  possible  attack,  so  to  operate  as  to  put 
his  left  wing  in  communication  with  your  right  wing,  and  you  are  in 
structed  to  co-operate  so  as  to  establish  this  communication  as  soon  as 
possible  by  extending  your  right  wing  to  tho  north  of  Richmond. 

It  is  believed  that  this  communication  can  be  safely  established  either 
north  or  south  of  the  Pamunkey  River. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          279 

In  any  event,  you  will  be  able  to  prevent  the  main  body  of  the  enemy's 
forces  from  leaving  Richmond,  and  falling  in  overwhelming  force  upon 
General  McDowell.  He  will  move  with  between  thirty-five  and  forty 
thousand  men. 

A  copy  of  the  instructions  to  General  McDowell  are  with  this.  The 
specific  task  assigned  to  his  command  has  been  to  provide  against  any 
danger  to  the  capital  of  the  nation. 

At  your  earliest  call  for  re-enforcements,  he  is  sent  forward  to  co-oper 
ate  in  the  reduction  of  Richmond,  but  charged,  in  attempting  this,  not  to 
uncover  the  City  of  Washington,  and  you  will  give  no  order,  either  before 
or  after  your  junction,  which  can  put  him  out  of  position  to  cover  this 
city.  You  and  ho  will  communicate  with  each  other  by  telegraph  or 
otherwise,  as  frequently  as  may  be  necessary  for  sufficient  co-operation. 
When  General  McDowell  is  in  position  on  your  right,  his  supplies  must 
be  drawn  from  West  Point,  and  you  will  instruct  your  staff  officers  to  be 
prepared  to  supply  him  by  that  route. 

The  President  desires  that  General  McDowell  retain  the  command  of 
the  Department  of  the  Rappahannock,  and  of  the  forces  with  which  he 
moves  forward. 

By  order  of  the  President.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON. 


In  reply  to  this,  on  the  21st  of  May,  General  McClellan 
repeated  his  declarations  of  the  overwhelming  force  of 
the  rebels,  and  urged  that  General  McDowell  should  join 
him  "by  water  instead  of  by  land,  going  down  the  Kappa- 
hannock  and  the  bay  to  Fortress  Monroe,  and  then  ascend 
ing  the  York  and  Pamunkey  Rivers.  He  feared  there 
was  "  little  hope  that  he  could  join  him  overland  in  time 
for  the  coming  battle.  Delays,"  he  says,  "  on  my  part 
will  be  dangerous :  I  fear  sickness  and  demoralization. 
This  region  is  unhealthy  for  Northern  men,  and  unless 
kept  moving,  I  fear  that  our  soldiers  may  become  dis 
couraged" — a  fear  that  was  partially  justified  by  the  ex 
perience  of  the  whole  month  succeeding,  during  which 
he  kept  them  idle.  He  complained  also  that  McDowell 
was  not  put  more  completely  under  his  command,  and 
declared  that  a  movement  by  land  would  uncover  Wash 
ington  quite  as  completely  as  one  by  water.  He  was 
busy  at  that  time  in  bridging  the  Chickahominy,  and 
gave  no  instructions,  as  required,  for  supplying  McDow 
ell'  ts  forces  on  their  arrival  at  West  Point. 


280  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

To  these  representations  he  received  fiom  the  Presi 
dent  the  following  reply : — 

"WASHINGTON,  May  24, 1862. 

I  left  General  McDowell's  camp  at  dark  last  evening.  Shields's  com 
mand  is  there,  but  it  is  so  worn  that  he  cannot  move  before  Monday 
morning,  the  26th.  "We  have  so  thinned  our  line  to  get  troops  for  other 
places  that  it  was  broken  yesterday  at  Front  Royal,  with  a  probable  loss 
to  us  of  one  regiment  infantry,  two  companies  cavalry,  putting  General 
Banks  in  some  periL 

The  enemy's  forces,  under  General  Anderson,  now  opposing  General 
McDowell's  advance,  have,  as  their  line  of  supply  and  retreat,  the  road  to 
Richmond. 

If,  in  conjunction  with  McDowell's  movement  against  Anderson,  you 
could  send  a  force  from  your  right  to  cut  off  the  enemy's  supplies  from 
Richmond,  preserve  the  railroad  bridge  across  the  two  fords  of  the  Pa- 
munkey,  and  intercept  the  enemy's  retreat,  you  will  prevent  the  army 
now  opposed  to  you  from  receiving  an  accession  of  numbers  of  nearly 
fifteen  thousand  men ;  and  if  you  succeed  in  saving  the  bridges,  you  will 
secure  a  line  of  railroad  for  supplies  in  addition  to  the  one  you  now  have. 
Can  you  not  do  this  almost  as  well  as  not,  while  you  are  building  the 
Chickahominy  bridges  ?  McDowell  and  Shields  both  say  they  can,  and 
positively  will  move  Monday  morning.  I  wish  you  to  move  cautiously 
and  safely. 

You  will  have  command  of  McDowell,  after  he  joins  you,  precisely  as 
you  indicated  in  your  long  dispatch  to  us  of  the  21st. 

A.  LINCOLN,  President. 

Major-General  G.  B.  MOCLELLAK. 

General  Banks,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  been  sent  by 
General  McClellan,  on  the  1st  of  April,  to  guard  the  ap 
proaches  to  Washington  by  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah, 
which  were  even  then  menaced  by  Jackson  with  a  con 
siderable  rebel  force.  A  conviction  of  the  entire  insuffi 
ciency  of  the  forces  left  for  the  protection  of  the  Capital 
had  led  to  the  retention  of  McDowell,  from  whose  com 
mand,  however,  upon  General  McClellan' s  urgent  and 
impatient  applications,  General  Franklin's  division  had 
been  detached.  On  the  23d,  as  stated  in  the  above  letter 
from  the  President,  there  were  indications  of  a  purpose 
on  Jackson's  part  to  move  in  force  against  Banks ;  and 
this  purpose  was  so  clearly  developed,  and  his  situation 
became  so  critical,  that  the  President  was  compelled  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  281 

re-enforce  him,  a  movement  which  he  announced  in  the 
following  dispatch  to  General  McClellan : — 

May  24, 1862.— (From  Washington,  4  p.  M.) 

In  consequence  of  General  Banks's  critical  position,  I  have  been  com 
pelled  to  suspend  General  McDowell's  movements  to  join  you.  The 
enemy  are  making  a  desperate  push  upon  Harper's  Ferry,  and  we  are 
trying  to  throw  General  Fremont's  force,  and  part  of  General  McDowell's, 
in  their  rear.  A.  LINCOLN,  President. 

Major-General  G.  B.  MOCLELLAN. 

Unable,  apparently,  or  unwilling  to  concede  any  thing 
whatever  to  emergencies  existing  elsewhere,  General 
McClellan  remonstrated  against  the  diversion  of  McDow 
ell,  in  reply  to  which  he  received,  on  the  26th,  the 
following  more  full  explanation  from  the  President  :— 

WASHINGTON,  May  25,  1862. 

Your  dispatch  received.  General  Banks  was  at  Strasburg  with  about 
six  thousand  men,  Shields  having  been  taken  from  him  to  swell  a  col 
umn  for  McDowell  to  aid  you  at  Richmond,  and  the  rest  of  his  force 
scattered  at  various  places.  On  the  23d,  a  rebel  force,  of  seven  thousand 
to  ten  thousand,  fell  upon  one  regiment  and  two  companies  guarding 
the  bridge  at  Port  Royal,  destroying  it  entirely ;  crossed  the  Shenandoah, 
and  on  the  24th,  yesterday,  pushed  on  to  get  north  of  Banks  on  the  road 
to  Winchester.  General  Banks  ran  a  race  with  them,  beating  them  into 
Winchester  yesterday  evening.  This  morning  a  battle  ensued  between 
the  two  forces,  in  which  General  Banks  was  beaten  back  into  full  retreat 
towards  Martinsburg,  and  probably  is  broken  up  into  a  total  rout.  Geary, 
on  the  Manassas  Gap  Railroad,  just  now  reports  that  Jackson  is  now 
near  Front  Royal  with  ten  thousand  troops,  following  up  and  supporting, 
as  I  understand,  the  force  now  pursuing  Banks.  Also,  that  another  force 
of  ten  thousand  is  near  Orleans,  following  on  in  the  same  direction. 
Stripped  bare,  as  we  are  here,  I  will  do  all  we  can  to  prevent  them  cross 
ing  the  Potomac  at  Harper's  Ferry  or  above.  McDowell  has  about 
twenty  thousand  of  his  forces  moving  back  to  the  vicinity  of  Port  Royal, 
and  Fremont,  who  was  at  Franklin,  is  moving  to  Harrisonburg — both  these 
movements  intended  to  get  in  the  enemy's  rear. 

One  more  of  McDowell's  brigades  is  ordered  through  here  to  Harper's 
Ferry ;  the  rest  of  his  forces  remain  for  the  present  at  Fredericksburg. 
We  are  sending  such  regiments  and  dribs  from  here  and  Baltimore  as  we 
can  spare  to  Harper's  Ferry,  supplying  their  places  in  some  sort,  calling 
in  militia  from  the  adjacent  States.  We  also  have  eighteen  cannon  on 
the  road  to  Harper's  Ferry,  of  which  arm  there  is  not  a  single  on«  at 
that  point.  This  is  now  our  situation. 


282  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

If  McDowell's  force  was  now  beyond  our  reach,  we  should  be  entirely 
helpless.  Apprehensions  of  something  like  this,  and  no  unwillingness  to 
sustain  you,  has  always  been  my  reason  for  withholding  McDowell's 
forces  from  you. 

Please  understand  this,  and  do  the  best  you  can  with  the  forces  you 
have.  A.  LINCOLN,  President. 

Major-General  MCCLELLAN. 

Jackson  continued  Ms  triumphant  march  through  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  noth 
ing  could  prevent  his  crossing  the  Potomac,  and  making 
his  appearance  in  rear  of  Washington.  The  President 
promptly  announced  this  state  of  things  to  General  Mc- 
Clellan  in  the  following  dispatch : — 

"WASHINGTON,  May  25, 1862 — 2  p.  \r. 

The  enemy  is  moving  north  in  sufficient  force  to  drive  General  Bankt 
before  him ;  precisely  in  what  force  we  cannot  tell.  He  is  also  threaten 
ing  Leesburg  and  Geary  on  the  Manassas  Gap  Eailroad,  from  both  north 
and  south ;  in  precisely  what  force  we  cannot  tell.  I  think  the  move 
ment  is  a  general  and  concerted  one.  Such  as  would  not  be  if  he  was 
acting  upon  the  purpose  of  a  very  desperate  defence  of  Eichmond.  I 
think  the  time  is  near  when  you  must  either  attack  Kichmond  or  give 
up  the  job,  and  come  to  the  defence  of  Washington.  Let  me  hear  from 
you  instantly.  A.  LINCOLN. 

To  this  General  McClellan  replied  that,  independently 
of  the  President's  letter,  "the  time  was  very  near  when 
he  should  attack  Kichmond."  He  knew  nothing  of 
Banks'  s  position  and  force,  but  thought  Jackson' s  move 
ment  was  designed  to  prevent  re- enforcements  "being  sent 
to  him. 

On  the  26th,  the  President  announced  to  General  Mc 
Clellan  the  safety  of  Banks  at  Williamsport,  and  then 
turned  his  attention,  with  renewed  anxiety,  to  the  move 
ment  against  Richmond,  urging  General  McClellan,  if 
possible,  to  cut  the  railroad  between  that  city  and  the 
Rappahannock,  over  which  the  enemy  obtained  their 
supplies.  The  General,  on  the  evening  of  the  26th,  in 
formed  him  that  he  was  "quietly  closing  in  upon  the 
enemy  preparatory  to  the  last  struggle" — that  he  felt 
forced  to  take  every  possible  precaution  against  disaster, 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  283 

and  that  his  "arrangements  for  the  morrow  were  very 
important,  and  if  successful  would  leave  him  free  to 
strike  on  the  return  of  the  force  attacked."  The  move 
ment  here  referred  to  was  one  against  a  portion  of  the 
rebel  forces  at  Hanover  Court-House,  which  threatened 
McDowell,  and  was  in  a  position  to  re-enforce  Jackson. 
The  expedition  was  under  command  of  General  Fitz- John 
Porter,  and  proved  a  success.  General  McClellan  on  the 
28th  announced  it  to  the  Government  as  a  "complete 
rout"  of  the  rebels,  and  as  entitling  Porter  to  the  highest 
honors.  In  the  same  dispatch  he  said  he  would  do  his 
best  to  cut  off  Jackson  from  returning  to  Richmond,  but 
doubted  if  he  could.  The  great  battle  was  about  to  be 
fought  before  Richmond,  and  he  adds :  "  It  is  the  policy 
and  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  send  me  by  water  all 
the  well-drilled  troops  available.  All  unavailable  troops 
should  be  collected  here."  Porter,  he  said,  had  cut 
all  the  railroads  but  the  one  from  Richmond  to  Fred- 
ericksburg,  which  was  the  one  concerning  which  the 
President  had  evinced  the  most  anxiety.  Another 
expedition  was  sent  to  the  South  Anna  River  and 
Ashland,  which  destroyed  some  bridges  without  op 
position.  This  was  announced  to  the  Government  by 
General  McClellan  as  another  i '  complete  victory ' '  achiev 
ed  by  the  heroism  of  Porter — accompanied  by  the  state 
ment  that  the  enemy  were  even  in  greater  force  than 
he  had  supposed.  "  I  will  do,"  said  the  dispatch,  "all 
that  quick  movements  can  accomplish,  and  you  must 
send  me  all  the  troops  you  can,  and  leave  to  me  full 
latitude  as  to  choice  of  commanders."  In  reply,  the 
President  sent  him  the  following  :— 

"WASHINGTON,  May  28, 1862. 

I  am  very  glad  of  General  F.  J.  Porter's  victory ;  still,  if  it  was  a  total 
rout  of  the  enemy,  I  am  puzzled  to  know  why  the  Richmond  and  Fred- 
ericksburg  Railroad  was  not  seized  again,  as  you  say  you  have  all  the 
railroads  but  the  Richmond  and  Fredericksburg.  I  am  puzzled  to  see 
how,  lacking  that,  you  can  have  any,  except  the  scrap  from  Richmond  to 
West  Point.  The  scrap  of  the  Virginia  Central,  from  Richmond  to  Han 
over  Junction,  without  core,  is  simply  nothing.  That  the  whole  of  the 
enemy  is  concentrating  on  Richmond,  I  think,  cannot  be  certainly  known 


284  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

to  yon  or  me.  Saxton,  at  Harper's  Ferry,  informs  us  that  large  forces, 
supposed  to  be  Jackson's  and  Ewell's,  forced  his  advance  from  Charles- 
town  to-day.  General  King  telegraphs  us  from  Fredericks!)  urg  that  con 
trabands  give  certain  information  that  fifteen  thousand  left  Hanover 
Junction  Monday  morning  to  re-enforce  Jackson.  I  am  painfully  im 
pressed  with  the  importance  of  the  struggle  before  you,  and  shall  aid  you 
all  I  can  consistently  with  my  view  of  the  due  regard  to  all  points. 

A.  LmcoLH. 

Major-Genera] 


To  a  dispatch  reporting  the  destruction  of  the  South. 
Anna  Railroad  bridge,  the  President  replied  thus  :— 

WASHINGTON,  May  29,  1862. 

Your  dispatch  as  to  the  South  Anna  and  Ashland  being  seized  by 
our  forces  this  morning  is  received.  Understanding  these  points  to  be 
on  the  Richmond  and  Fredericksburg  Railroad,  I  heartily  congratulate 
the  country,  and  thank  General  McClellan  and  his  army  for  their  seizure. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

On  the  30th,  General  McClellan  telegraphed  to  the  Sec 
retary  of  War,  complaining  that  the  Government  did  not 
seem  to  appreciate  the  magnitude  of  Porter's  victory,  and 
saying  that  his  army  was  now  well  in  hand,  and  that 
"  another  day  will  make  the  probable  field  of  battle  pass 
able  for  artillery." 

On  the  25th  of  May,  General  Keyes  with  the  Fourth 
Corps  had  been  ordered  across  the  Chickahominy,  and  was 
followed  by  the  Third,  under  General  Heintzelman  —  one 
division  of  the  Fourth,  under  General  Casey,  being  pushed 
forward  within  seven  miles  of  Richmond,  to  Seven  Pines, 
which  he  was  ordered  to  hold  at  all  hazards.  On  the  28th, 
General  Keyes  was  ordered  to  advance  Casey's  Division 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  to  Fair  Oaks.  General  Keyes 
obeyed  the  order,  but  made  strong  representations  to  head 
quarters  of  the  extreme  danger  of  pushing  these  troops  so 
far  in  advance  without  adequate  support,  and  requested 
that  General  Heintzelman  might  be  brought  within  sup 
porting  distance,  and  that  a  stronger  force  might  be  crossed 
over  the  Chickahominy  to  be  in  readiness  for  the  general 
engagement  which  these  advances  would  be  very  likely 
to  bring  on.  These  requests  were  neglected,  and  General 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  285 

Key  es  was  regarded  and  treated  as  an  alarmist.  On  the 
afternoon  of  the  30th  he  made  a  personal  examination  of 
his  front,  and  reported  that  he  was  menaced  by  an  over 
whelming  force  of  the  enemy  in  front  and  on  both  flanks, 
and  he  again  urged  the  necessity  for  support,  to  which  he 
received  a  very  abrupt  reply  that  no  more  troops  would 
be  crossed  over,  and  that  the  Third  Corps  would  not  be  ad 
vanced  unless  he  was  attacked.  At  about  noon  the  next 
day  he  was  attacked  on  both  flanks  and  in  front,  General 
Casey's  Division  driven  back  with  heavy  loss,  and  in  spite 
of  a  stubborn  and  gallant  resistance  on  the  part  of  his 
corps,  General  Keyes  was  compelled  to  fall  back  with 
severe  losses,  some  two  miles,  when  the  enemy  was  check 
ed,  and  night  put  an  end  to  the  engagement.  On  hearing 
the  firing  at  head-quarters,  some  four  miles  distant,  Gen 
eral  McClellan  ordered  General  Summer  to  hold  his  com 
mand  in  readiness  to  move.  General  Sumner  not  only  did 
so,  but  moved  them  at  once  to  the  bridge,  and  on  receiv 
ing  authority  crossed  over,  and,  by  the  greatest  exertions 
over  muddy  roads,  reached  the  field  of  battle  in  time  to 
aid  in  checking  the  rebel  advance  for  the  night.  Early 
the  next  morning  the  enemy  renewed  the  attack  with  great 
vigor,  but  the  arrival  of  General  Sumner,  and  the  advance 
of  General  Heintzelman'  s  Corps,  enabled  our  forces,  though 
still  greatly  inferior,  not  onl/to  repel  the  assault,  but  to 
inflict  upon  the  enemy  a  signal  defeat.  They  were  driven 
back  in  the  utmost  confusion  and  with  terrible  losses  upon 
Richmond,  where  their  arrival  created  the  utmost  con 
sternation,  as  it  was  taken  for  granted  they  would  be 
immediately  followed  by  our  whole  army. 

General  McClellan,  who  had  remained  with  the  main 
body  of  the  army  on  the  other  side  of  the  Chickahominy 
during  the  whole  of  the  engagements  of  both  days,  crossed 
the  river  after  the  "battle  was  over,  and  visited  the  field. 
"The  state  of  the  roads,"  he  says,  "and  the  impossibil 
ity  of  manoeuvring  artillery,  prevented  pursuit."  He  re 
turned  to  head- quarters  in  the  afternoon.  On  the  next 
day,  June  2d,  General  Heintzelman  sent  forward  a  strong 
reconnoitring  party  under  General  Hooker,  which  went 


286  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

within  four  miles  of  Richmond  without  finding  any  en 
emy.  Upon  "being  informed  of  this  fact,  General  McClel- 
lan  ordered  the  force  to  fall  "back  to  its  old  position, 
assigning  the  bad  state  of  the  roads  as  the  reason  for  not 
attempting  either  to  march  upon  Richmond,  or  even  to 
hold  the  ground  already  gained.  In  a  dispatch  to  Wash 
ington  on  the  2d,  he  states  that  he  "  only  waits  for  the 
river  to  fall  to  cross  with  the  rest  of  the  army  and  make 
a  general  attack.  The  morale  of  my  troops,"  he  adds, 
"  is  now  such  that  I  can  venture  much.  I  do  not  fear  for 
odds  against  me."  It  seems  to  have  "been  his  intention 
then,  to  concentrate  his  forces  for  an  immediate  advance 
upon  the  relbel  capital,  though  in  his  report,  written  more 
than  a  year  afterwards,  he  says  the  idea  of  uniting  the 
two  wings  of  the  army  at  that  time  for  a  vigorous  move 
upon  Richmond  was  c  i  simply  absurd,  and  was  probably 
never  seriously  entertained  by  any  one  connected  with  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac."* 

The  Government  at  once  took  measures  to  strengthen 
the  army  by  all  the  means  available.  An  order  was  issued, 
placing  at  his  command  all  the  disposable  forces  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  and  another  ordering  McDowell  to  send  McCall'  s 
division  to  him  by  water  from  Fredericksburg.  McDowell 
or  Fremont  was  expected  to  fight  Jackson  at  Front  Royal, 
after  which,  part  of  their  troops  would  become  available 
for  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  On  the  4th,  General 
McClellan  telegraphed  that  it  was  raining,  that  the  river 
was  still  high,  that  he  had  "to  be  very  cautious,"  that 
he  expected  another  severe  battle,  and  hoped,  after  our 
heavy  losses,  he  "  should  no  longer  be  regarded  as  an 
alarmist."  On  the  5th,  the  Secretary  of  War  sent  him 
word,  that  troops  had  been  embarked  for  him  at  Baltimore, 
to  which  he  replied  on  the  7th,  "/  shall  be  in  perfect 
7  eadiness  to  move  forward  and  take  Richmond  the  moment 
McCall  reaches  here,  and  the  ground  will  admit  the  pas 
sage  of  artillery."  vOn  the  10th,  General  McCall' s  forces^ 
began  to  arrive  at  White  House,  and  on  the  same  day 

*  See  General  McClellan's  Report,  August  4,  1863. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          287 

General  McClellan  telegraphed  to  tlie  department  that  a 
rumor  had  reached  him  that  the  rebels  had  been  re-enforced 
by  Beauregard — that  he  thought  a  portion  of  Halleck's 
army  from  Tennessee  should  be  sent  to  strengthen  him, 
but  that  he  should  "  attack  with  what  force  he  had,  as 
soon  as  the  weather  and  ground  will  permit — but  there 
will  be  a  delay,"  he  added,  "the  extent  of  which  no  one 
can  foresee,  for  the  season  is  altogether  abnormal."  The 
Secretary  of  War  replied  that  Halle ck  would  be  urged 
to  comply  with  his  request  if  he  could  safely  do  so — that 
neither  Beauregard  nor  his  army  was  in  Richmond,  that 
McDowell's  force  would  join  him  as  soon  as  possible,  that 
Fremont  had  had  an  engagement,  not  wholly  successful, 
with  Jackson,  and  closing  with  this  strong  and  cordial 
assurance  of  confidence  and  support  :— 

Be  assured,  General,  that  there  never  has  been  a  moment  when  my  de 
sire  has  been  otherwise  than  to  aid  you  with  my  whole  heart,  mind,  and 
strength,  since  the  hour  we  first  met ;  and  whatever  others  may  say  for 
their  own  purposes,  you  have  never  had,  and  never  can  have,  any  one 
more  truly  your  friend,  or  more  anxious  to  support  you,  or  more  joyful 
than  I  shall  be  at  the  success  which,  I  have  no  doubt,  will  soon  be  achieved 
by  your  arms. 

On  the  14th,  General  McClellan  wrote  to  the  War 
Department  that  the  weather  was  favorable,  and  that 
two  days  more  would  make  the  ground  practicable.  He 
still  urges  the  propriety  of  sending  him  more  troops,  but 
finds  a  new  subject  of  complaint  in  a  telegram  he  had 
received  from  McDowell.  The  latter,  on  the  8th,  had 
received  the  following  orders  :— 

The  Secretary  of  War  directs  that,  having  first  provided  adequately  for 
the  defence  of  the  City  of  Washington  and  for  holding  the  position  at 
Fredericksburg,  you  operate  with  the  residue  of  your  force  as  speedily  as 
possible  in  the  direction  of  Richmond  to  co-operate  with  Major-General 
McClellan,  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  heretofore  given  you.  Me- 
CaWs  Division,  which  has  been  by  previous  order  directed  towards  Rich 
mond  by  water,  will  still  form  a  part  of  the  Army  of  the  Rappahannock, 
and  will  come  under  your  orders  when  you  are  in  a  position  to  co-operate 
with  General  McClellan. 


288  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

General  McDowell  had  telegraphed  McClellan  as  fol 
lows  on  the  10th  of  June  : — 

For  the  third  time  I  am  ordered  to  join  you,  and  hope  this  time  to  get 
through.  In  view  of  the  remarks  made  -with  reference  to  my  leaving 
you,  and  not  joining  you  before,  by  your  friends,  and  of  something  I 
have  heard  as  coming  from  you  on  that  subject,  I  wish  to  say,  I  go  with 
the  greatest  satisfaction,  and  hope  to  arrive  with  my  main  body  in  time 
to  be  of  service.  McCall  goes  in  advance  by  water.  I  will  be  with  you 
in  ten  days  with  the  remainder  by  Fredericksburg. 

And  again,  June  12th : — 

The  delay  of  Major-General  Banks  to  relieve  the  division  of  my  com 
mand  in  the  valley  beyond  the  time  I  had  calculated  on,  will  prevent  my 
joining  you  with  the  remainder  of  the  troops  I  am  to  take  below  at  as 
early  a  day  as  I  named.  My  Third  Division  (McCalPs)  is  now  on  the  way. 
Please  do  me  the  favor  to  so  place  it  that  it  may  ~be  in  a  position  to  join 
the  others  as  they  come  down  from  Fredericksburg. 

These  telegrams,  it  will  Ibe  seen,  are  in  accordance  with 
the  orders  to  McDowell  of  the  8th,  which  directed  that 
McCall' s  Division  should  continue  to  form  part  of  the 
Army  of  the  Rappahannock,  and  required  that  McDowell 
should  operate  in  the  direction  of  Richmond,  to  co-oper 
ate  with  McClellan  in  accordance  with  instructions  here 
tofore  given  him. 

These  instructions  are  those  of  the  17th  and  18th  of 
May,  concerning  which  McClellan  sent  to  the  President 
his  long  telegram  of  the  21st,  in  which  he  says  : — 

This  fact  (McDowell's  forces  coming  within  his  department),  my  supe 
rior  rank,  and  the  express  language  of  the  sixty-second  article  of  war, 
will  place  his  command  under  my  orders,  unless  it  is  otherwise  specially 
directed  by  your  Excellency,  and  I  consider  that  he  will  be  under  my 
command,  except  that  I  am  not  to  detach  any  portion  of  his  forces,  or 
give  any  orders  which  can  put  him  out  of  position  to  cover  Washington 

To  this  the  President  answered : — 

You  will  have  command  of  McDowell  after  he  joins  yon,  precisely  as 
you  indicated  in  your  long  dispatch  to  us  of  the  21st. 

In  regard  to  this,  McClellan,  in  his  report  (August  4th, 

1863),  says :- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  289 

This  information,  that  McDowell's  Corps  would  march  from  Fredericks- 
burg  on  the  following  Monday — the  26th — and  that  he  would  be  under 
my  command  as  indicated  in  my  telegram  of  the  21st,  was  cheering  news, 
and  I  now  felt  confident  that  we  would,  on  his  arrival,  be  sufficiently 
strong  to  overpower  the  large  army  confronting  us. 

Yet  in  the  simple  request  of  McDowell,  as  to  the 
posting  of  his  Third  (McCall's)  Division — made  to  carry 
out  the  plan — the  news  of  which,  McClellan  says,  was  so 
cheering,  and  inspired  him  with  such  confidence,  Mc 
Clellan  sees  nothing  but  personal  ambition  on  McDowell' s 
part,  and  protests  against  that  "  spirit "  in  the  following 
terms :  — 

That  request  does  not  breathe  the  proper  spirit.  Whatever  troops 
come  to  me  must  be  disposed  of  so  as  to  do  the  most  good.  I  do  not  feel 
that,  in  such  circumstances  as  those  in  which  I  am  now  placed.  General 
McDowell  should  wish  the  general  interests  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  pur 
pose  of  increasing  his  command. 

If  I  cannot  fully  control  all  Ms  troops,  I  want  none  of  them,  l)ut  would 
prefer  to  fight  the  battle  with  what  I  have,  and  let  others  be  responsible  f 01 
the  results. 

The  department  lines  should  not  bo  allowed  to  interfere  with  me  ;  b  a! 
General  McD.,  and  all  other  troops  sent  to  me,  should  be  placed  complete 
ly  at  my  disposal,  to  do  with  them  as  I  think  best.  In  no  other  way  cas 
ehey  be  of  assistance  to  me.  I  therefore  request  that  I  may  have  entire 
and  full  control.  The  stake  at  issue  is  too  great  to  allow  personal  con 
siderations  to  be  entertained  :  you  Tcnow  that  I  have  none. 

It  had  been  suggested,  in  some  of  the  journals  of  the 
day,  that  General  McDowell  might  possibly  advance 
upon  Richmond  from  the  north,  without  waiting  for 
McClellan :  it  is  scarcely  possible,  however,  that  any 
suspicion  of  such  a  purpose  could  have  had  any  thing  to 
do  with  General  McClellan' s  reiterated  and  emphatic 
desire  that  McDowell  should  join  him  by  water,  so  as  to 
be  in  his  rear,  and  not  by  land,  which  would  bring  him 
on  his  front — with  his  peremptory  demand  that  all  Mc 
Dowell' s  troops  should  be  "  completely  at  his  disposal," 
with  his  indignant  protest  against  McDowell's  personal 
ambition,  or  with  his  conviction  of  the  propriety  and 
necessity  of  disavowing  all  personal  considerations  for 
himself.  But  it  is  certainly  a  little  singular  that  a  com- 

19 


290  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  ANP 

mander,  intrusted  with  an  enterprise  of  sncli  transcendent 
importance  to  his  army  and  country,  who  had  been  so 
urgently  calling  for  re-enforcements  as  absolutely  indis 
pensable  to  success,  should  have  preferred  not  to  receive 
them,  but  to  fight  the  battle  with  what  he  had,  rather 
than  have  the  co-operation  of  McDowell  under  the  two 
conditions  fixed  by  the  President,  (1)  that  he  should  not 
deprive  him  of  his  troops,  or,  (2)  post  them  so  as  to 
prevent  their  being  kept  interposed  between  the  enemy 
and  Washington.  Even  if  he  could  leave  "  others  to  be 
responsible  for  the  results, "  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  he 
could  reconcile  the  possibility  of  adverse  results  with  his 
professedly  paramount  concern  for  the  welfare  of  his 
country. 

On  the  20th  of  June,  he  telegraphed  the  President  that 
troops  to  the  number  of  probably  ten  thousand  had  left 
Richmond  to  re-enforce  Jackson ;  that  his  defensive 
works  on  the  Chickahominy,  made  necessary  by  his 
"inferiority  of  numbers,"  would  be  completed  the  next 
day  ;  and  that  he  would  be  glad  to  learn  the  "disposi 
tion,  as  to  numbers  and  position,  of  the  troops  not  under 
his  command,  in  Virginia  and  elsewhere,"  as  also  to  lay 
before  his  Excellency,  "by  letter  or  telegraph,  his  views 
as  to  the  present  state  of  military  aifairs  throughout  the 
whole  country"  To  this  he  received  the  following 
reply  :— 

WASHINGTON,  Jime  21, 1S62— 6  P.  M. 

Your  dispatch  of  yesterday,  two  P.  M.,  was  received  this  morning.  If 
it  would  not  divert  too  much  of  your  time  and  attention  from  the  army 
under  your  immediate  command,  I  would  be  glad  to  have  your  views  as 
to  the  present  state  of  military  affairs  throughout  the  whole  country,  as 
you  say  you  would  he  glad  to  give  them.  I  would  rather  it  should  be  by 
letter  than  by  telegraph,  because  of  the  better  chance  of  secrecy.  As  to  the 
numbers  and  positions  of  the  troops  not  under  your  command  in  Virginia 
and  elsewhere,  even  if  I  could  do  it  with  accuracy,  which  I  cannot,  I 
would  rather  not  transmit,  either  by  telegraph  or  letter,  because  of  the 
chances  of  its  reaching  the  enemy.  I  would  be  very  glad  to  talk  with 
you,  bat  ymi  cannot  leave  your  camp,  and  I  cannot  well  leave  here. 

A.  LINCOLN,  President. 

Major-General  GEORGE  B.  M'CCLELLAN. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  291 

The  President  also  stated  that  the  news  of  Jackson's 
having  been  re-enforced  from  Richmond  was  confirmed 
by  General  King  at  Fredericksburg,  and  added,  "  If  this 
is  true,  it  is  as  good  as  a  re-enforcement  to  you  of  an 
equal  force."  In  acknowledging  the  first  dispatch,  Gen 
eral  McClellan  said,  he  "  perceived  that  it  would  be 
better  to  defer  the  communication  he  desired  to  make" 
on  the  condition  of  the  country  at  large  ;  he  soon,  indeed, 
had  occasion  to  give  all  his  attention  to  the  army  under 
his  command. 

General  McClellan  had  been,  for  nearly  a  month,  de 
claring  his  intention  to  advance  upon  Richmond  imme 
diately.  At  times,  as  has  been  seen  from  his  dispatches, 
the  movement  was  fixed  for  specific  days,  though  in 
every  instance  something  occurred,  when  the  decisive 
moment  arrived,  to  cause  a  further  postponement.  On 
the  18th,  again  announcing  his  intention  to  advance,  he 
said  that  a  ' '  general  engagement  might  take  place  at  any 
hour,  as  an  advance  by  us  involves  a  battle  more  or  less 
decisive."  But  in  the  same  dispatch  he  said,  "  After  to 
morrow  we  shall  fight  the  rebel  army  as  soon  as  Provi 
dence  will  permit."  But  in  this  case,  as  in  every  other, 
in  spite  of  his  good  intentions,  and  the  apparent  permis 
sion  of  Providence,  General  McClellan  made  no  move 
ment  in  advance,  but  waited  until  he  was  attacked.  He 
had  placed  his  army  astride  the  Chickahominy — the  left 
wing  being  much  the  strongest  and  most  compact,  the 
right  being  comparatively  weak  and  very  extended.  He 
had  expended,  however,  a  great  deal  of  labor  in  bridging 
the  stream,  so  that  either  wing  could  have  been  thrown 
across  with  great  ease  and  celerity.  Up  to  the  24th  of 
June,  General  McClellan  believed  Jackson  to  be  in  strong 
force  at  Gordonsville,  where  he  was  receiving  re-enforce 
ments  from  Richmond  with  a  view  to  operations  in  that 
quarter.  But  on  that  day  he  was  told  by  a  deserter  that 
Jackson  was  planning  a  movement  to  attack  his  right  and 
rear  on  the  28th,  and  this  information  was  confirmed  by 
advices  from  the  War  Department  on  the  25th.  On  that 
day,  being  convinced  that  he  is  to  be  attacked,  and  will 


292  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

therefore  be  compelled  to  fight,  he  writes  to  the  Depart 
ment  to  throw  upon  others  the  responsibility  of  an  antici 
pated  defeat.  He  declares  the  rebel  force  to  be  some  two 
hundred  thousand,  regrets  his  "  great  inferiority  of  num 
bers,"  but  protests  that  he  is  not  responsible  for  it,  as  he 
has  repeatedly  and  constantly  called  for  re-enforcements, 
and  declares  that  if  the  result  of  the  action  is  a  disaster, 
the  "  responsibility  cannot  be  thrown  on  his  shoulders, 
but  must  rest  where  it  belongs."  He  closes  by  announ 
cing  that  a  reconnoissance  which  he  had  ordered  had 
proved  successful,  that  he  should  probably  be  attacked 
the  next  day,  and  that  he  felt  "that  there  was  no  use  in 
again  asking  for  re-enforcements. ' '  To  this  the  President 
replied  as  follows  :— 

WASHINGTON,  June  26,  1862. 

Your  three  dispatches  of  yesterday  in  relation,  ending  with  the  state 
ment  that  you  completely  succeeded  in  making  your  point,  are  very  grati 
fying.  The  later  one,  suggesting  the  probability  of  your  being  over 
whelmed  by  two  hundred  thousand  men,  and  talking  of  to  whom  the  re 
sponsibility  will  belong,  pains  me  very  much.  I  give  you  all  I  can,  and 
act  on  the  presumption  that  you  will  do  the  best  you  can  with  what  you 
hare  ;  while  you  continue,  ungenerously,  I  think,  to  assume  that  I  could 
give  you  more  if  I  would.  I  have  omitted — I  shall  omit — no  opportunity 
to  send  you  re-enforcements  whenever  I  can.  A.  LINCOLN. 

General  McClellan  had  foreseen  the  probability  of  be 
ing  attacked,  and  had  made  arrangements  for  a  defeat. 
"  More  than  a  week  previous,"  he  says  in  his  report, 
"that  is,  on  the  18th,"  he  had  prepared  for  a  retreat  to 
the  James  River,  and  had  ordered  supplies  to  that  point. 
His  extreme  right  was  attacked  at  Mechanicsville  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  26th,  but  the  enemy  were  repulsed.  The 
movement,  however,  disclosed  the  purpose  of  the  rebel 
army  to  crush  his  right  wing  and  cut  off  his  communica 
tions,  if  possible.  Two  plans  were  open  to  his  adoption  : 
he  might  have  brought  over  his  left  wing;  and  so  strength 
ened  his  right  as  to  give  it  a  victory,  or  he  might  have 
withdrawn  his  right  across  the  Chickahominy — in  itself  a 
strong  defensive  line — and  have  pushed  his  whole  force  into 
Richmond,  and  upon  the  rear  of  the  attacking  force.  Con- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  293 

centration  seemed  to  be  absolutely  essential  to  success  in 
any  event.  But  lie  did  not  attempt  it.  He  left  the  right 
wing  to  contend  next  day  with  thirty  thousand  men, 
without  support,  against  the  main  body  of  the  rebel 
army,  and  only  withdrew  it  acioss  the  Chickahominy 
after  it  had  been  beaten  with  terrific  slaughter  on  the 
27th,  in  the  battle  of  Games' s  Mill.  On  the  evening 
of  that  day  he  informed  his  corps  commanders  of  his 
purpose  to  fall  back  to  the  James  River,  and  withdrew 
the  remainder  of  his  right  wing  across  the  Chicka 
hominy.  On  the  next  day  the  whole  army  was  put  in 
motion  on  the  retreat,  and  General  McClellan  found  time 
again  to  reproach  the  Government  •  with  neglect  of  his 
army.  If  he  had  ten  thousand  fresh  men  to  use  at  once, 
he  said,  he  could  take  Richmond ;  but,  as  it  was,  all  he 
could  do  would  be  to  cover  his  retreat.  He  repeated  that 
he  "was  not  responsible  "  for  the  result,  and  that  he  must 
have  instantly  very  large  re-enforcements  ;  and  closed  by 
saying  to  the  Secretary  of  War— what  we  do  not  believe 
any  subordinate  was  ever  before  permitted  to  say  to  his 
superior  officer  without  instant  dismissal — "  If  I  save  this 
army  now,  I  tell  you  plainly  that  I  owe  no  thanks  to  you 
or  to  any  persons  in  Washington :  you  7iave  done  your 
best  to  sacrifice  tJiis  army" 
To  this  dispatch  the  President  replied  as  follows  :— 

WASHINGTON,  June  28,  1 862. 

Save  your  army  at  all  events.  Will  send  re-enforcements  as  fast  as  we 
can.  Of  course  they  cannot  reach  you  to-day,  to-morrow,  or  next  day. 
I  have  not  said  you  were  ungenerous  for  saying  you  needed  re-enforce 
ments  ;  I  thought  you  were  ungenerous  in  assuming  that  I  did  not  send 
them  as  fast  as  I  could.  I  feel  any  misfortune  to  you  and  your  army  quite 
as  keenly  as  you  feel  it  yourself.  If  you  have  had  a  drawn  battle  or  a 
repulse,  it  is  the  price  we  pay  for  the  enemy  not  being  in  "Washington. 
We  protected  Washington,  and  the  enemy  concentrated  on  you.  Had  we 
stripped  Washington,  he  would  have  been  upon  us  before  the  troops  sent 
could  have  got  to  you.  Less  than  a  week  ago  you  notified  us  that  re- 
enforcements  were  leaving  Richmond  to  come  in  front  of  us.  It  is  the 
nature  of  the  case,  and  neither  you  nor  the  Government  is  to  blame. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Under  general  orders  from  General  McClellan,  he  and 


294  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

his  staff  proceeding  in  advance,  and  leaving  word  where 
the  corps  commanders  were  to  make  successive  stands  to 
resist  pursuit,  but  taking  no  part  personally  in  any  one 
of  the  succeeding  engagements,  the  army  continued  its 
march  towards  James  River.  They  first  resisted  and  re 
pulsed  the  pursuing  rebels  on  the  29th  at  Savage  Station, 
in  a  bloody  battle,  fought  under  General  Sumner,  and  on 
the  30th  had  another  severe  engagement  at  Glendale. 
On  the  1st  of  July,  our  troops,  strongly  posted  at  Mal- 
vern  Hill,  were  again  attacked  by  the  rebels,  whom  they 
repulsed  and  routed  with  terrible  slaughter  ;  and  orders 
were  at  once  issued  for  the  further  retreat  of  the  army  to 
Harrison's  Landing,  which  General  McClellan  had  per 
sonally  examined  and  selected  on  the  day  before.  Even 
before  the  battle  of  Malvern  Hill,  he  had  telegraphed  to 
Washington  for  "fresh  troops,"  saying  he  should  fall 
back  to  the  river  if  possible;  to  which  dispatch  he 
received  the  following  reply : — 

WASHINGTON,  July  1, 1862—3.30  P.  M. 

It  is  impossible  to  re-enforce  you  for  your  present  emergency.  If  we 
had  a  million  of  men  we  could  not  get  them  to  you  in  time.  We  have 
not  the  men  to  send.  If  you  are  not  strong  enough  to  face  the  enemy, 
you  must  find  a  place  of  security,  and  wait,  rest,  and  repair.  Maintain 
your  ground  if  you  can,  but  save  the  army  at  all  events,  even  if  you  fall 
back  to  Fort  Monroe.  We  still  have  strength  enough  in  the  country,  and 

will  bring  it  out. 

A.  LINCOLN. 
Major-General  G.  B.  MCCLELLAN. 

On  the  next  day,  in  reply  to  a  request  from  General 
McClellan  for  fifty  thousand  more  troops,  the  President 
thus  addressed  him : — 

WASHINGTON,  July  2, 1862. 

Your  dispatch  of  yesterday  induces  me  to  hope  that  your  army  is  hav 
ing  some  rest.  In  this  hope,  allow  me  to  reason  with  you  for  a  moment. 
When  you  ask  for  fifty  thousand  men  to  be  promptly  sent  you,  you  surely 
labor  under  some  gross  mistake  of  fact.  Recently  you  sent  papers  show 
ing  your  disposal  of  forces  made  last  spring  for  the  defence  of  Washington, 
and  advising  a  return  to  that  plan.  I  find  it  included  in  and  about  Wash 
ington  seventy-five  thousand  men.  Now,  please  be  assured  that  I  have 
not  men  enough  to  fill  that  very  plan  by  fifteen  thousand.  All  of  General 
Fremont's  in  the  Valley,  all  of  General  Banks's,  all  of  General  McDowell's 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  295 

not  with  you,  and  all  in  Washington  taken  together,  do  not  exceed,  if  they 
reach,  sixty  thousand.  With  General  Wool  and  General  Dix  added  to 
those  mentioned,  I  have  not,  outside  of  your  array,  seventy-five  thousand 
men  east  of  the  mountains.  Thus,  the  idea  of  sending  you  fifty  thousand, 
or  any  other  considerable  force  promptly,  is  simply  absurd.  If,  in  your 
frequent  mention  of  responsibility,  you  have  the  impression  that  I  blame 
you  for  not  doing  more  than  you  can,  please  be  relieved  of  such  impres 
sion.  I  only  beg  that,  in  like  manner,  you  will  not  ask  impossibilities 
of  me.  If  you  think  you  are  not  strong  enough  to  take  Richmond  just 
now,  I  do  not  ask  you  to  try  just  now.  Save  the  army,  material,  and 
personnel,  and  I  will  strengthen  it  for  the  offensive  again  as  fast  as  I  can. 
The  Governors  of  eighteen  States  offer  me  a  new  levy  of  three  hundred 
thousand,  which  I  accept.  A.  LINCOLN. 

On  the  next  day,  the  3d,  General  HcClellan  again  wrote 
for  one  hundred  thousand  men— "  more  rather  than  less," 
in  order  to  enable  him  to  "  accomplish  the  great  task  of 
capturing  Richmond,  and  putting  an  end  to  the  rebellion ;' ' 
and  at  the  same  time  he  sent  his  chief  of  staff,  General 
Marcy,  to  Washington,  in  order  to  secure  a  perfect  under 
standing  of  the  state  of  the  army.  The  General  said  he 
hoped  the  enemy  was  as  completely  worn  out  as  his  own 
army,  though  he  apprehended  a  new  attack,  from  which, 
however,  he  trusted  the  bad  condition  of  the  roads  might 
protect  him.  On  the  4th,  he  repeated  his  call  for  "heavy 
re-enforcements,"  but  said  he  held  a  very  strong  position, 
from  which,  with  the  aid  of  the  gunboats,  he  could  only 
be  driven  by  overwhelming  numbers.  On  the  same  day 
he  received  the  following  from  the  President  :— 

WAB  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON  CITY,  D.  C.,  July  4, 1862. 

I  understand  your  position  as  stated  in  your  letter,  and  by  Generul 
Marcy.  To  re-enforce  you  so  as  to  enable  yon  to  resume  the  offensive 
within  a  month,  or  even  six  weeks,  is  impossible.  In  addition  to  that 
arrived  and  now  arriving  from  the  Potomac  (about  ten  thousand  men,  I 
suppose),  and  about  ten  thousand,  I  hope,  you  will  have  from  Burnsule 
very  soon,  and  about  five  thousand  from  Hunter  a  little  later,  I  do  not  see 
how  I  can  send  you  another  man  within  a  month.  Under  these  circum 
stances,  the  defensive,  for  the  present,  must  be  your  only  care.  Save  the 
army,  first,  where  you  are,  if  you  can;  and  secondly,  by  removal,  if  you  must. 
You,  on  the  ground,  must  be  the  judge  as  to  which  you  will  attempt, 
and  of  the  means  for  effecting  it.  I  but  give  it  as  my  opinion,  that  with 
the  aid  of  the  gunboats  and  the  re-enforcements  mentioned  above,  you 


296  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

can  hold  your  present  position ;  provided,  and  so  long  as  you  can  keep 
the  James  River  open  below  you.  If  you  are  not  tolerably  confident  you 
can  keep  the  James  River  open,  you  had  better  remove  as  soon  as  pos 
sible.  I  do 'not  remember  that  you  have  expressed  any  apprehension  as 
to  the  danger  of  having  your  communication  cut  on  the  ™ver  below  you, 
yet  I  do  not  suppose  it  can  have  escaped  your  attention. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

P.  S. — If  at  any  time  you  feel  able  to  take  the  offensive,  you  are  not 
restrained  from  doing  so.  A.  L. 

At  this  point,  on  the  7th  of  July,  General  McClellan 
sent  the  President  a  letter  of  advice  on  the  general  con 
duct  of  his  Administration.  He  thought  the  time  had  come 
"when  the  Government  should  determine  upon  a  civil 
and  military  policy  covering  the  whole  ground  of  our 
national  trouble,"  and  he  proceeded  to  lay  down  the  basis 
of  such  a  policy  as  ought  to  be  adopted.  The  war  against 
the  rebellion,  he  said,  "should  not  be  a  war  looking  to 
the  subjugation  of  the  people  of  any  State  in  any  event. 
JXTeither  confiscation  of  property,  political  execution  of 
persons,  territorial  organization  of  States,  nor  forcible 
abolition  of  slavery,  should  be  contemplated  for  a  mo 
ment."  He  added : — 

Military  power  should  not  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  the  relations  of 
servitude,  either  by  supporting  or  impairing  the  authority  of  the  master, 
except  for  repressing  disorder,  as  in  other  cases.  Slaves,  contraband,  under 
the  act  of  Congress,  seeking  military  protection,  should  receive  it.  The 
right  of  the  Government  to  appropriate  permanently  to  its  own  service 
claims  to  slave  labor,  should  be  asserted,  and  the  right  of  the  owner  to 
compensation  therefor  should  be  recognized.  This  principle  might  be 
extended,  upon  grounds  of  military  necessity  and  security,  to  all  the  slaves 
of  a  particular  State,  thus  working  manumission  in  such  State ;  and  in 
Missouri,  perhaps  in  Western  Virginia  also,  and  possibly  even  in  Maryland, 
the  expediency  of  such  a  measure  is  only  a  question  of  time. 

Unless  the  principles  governing  the  future  conduct  of  our  struggle  shall 
be  made  known  and  approved,  the  effort  to  obtain  requisite  forces  will  be 
almost  hopeless.  A  declaration  of  radical  views,  especially  upon  slavery, 
will  rapidly  disintegrate  our  present  armies. 

He  closed  this  letter  by  saying  that  to  carry  out  these 
views  the  President  would  require  a  Commander-in-Chief 
who  possessed  his  confidence  and  could  execute  his  orders  ; 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  297 

he  did  not  ask  that  place  for  himself,  but  would  serve  in 
any  position  that  might  be  assigned  him.     "I  may  be,' 
he  adds,   "on  the  brink  of  eternity;  and  as  I  hope  foi 
forgiveness  from  my  Maker,  I  have  written  this  letter  with 
sincerity  towards  you,  and  from  love  for  my  country." 

The  President,  instead  of  entering  upon  a  discussion  as 
to  the  general  policy  of  his  Administration,  continued  to 
urge  the  General'  s  attention  to  the  state  of  his  own  army  ; 
and  in  order  to  inform  himself  more  accurately  as  to  its 
actual  condition  and  prospects,  visited  the  camp  on  the 
8th  of  July,  at  Harrison'  s  Landing.  The  actual  strength 
of  the  army  seems  to  have  been  at  that  time  a  matter  of 
considerable  difference  of  opinion  ;  and  in  regard  to  it,  on 
returning  to  Washington,  the  President  thus  addressed 
the  General  :  — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  July  13,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR:  —  I  am  told  that  over  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
men  have  gone  with  your  array  on  the  Peninsula.  When  I  was  with  you 
the  other  day,  we  made  out  eighty-six  thousand  remaining,  leaving  seventy- 
three  thousand  five  hundred  to  be  accounted  for.  I  believe  three  thousand 
five  hundred  will  cover  all  the  killed,  wounded,  and  missing,  in  all  your 
battles  and  skirmishes,  leaving  fifty  thousand  who  have  left  otherwise. 
Not  more  than  five  thousand  of  these  have  died,  leaving  forty-five  thou 
sand  of  your  army  still  alive,  and  not  with  it.  I  believe  half  or  two- 
thirds  of  them  are  fit  for  duty  to-day.  Have  you  any  more  perfect 
knowledge  of  this  than  I  have  ?  If  I  am  right,  and  you  had  these  men 
with  you,  you  could  go  into  Richmond  in  the  next  three  days.  How  can 
they  be  got  to  you,  and  how  can  they  be  prevented  from  getting  away  IE 
numbers  for  the  future  ?  A.  LINCOLN. 


In  reply  to  this  letter,  the  General  disclosed  the  fact  that 
thirty-eight  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  of  his 
army  were  absent  by  authority  —  i.  e.  ,  on  furloughs  granted 
by  permission  of  the  Commanding  General.  The  actual 
number  of  troops  composing  his  army  on  the  20th  of  July, 
according  to  official  returns,  was  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  thousand  three  hundred  and  fourteen,  and  the  aggre 
gate  losses  in  the  retreat  to  the  James  River  was  fifteen 
thousand  two  hundred  and  forty-nine. 

During  the  President's  visit  to  the  camp,  the  future 
movements  of  the  army  were  a  subject  of  anxious  delib- 


2:98  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

eration.  It  was  understood  that  the  rebels  were  gather 
ing  large  forces  for  another  advance  upon  Washington, 
which  was  comparatively  unprotected— and  as  General 
McClellan  did  not  consider  himself  strong  enough  to  take 
the  offensive,  it  was  felt  to  be  absolutely  necessary  to  con 
centrate  the  army,  either  on  the  Peninsula  or  in  front  of 
Washington,  for  the  protection  of  the  Capital.  The  former 
course,  after  the  experience  of  the  past  season,  was  felt 
to  be  exceedingly  hazardous,  and  the  corps  commanders 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  were  decidedly  in  favor  of 
the  latter.  General  McClellan  at  once  addressed  himself 
to  the  task  of  defeating  the  project.  On  the  llth,  he  tele 
graphed  to  the  President  that  ' '  the  army  was  in  line 
spirits,  and  that  he  hoped  he  would  soon  make  him  strong 
enough  to  try  again."  On  the  12th,  he  said  he  was  "more 
and  more  convinced  that  the  army  ought  not  to  be  with 
drawn,  but  promptly  re-enforced  and  thrown  again  upon 
Richmond."  He  "  dreaded  the  effects  of  any  retreat  on 
the  morale  of  his  men" — though  his  previous  experience 
should  have  obviated  any  such  apprehension  in  his  mind. 
"If  we  have  a  little  more  than  half  a  chance,"  he  said, 
"we  can  take  Richmond."  On  the  17th,  he  urged  that 
General  Burnside's  whole  command  in  North  Carolina 
should  be  ordered  to  join  him,  to  enable  him  to  "assume 
the  offensive  as  soon  as  possible."  On  the  18th,  he  re 
peated  this  request ;  and  on  the  28th,  again  urged  that  he 
should  be  "at  once  re- enforced  by  all  available  troops." 
On  the  25th,  General  Halleck  had  visited  the  camp,  and, 
after  a  careful  inspection  of  the  condition  of  the  army, 
called  an  informal  council  of  the  officers,  a  majority  of 
whom,  upon  learning  the  state  of  affairs,  recommended  its 
withdrawal  from  the  Peninsula.  On  the  30th,  lie  issued 
an  order  to  General  McClellan  to  make  arrangements  at 
once  for  a  prompt  removal  of  all  the  sick  in  his  army,  in 
order  to  enable  him  to  move  "  in  any  direction."  On  the 
2d  of  August,  not  having  received  any  reply,  General 
Halleck  renewed  his  order  to  "  remove  them  as  rapidly 
as  possible ;' '  to  which,  on  the  3d,  General  McClellan 
replied  that  it  was  "impossible  to  decide  what  cases  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  299 

send  off  unless  lie  knew  what  was  to  be  done  with  the 
army"  —and  that  if  he  was  to  "be  "  kept  longer  in  igno 
rance  of  what  was  to  be  effected,  he  could  not  be  expected 
to  accomplish  the  object  in  view."  In  reply,  General 
Halleck  informed  him  that  his  army  was  to  be  "  with 
drawn  from  the  Peninsula  to  Aquia  Creek,"  but  that  the 
withdrawal  should  be  concealed  even  from  his  own  offi 
cers.  General  McClellan,  on  the  4th,  wrote  a  long  protest 
against  this  movement — saying  it  mattered  not  what  par 
tial  reverses  might  be  sustained  elsewhere — tliere  was  the 
"  true  defence  of  Washington,"  and  he  asked  that  the 
order  might  be  rescinded.  To  this  letter,  after  again 
urging  General  McClellan  on  the  4th  to  hasten  the  removal 
of  the  sick,  which  he  was  "expected  to  have  done  with 
out  waiting  to  know  what  were  or  would  be  the  intentions 
of  the  Government  respecting  future  moveinents,"  Gen 
eral  Halleck  on  the  6th  addressed  him  as  follows  :— 

HEAD-QUARTERS  OK  THE  ARMY,         > 
WASHINGTON,  August  6,  1862.  f 

GENERAL  : — Your  telegram  of  yesterday  was  received  this  morning,  and 
I  immediately  telegraphed  a  brief  reply,  promising  to  write  you  more 
fully  by  mail. 

You,  General,  certainly  could  not  have  been  more  pained  at  receiving 
my  order  than  I  was  at  the  necessity  of  issuing  it.  I  was  advised  by 
high  officers,  in  whose  judgment  I  had  great  confidence,  to  make  the 
order  immediately  on  my  arrival  here,  but  I  determined  not  to  do  so 
until  I  could  learn  your  wishes  from  a  personal  interview.  And  even 
after  that  interview  I  tried  every  means  in  my  power  to  avoid  withdraw 
ing  your  army,  and  delayed  my  decision  as  long  as  I  dared  to  delay  it. 

I  assure  you,  General,  it  was  not  a  hasty  and  inconsiderate  act,  but 
one  that  caused  me  more  anxious  thoughts  than  any  other  of  my  life. 
But  after  full  and  mature  consideration  of  all  the  pros  and  cons,  I  was 
reluctantly  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  order  must  be  issued — there 
was  to  my  mind  no  alternative. 

Allow  me  to  allude  to  a  few  of  the  facts  in  the  case. 

You  and  your  officers  at  our  interview  estimated  the  enemy's  forces  in 
and  around  Richmond  at  two  hundred  thousand  men.  Since  then,  you 
and  others  report  that  they  have  received  and  are  receiving  large 
re-enforcements  from  the  South.  General  Pope's  army,  covering  Wash 
ington,  is  only  about  forty  thousand.  Your  effective  force  is  only  about 
ninety  thousand.  You  are  thirty  miles  from  Richmond,  and  General 
Pope  eighty  or  ninety,  with  the  enemy  directly  between  you,  ready  to  fall 


300  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

with  hi*  superior  numbers  upon  one  or  the  oilier  as  he  may  elect ;  neither 
can  reinforce  the  other  in  case  of  such  an  attack. 

If  General  Pope's  army  be  diminished  to  re-enforce  you,  "Washington, 
Maryland,  and  Pennsylvania  would  be  left  uncovered  aud  exposed.  If 
your  force  be  reduced  to  strengthen  Pope,  you  would  be  too  weak  to 
even  hold  the  position  you  now  occupy,  should  the  enemy  turn  round 
and  attack  you  in  full  force.  In  other  words,  the  old  Army  of  the 
Potomac  is  split  into  two  parts,  with  the  entire  force  of  the  enemy 
directly  between  them.  They  cannot  be  united  by  land  without  expo 
sing  both  to  destruction,  and  yet  they  must  be  united.  To  send  Pope's 
forces  by  water  to  the  Peninsula  is,  under  present  circumstances,  a 
military  impossibility.  The  only  alternative  is  to  send  the  forces  on  the 
Peninsula  to  some  point  by  water,  say  Fredcricksburg,  where  the  two 
armies  can  be  united. 

Let  me  now  allude  to  some  of  the  objections  which  you  have  urged : 
you  say  that  the  withdrawal  from  the  present  position  will  cause  the 
certain  demoralization  of  the  army,  "  which  is  now  in  excellent  discipline 
and  condition." 

I  cannot  understand  why  a  simple  change  of  position  to  a  new  and 
by  no  means  distant  base  Avill  demoralize  an  army  in  excellent  discipline, 
unless  the  officers  themselves  assist  in  that  demoralization,  which  I  am 
satisfied  they  will  not. 

Your  change  of  front  from  your  extreme  right  at  Hanover  Court-House 
to  your  present  condition  was  over  thirty  miles,  but  I  have  not  heard 
that  it  demoralized  your  troops,  notwithstanding  the  severe  losses  they 
sustained  in  effecting  it. 

A  new  base  on -the  Rappahannock  at  Fredericksburg  brings  you  within 
about  sixty  miles  of  Eichmond,  and  secures  a  re-enforcement  of  forty  or 
fifty  thousand  fresh  and  disciplined  troops. 

The  change  with  such  advantages  will,  I  think,  if  properly  represented 
to  your  army,  encourage  rather  than  demoralize  your  troops.  Moreover, 
you  yourself  suggested  that  a  junction  might  be  effected  at  Yorktcwn, 
but  that  a  flank  inarch  across  the  isthmus  would  be  more  hazardous  than 
to  retire  to  Fort  Monroe. 

You  will  remember  that  Yorktown  is  two  or  three  miles  further  than 
Fredericksburg  is.  Besides,  the  latter  is  between  Richmond  and  Wash 
ington,  and  covers  "Washington  from  any  attack  of  the  enemy. 

The  political  effect  of  the  withdrawal  may  at  first  be  unfavorable  ;  but 
I  think  the  public  are  beginning  to  understand  its  necessity,  and  that  they 
will  have  much  more  confidence  in  a  united  army  than  in  its  separated 
fragments. 

But  you  will  reply,  why  not  re-enforce  me  here,  so  that  I  can  strike 
Richmond  from  my  present  position  ?  To  do  this,  you  said,  at  our  inter 
view,  that  you  required  thirty  thousand  additional  troops.  I  told  you 
that  it  was  impossible  to  give  you  so  many.  You  finally  thought  you 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  301 

would  have  "  some  chance  "  of  success  with  twenty  thousand.  But  you 
afterwards  telegraphed  me  that  you  would  require  thirty-five  thousand, 
as  the  enemy  was  being  largely  re-enforced. 

If  your  estimate  of  the  enemy's  strength  was  correct,  your  requisition 
was  perfectly  reasonable ;  but  it  was  utterly  impossible  to  fill  it  until 
new  troops  could  be  enlisted  and  organized,  which  would  require  several 
weeks. 

To  keep  your  army  in  its  present  position  until  it  could  be  so  re-en 
forced  would  almost  destroy  it  in  that  climate. 

The  months  of  August  and  September  are  almost  fatal  to  whites  who 
live  on  that  part  of  James  River ;  and  even  after  you  received  the  re-en 
forcements  asked  for,  you  admitted  that  you  must  reduce  Fort  Darling 
and  the  river  batteries  before  you  could  advance  on  Richmond. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  the  reduction  of  these  fortifications 
would  not  require  considerable  time — perhaps  as  much  as  those  at  York- 
town. 

This  delay  might  not  only  be  fatal  to  the  health  of  your  army,  but  in 
the  mean  time  General  Pope's  forces  would  be  exposed  to  the  heavy 
blows  of  the  enemy  without  the  slightest  hope  of  assistance  from  you. 

In  regard  to  the  demoralizing  effect  of  a  withdrawal  from  the  Penin 
sula  to  the  Rappahannock,  I  must  remark  that  a  large  number  of  your 
highest  officers,  indeed  a  majority  of  those  whose  opinions  have  been  re 
ported  to  me,  are  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  movement.  Even  several  of 
those  who  originally  advocated  the  line  of  the  Peninsula  now  advise  its 
abandonment. 

I  have  not  inquired,  and  do  not  wish  to  know,  by  whose  advice  or  for 
what  reasons  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  separated  into  two  parts, 
with  the  enemy  between  them.  I  must  take  things  as  I  find  them. 

I  find  the  forces  divided,  and  I  wish  to  unite  them.  Only  one  feasible 
plan  has  been  presented  for  doing  this.  If  you,  or  any  one  else,  had 
presented  a  better  plan,  I  certainly  should  have  adopted  it.  But  all  of 
your  plans  require  re-enforcements  which  it  is  impossible  to  give  you. 
It  is  very  easy  to  ask  for  re-enforcements,  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to  give 
them  when  you  have  no  disposable  troops  at  your  command. 

I  have  written  very  plainly  as  I  understand  the  case,  and  I  hope  you 
will  give  me  credit  for  having  fully  considered  the  matter,  although  I  may 
have  arrived  at  very  different  conclusions  from  your  own. 
Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  H.  HALLEOK,   General-in-  Chief. 

Major-General  G.  B.  MOCLELLAN,  Commanding,  etc.,  Berkeley,  Virginia. 

The  order  for  the  removal  of  the  sick  was  given  to 
General  McClellan  on  the  2d  of  August.  On  the  7th,  he 
reported  that  three  thousand  seven  hundred  and  forty 


302  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

had  "been  sent,  and  five  thousand  seven  hundred  still 
remained.  On  the  9th,  General  Halleck  telegraphed 
McClellan  that  the  enemy  was  massing  his  forces  in  front 
of  General  Pope  and  Burnside  to  crush  them  and  move 
upon  Washington,  and  that  re-enforcements  must  at  once 
be  sent  to  Aquia  Creek  ;  to  which  he  replied  that  he 
would  ' '  move  the  whole  army  as  soon  as  the  sick  were 
disposed  of."  On  the  12th,  in  reply  to  the  most  pressing 
orders  for  immediate  dispatch  from  General  Halleck,  who 
urged  that  Burnside  had  moved  thirteen  thousand  troops 
in  two  days  to  Aquia  Creek,  General  McClellan  said  if 
Washington  was  in  danger,  that  army  could  scarcely 
arrive  in  time  to  save  it.  On  the  14th,  he  announced 
that  the  movement  had  commenced  ;  on  the  17th,  he  said 
he  "should  not  feel  entirely  secure  until  he  had  the 
whole  army  beyond  the  Chickahominy,  but  that  he 
would  tJien  begin  to  forward  troops  "by  water  as  fast  as 
transportation  would  permit."  On  the  23d,  General 
Franklin' s  Corps  started  from  Fortress  Monroe ;  General 
McClellan  followed  the  next  day,  and  reached  Aquia 
Creek  on  the  24th,  and  Alexandria  on  the  evening  of  the 
26th  of  August. 

On  the  27th  of  June  the  President  had  issued  an  order 
consolidating  into  one  army,  to  be  called  the  Army  of 
Virginia,  the  forces  under  Major- Generals  Fremont, 
Banks,  and  McDowell.  The  command  of  this  army  was 
assigned  to  Major-General  John  Pope ;  and  the  army  was 
divided  into  three  corps,  of  which  the  first  was  assigned 
to  Fremont,  the  second  to  Banks,  and  the  third  to  Mc 
Dowell.  Upon  receiving  this  order,  Major-General  Fre 
mont  applied  to  be  relieved  from  the  command  which  it 
assigned  him,  on  the  ground  that  by  the  appointment  of 
General  Pope  to  the  chief  command,  his  (Fremont's) 
position  was  "  subordinate  and  inferior  to  that  heretofore 
held  by  him,  and  to  remain  in  the  subordinate  rank  now 
assigned  him  would  largely  reduce  his  rank  and  consid 
eration  in  the  service."  In  compliance  with  his  request. 
General  Fremont  was  at  once  relieved. 

On  the  27th  of  August,  General  McClellan  was  ordered 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  303 

by  General  Halleck  to  "  take  entire  direction  of  tlie  send 
ing  out  of  tlie  troops  from  Alexandria"  to  re-enforce 
Pope,  whom  tlie  enemy  were  pressing  with  a  powerful 
army,  and  whose  head-quarters  were  then  at  Warrenton 
J  unction,  A  portion  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  which 
arrived  before  General  McClellan,  had  at  once  gone  for 
ward  to  the  aid  of  Pope  ;  of  those  which  arrived  after 
him,  or  which  were  at  Alexandria  when  he  arrived,  not 
one  reached  the  field,  or  took  any  part  in  the  battles  by 
which  the  army  was  saved  from  destruction  and  the  Capi 
tal  from  capture. 

The  extent  to  which  General  McClellan,  who  had  the 
"  entire  direction  of  the  sending  of  these  re-enforcements," 
was  responsible  for  this  result,  is  a  matter  of  so  much 
importance,  not  only  to  himself  and  the  Government, 
but  to  the  whole  country,  as  to  demand  a  somewhat 
detailed  examination. 

In  his  report  of  August  4th,  1863,  after  giving  a 
portion  only  of  the  correspondence  between  himself 
and  the  Government  on  this  subject,  General  McClellan 
says  :— 

It  will  be  seen  from  what  has  preceded  that  I  lost  no  time  that  could 
be  avoided  in  moving  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  from  the  Peninsula  to 
the  support  of  the  Army  of  Virginia ;  that  I  spared  no  effort  to  hasten 
the  embarkation  of  the  troops  at  Fort  Monroe,  Newport  News,  and 
Yorktown,  remaining  at  Fort  Monroe  myself  until  the  mass  of  the  army 
had  sailed;  and  that  after  my  arrival  at  Alexandria,  1  left  nothing  in  my 
power  undone  to  forward  supplies  and  re-enforcements  to  General  Pope. 
I  sent,  with  troops  that  moved,  all  the  cavalry  I  could  get  hold  of.  Even 
my  personal  escort  was  sent  out  upon  the  line  of  the  railway  as  a  guard, 
with  the  provost  and  camp  guards  at  head-quarters,  retaining  less  than 
one  hundred  men,  many  of  whom  were  orderlies,  invalids,  members  of 
bands,  &c.  All  the  head-quarters  teams  that  arrived  were  sent  out  with 
supplies  and  ammunition,  none  being  retained  even  to  move  the  head 
quarters  camp.  The  squadron  that  habitually  served  as  my  personal 
escort  was  left  at  Falmouth  with  General  Burnside,  as  he  was  deficient  in 
cavalry. 

Before  taking  up  more  important  matters,  it  may  be 
well  to  remark,  that  as  General  McClellan  was  in 
the  City  of  Alexandria,  and  not  in  any  way  ex- 


304  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

posed  to  personal  danger,  it  is  difficult  to  appreciate 
the  merit  he  seems  to  make  of  yielding  up  his  per 
sonal  escort,  provost  and  camp  guards,  and  head-quar 
ter  baggage-teams,  when  he  had  no  use  for  them  himself, 
and  when  they  were  needed  for  the  purpose  for  which 
they  are  maintained — operating  against  the  enemy,  and 
that  too  in  a  pressing  emergency.  Even  as  it  was,  he 
seems  to  have  retained  nearly  a  hundred,  many  of  whom 
he  says  were  orderlies,  &c.,  &c.,  around  his  person. 

Leaving  this  personal  matter,  we  come  to  the  important 
question — Is  it  true  that  General  McClellan  left,  as  he 
avers,  nothing  undone  in  his  power  to  forward  supplies  and 
re-enforcements  to  General  Pope's  army?  Did  he,  on  this 
momentous  occasion,  honestly  and  faithfully  do  his  whole 
duty  in  this  respect,  without  any  personal  aims,  or  any 
jealousy,  and  with  the  single  eye  to  the  success  of  our 
arms,  and  the  honor,  welfare,  and  glory  of  the  nation  ? 

He  had  been  repeatedly  urged  to  hurry  forward  the 
troops  from  the  Peninsula.  On  the  9th  of  August,  he  was 
informed  by  General  Halleck  that  ' '  the  enemy  is  massing 
his  forces  in  front  of  Generals  Pope  and  Burnside  to  try 
and  crush  them,  and  move  forward  to  the  Potomac  ;"  and 
was  further  told,  "Considering  the  amount  of  transporta 
tion  at  your  disposal,  your  delay  is  not  satisfactory.  You 
must  move  witli  all  celerity" 

Again,  on  the  10th,  General  Halleck  informed  him  that 
"  the  enemy  is  crossing  the  Rapidan  in  large  force.  They 
are  fighting  General  Pope  to-day.  There  must  be  no  fur 
ther  delay  in  your  movements :  that  which  has  already 
occurred  was  entirely  unexpected,  and  must  be  satisfac 
torily  explained.  Let  not  a  moment's  time  be  lost,  and 
telegraph  me  daily  what  progress  you  have  made  in  exe 
cuting  the  order  to  transfer  your  troops."  Again,  on  the 
21st,  he  was  told,  "the  forces  of  Burnside  and  Pope  are 
hard  pushed,  and  require  aid  as  rapidly  as  you  can.  By 
all  means  see  that  the  troops  sent  have  plenty  of  ammuni 
tion.  We  have  no  time  to  supply  them  ;  moreover,  they 
may  have  to  fight  as  soon  as  they  land." 

Whether  or  not  the  delays  of  General  McClellan  were 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          305 

excusable,  those  telegrams  must  have  shown  him,  if  proof 
were  necessary,  the  emergency  in  which  Pope  was  placed, 
and  that  the  concentration  of  the  two  armies  was  not  be 
ing  effected  in  the  time  expected,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
that  Pope  was  in  a  critical  position,  needing  immediate 
help  to  save  his  army  from  defeat.  It  was  under  these 
circumstances  that  General  McClellan  left  the  Peninsula. 

When  he  reached  Aquia  on  the  24th,  under  most  posi 
tive  and  pressing  orders  from  Washington,  General  Pope, 
who  had  been  holding  the  line  of  the  Rappahannock  for 
nearly  a  week  against  the  assaults  of  Lee' s  whole  army, 
and  keeping  up  communication  with  Fredericksburg,  so 
as  to  receive  the  re-enforcements  McClellan  had  been 
ordered  to  send  up  from  the  Peninsula— finding  these 
re-enforcements  not  coming  by  water  to  join  his  left  as 
fast  as  Lee  marched  by  land  around  his  right,  and  that 
his  right,  though  stretched  to  Waterloo  Bridge,  had  been 
turned  and  his  rear  threatened,  had  been  obliged  to  throw 
back  his  right,  first  to  Warrenton,  and  then  to  Gaines 
ville,  and  his  left  and  centre  from  Rappahannock  and 
Sulphur  Springs  to  Warrenton  Junction,  Bristol,  and 
Manassas.  General  McClellan  knew  on  the  24th,  when 
at  Aquia,  of  the  abandoning  of  Rappahannock  Station, 
and  of  Pope's  having  broken  his  communication  with 
Fredericksburg,  and  himself  reported  the  facts  to  Geneial 
Halleck. 

August  26th,  General  Halleck  ordered  General  Mc 
Clellan  from  Aquia  to  Alexandria,  and  told  him  "  Gen 
eral  Franklin's  Corps,"  which  had  arrived  at  Alexan 
dria,  "will  march  as  soon  as  it  receives  transportation." 

General  Pope  had,  when  his  line  was  stretched  from 
below  Rappahannock  Station  to  beyond  Warrenton. 
asked  that  Franklin's  Corps  might  be  sent  out  to  take 
post  on  his  right  at  Gainesville,  to  which  there  was 
transportation  by  turnpike  and  railroad,  to  guard  against 
what  afterwards  happened— the  movement  of  the  enemy 
through  that  place  on  his  rear.  The  failure  to  have  that 
corps  at  that  place,  or  in  the  action  at  all,  was  one  of  the 
chief  causes  of  Pope's  failure.  Why  was  this  { 


306  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

August  27th,  as  already  stated,  General  McClellan  was 
directed  '  *  to  take  entire  direction  of  the  sending  out  of 
the  troops  from  Alexandria."  On  the  same  day  he  was 
informed  of  the  position  of  Pope's  head-quarters  ;  of  that 
of  most  of  Pope' s  forces ;  of  where  Pope  wished  re 
enforcements  sent  him — Gainesville  ;  and  that  Fitz- John 
Porter,  then  under  Pope,  reported  a  battle  imminent.  At 
10  A.M.  on  that  day,  he  was  told  by  Halleck,  "that 
Franklin' s  Corps  should  march  in  that  direction  (Manas- 
sas)  as  soon  as  possible  ;"  and  again  at  12  P.  M.,  he  was 
further  told  by  Halleck  that  "  Franklin"  s  Corps  should 
move  out  by  forced  marches,  carrying  three  or  four  days'* 
provisions,  and  to  be  supplied  as  far  as  possible  by 
railroad" 

It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind  these  explicit  orders,  and  the 
circumstances  under  which,  and  the  object  for  which 
they  were  given,  for  General  McClellan  either  seems  to 
have  forgotten  them,  or  to  have  utterly  failed  to  appre 
ciate  their  importance.  A  battle  reported  by  his  favorite 
general,  Fitz-John  Porter,  as  imminent,  within  cannon 
sound  of  where  he  was, — the  road  to  the  battle-field,  a 
wide,  straight,  Macadam  turnpike,  well-known  to  both 
General  McClellan  and  General  Franklin,  as  each  had 
been  over  it  more  than  once, — the  whole  of  the  enemy 
and  army  which  had  been  pressing  Pope  since  the  9th, 
now  concentrating  to  overwhelm  him, — here,  one  would 
think,  was  every  motive  for  him  to  do,  as  he  claims  to 
have  done,  every  thing  in  his  power  to  send  re-enforce 
ments  forward,  and  to  send  them  instantly. 

Why  was  it,  then,  that,  at  7.15  P.  M.  on  the  29th,  more 
than  two  days  after  the  order  for  it  to  go  by  forced 
marches  to  re-enforce  an  army  engaged  in  battle,  Frank 
lin'  s  Corps,  was  still  at  Anandale,  about  seven  miles  from 
Alexandria,  and  Franklin  himself  in  Alexandria  ?  Gen 
eral  Halleck  says  it  was  all  contrary  to  his  orders,  and 
McClellan  acknowledges  himself  "responsible  for  bolls 
these  circumstances. ' ' 

In  the  mean  time,  Pope' s  forces  fought  the  battles  of  the 
27th,  28th,  and  29th,  and  were  now  to  light  that  of  tho 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  307 

30th  without  Franklin's  help.  Why  was  this?  Were 
the  orders  to  send  Franklin  out  countermanded  ?  General 
Halleck  says  they  were  not.  As  it  is  never  just  to  judge 
a  person  by  the  light  obtained  after  the  fact,  let  us  see,  so 
far  as  the  correspondence  enables  us,  what  were  the  dif 
ferent  phases  of  the  case  as  they  presented  themselves  at 
the  time. 

The  intimation  to  McClellan  on  the  26th,  that  Franklin 
was  to  go  to  the  front,  was  followed  by  the  positive  or 
ders  of  the  27th,  given  at  10  A.  M.  and  12  M.  On  that  day 
General  McClellan  reports  that  Generals  Franklin,  Smith, 
and  Slocum  are  all  in  Washington  ;  and  that  he  had  given 
orders  to  place  the  corps  in  readiness  to  marcJi  to  the 
next  in  rank.  At  the  same  time,  he  reports  heavy  firing 
at  Centreville. 

On  the  28th,  Halleck,  learning  that  McClellan,  who  it 
seems  had  also  gone  to  Washington,  had  not  returned  to 
Alexandria,  sent  orders  to  Franklin  direct,  to  move  with 
his  corps  that  day  (the  28th)  towards  Manassas  Junction. 
On  the  28th,  at  3.30  P.  M.,  Halleck  informs  McClellan  that 
"  not  a  moment  must  be  lost  in  pushing  as  large  a  force 
as  possible  towards  Manassas,  so  as  to  communicate  with 
Pope  before  the  enemy  is  re-enforced."  On  the  same 
day,  at  7.40  p.  M.,  he  again  tells  him  :— 

There  must  be  no  further  delay  in  moving  Franklin's  Corps  towards 
Manassas.  They  must  go  to-morrow  morning,  ready  or  not  ready.  If  we 
delay  too  long  to  get  ready,  there  will  be  no  necessity  to  go  at  all,  for 
Pope  will  either  be  defeated  or  victorious  without  our  aid.  If  there  is  a 
want  of  wagons,  the  men  must  carry  provisions  with  them  till  the  wagons 
<v)me  to  their  relief. 

There  is  no  possible  room  for  misunderstanding  the  in 
tention  of  the  General-in-Chief  from  these  orders.     He 
wished,  and  ordered,  that  communication  should  be  at 
once  re-established  with  Pope,  and  Pope  re-enforced  in 
time  to  be  of  service. 

Why  did  not  McClellan  re-establish  the  communication, 
and  re-enforce  Pope  in  time  to  be  of  service  ?  Why  did 
he  halt  Franklin' s  Corps  at  Anandale  1 

He  gives  reasons  for  this  in  his  telegram  to  Halleck  of 


308  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

August  29th.  "By  referring  to  my  telegrams,"  he  says, 
"  of  10.30  A.  M.,  12  M.,  and  1  P.  M.,  together  with  your 
reply  of  2.48  P.  M.,  you  will  see  why  Franklin's  Corps  halt 
ed  at  Anandale."  Let  us  examine  these  telegrams  in 
connection  with  the  circumstances  then  existing.  The 
first  is  as  follows  : — 

CAMP  NEAR  ALEXANDRIA,  August  29, 10.30  A.  M. 

Franklin's  Corps  are  in  motion ;  started  about  six  A.  M.  I  can  give  him 
but  two  squadrons  of  cavalry.  I  propose  moving  General  Cox  to  Upton's 
Hill  to  hold  that  important  point  with  its  works,  and  to  push  cavalry 
scouts  to  Vienna  via  Freeman's  Hill  and  Hunter's  Lane.  Cox  has  two 
squadrons  of  cavalry.  Please  answer  at  once  whether  this  meets  your 
approval.  I  have  directed  Woodbury,  with  the  Engineer  Brigade,  to 
hold  Fort  Lyon.  Sumner  detached  last  night  two  regiments  to  the  vicinity 
of  Forts  Ethan  Allen  and  Marcy.  Meagher's  Brigade  is  still  at  Aquia. 
If  Sumner  moves  in  support  of  Franklin,  it  leaves  us  without  any  reliable 
troops  in  and  near  Washington ;  yet  Franklin  is  too  weak  alone.  What 
shall  be  done?  JSTo  more  cavalry  arrived.  Have  but  three  squadrons  be 
longing  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Franklin  has  but  forty  rounds  of 
ammunition,  and  no  wagons  to  move  more.  I  do  noi  think  Franklin  is 
in  a  condition  to  accomplish  much  if  he  meets  strong  resistance.  /  should 
not  have  moved  him  hut  for  your  pressing  orders  of  last  night.  What  have 
you  from  Vienna  and  Drainsville  ? 

GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN,  Major- General. 

Major-General  H.  W.  II ALLEGE,  General-in-Chief. 

To  this  Halleck  replies  :— 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  August  29, 1862. 

Upton's  Hill  arrangement  all  right.  We  must  send  wagons  and  am 
munition  to  Franklin  as  fast  as  they  arrive.  Meagher's  Brigade  ordered 
up  yesterday.  Fitzhugh  Lee  was,  it  is  said  on  good  authority,  in  Alex 
andria  on  Sunday  last  for  three  hours.  I  hear  nothing  from  Drainsville. 

H.  W.  HALLEOK,  General-in-Chief. 

Major-General  MCCLELLAN,  Alexandria. 

To  this  McClellan  sends  the  second  of  the  dispatches  he 
refers  to,  as  follows.  There  are  two  telegrams  of  the  same 
date  :— 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  POTOMAC,  August  29, 1862,  12  M. 

Your  telegram  received.  Do  you  wish  the  movement  of  Franklin's 
Corps  to  continue?  He  is  without  reserve  ammunition,  and  without 
transportation.  GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN,  Major-General. 

Major-General  H.  W.  HALLECK,  Genercd-in- Chief. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  309 


HEAD-QUARTERS  AKMT  POTOMAO,  ) 

ALEXANDRIA,  VIRGINIA,  August  29,  1862, 12  M.  ) 

Have  ordered  most  of  the  12th  Pennsylvania  Cavalry  to  report  to  Gen 
eral  Bernard  for  scouting  duty  towards  Rockville,  Poolesville,  &c.  If 
you  apprehend  a  raid  of  cavalry  on  your  side  of  river,  I  had  better  send 
a  brigade  or  two  of  Simmer's  to  near  Tennallytown.  Would  it  meet 
your  views  to  post  rest  of  Sumner's  Corps  between  Arlington  and  Fort 
Corcoran,  where  they  can  either  support  Cox,  Franklin,  Chain  Bridge, 
and  even  Tennallytown  ? 

Franklin  has  only  ten  thousand  to  eleven  thousand  ready  for  duty. 
How  far  do  you  wish  the  force  to  advance? 

GEO.  B.  MoCLELLAN,  Major- General  U.  S.  Army. 
Major-General  HALLECK,  General-in-Chief. 

Then  follows  the  telegram  of  1  p.  M .  : — 

HEAD-QUARTERS  NEAR  ALEXANDRIA,      | 
August  W,1S62,  IP.M.  f 

I  anxiously  await  reply  to  my  last  dispatch  in  regard  to  Sumner.  Wisl 
to  give  order  at  once.  Please  authorize  me  to  attach  new  regiments  per 
manently  to  my  old  brigades.  I  can  do  much  good  to  old  and  new  troops 
in  that  way.  I  shall  endeavor  to  hold  a  line  in  advance  of  Forts  Allen 
and  Marsh,  at  least  with  strong  advanced  guards.  I  wish  to  hold  the 
line  through  Prospect  Hill,  Marshall's,  Miner's,  and  Hall's  Hills.  This 
will  give  us  timely  warning.  Shall  I  do  as  seems  lest  to  me  with  all  the 
troops  in  this  vicinity,  including  Franklin,  who  I  really  think  ought  not, 
under  the  present  circumstances,  to  proceed  ~beyond  Anandale  f 

GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN,  Major- General. 

General  HALLECK,   General-in-  Chief. 

It  certainly  is  not  easy  to  discover  in  these  dispatches 
any  indications  of  a  strong  desire  to  re-enforce  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  then  fighting  a  battle  in  his  front  and 
within  his  hearing,  but  under  another  commander.  They 
evince  no  special  interest  in  the  result  of  that  battle,  or 
the  fate  of  that  army — the  army  for  which,  while  under 
his  command,  he  had  expressed  so  much  affection,  and 
whose  defeat  he  afterwards  declared,  when  he  was  again 
at  its  head,  would  be  incomparably  more  disastrous  to  the 
nation  than  the  capture  of  Washington  itself.  We  find 
in  these  dispatches,  which  he  cites  in  his  own  vindica 
tion,  no  evidence  to  sustain  the  declaration  of  his  report, 


310  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

that  from  the  moment  of  his  arrival  at  Alexandria  he 
"left  nothing  in  his  power  undone  to  forward  supplies 
and  re-enforcements  to  General  Pope."  On  the  contrary, 
they  seem  to  show  that  he  had  decided  to  do,  what  in  a 
telegram  of  the  same  date  he  had  suggested  to  the  Presi 
dent,  "leave  Pope  to  get  out  of  his  scrape,"  and  devote 
himself  exclusively  to  the  safety  of  Washington.*  He 
thinks  any  disposition  of  Franklin' s  and  Sumner'  s  troops 
wise,  except  sending  them  forward  to  re-enforce  Pope. 
He  is  anxious  to  send  them  to  Upton's  Hill,  to  Chain 
Bridge,  to  Tennallytown,  to  Arlington,  and  Fort  Corco 
ran — anywhere  and  everywhere  except  where  they  were 
wanted  most,  and  where  alone  they  could  assist  in  get 
ting  Pope  ' '  out  of  his  scrape, ' '  and  in  saving  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac.  It  was  natural  and  proper  that  he 
should  give  attention  to  the  defence  of  Washington,  for 
he  had,  as  General  Helleck  says,  "  general  authority  over 
all  the  troops"  that  were  defending  it.  But  his  special 
duty  was  "sending  out  troops  from  Alexandria  to  re- en 
force  Pope."  Why  did  he  give  so  much  attention  to  the 
former,  and  so  little  to  the  latter  duty  ?  Why  was  it  that, 
from  the  time  of  his  landing  at  Alexandria,  not  another 
man  of  his  army  joined  Pope,  or  made  a  diversion  in  his 
favor,  till  after  Pope  had  fallen  back  from  Manassas  and 
fought  four  battles  without  the  aid  he  had  a  right  to  ex 
pect,  and  which  General  McClellan  was  repeatedly  and 
peremptorily  ordered  to  give  ? 
Those  of  McClellan' s  forces  which  had  reached  Alex- 

*  On  the  29th  he  had  telegraphed  to  the  President  as  follows  : — 

I  am  clear  that  one  of  two  courses  should  be  adopted :  First,  to  concentrate 
all  our  available  forces  to  open  communications  with  Pope ;  second,  to  leave 
Pope  to  get  out  of  his  scrape,  and  at  once  use  all  our  means  to  make  the  Capi 
tal  perfectly  safe.  No  middle  ground  will  now  answer.  Tell  nv>  what  you  wish 
me  to  do,  and  I  will  do  all  in  my  power  to  accomplish  it. 

To  this  the  President  had  thus  replied  : — 

WASHINGTON,  August  29, 1862-4.  10  p  M. 

Tours  of  to-day  just  received.  I  think  your  first  alternative,  to  wit.  "to 
concentrate  all  our  available  forces  to  open  communication  with  Pope,"  is  tha 
right  one,  but  I  wish  not  to  control.  That  I  now  leave  to  General  Halleck,  aided 
by  your  counsels.  A.  LINCOLN. 

Major-General  MCCLELLAN 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  311 

andria  before  him,  or  were  there  before  his  arrival,  Stur- 
gis,  Kearney,  Hooker,  and  Heintzelman,  had  all  gone 
forward  and  joined  in  these  battles.  Why  could  not 
Franklin— all  of  whose  movements  were  controlled  by 
McClellan— do  as  much  with  him  as  his  brother  com 
manders  had  done  without  him  1 

The  first  thing  that  McClellan  did,  on  reaching  Alex 
andria,  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  to  send  forward 
troops,  was  to  stop  those  actually  going  !  In  his  dispatch 
of  August  27th,  nine  o'clock  P.  M.,  he  says  to  General 
Halleck— "  I  found  part  of  Cox's  command  under  orders 
to  take  the  cars  :  will  halt  it  with  Franklin  until  morn 
ing  !  "  And  Cox  never  went  out,  though  anxiously  ex 
pected  and  under  orders  to  move.  What  are  the  reasons 
given  by  McClellan  for  not  sending,  or  not  permitting 
Franklin  to  go  \  On  the  27th,  at  quarter  past  eleven  P.  M., 
immediately  after  the  positive  order  was  issued  for  Frank 
lin  to  move  by  forced  marches  and  carry  three  or  four 
days'  provisions,  McClellan  says  :— 

Franklin's  artillery  has  no  horses  except  for  four  guns  without  cais 
sons.  I  can  pick  up  no  cavalry.  *  *  I  do  not  see  that  we  have  force 
enough  in  hand  to  form  a  connection  with  Pope,  whose  exact  position  we 
do  not  know. 

A  part  of  the  perplexity  he  seems  to  have  been  in  was 
removed  that  day  at  six  o'clock  p.  M.,  when  he  received, 
as  he  says,  a  copy  of  a  dispatch  from  Pope  to  Halleck,  in 
which  Pope  says :  "  All  forces  now  sent  forward  should 
be  sent  to  my  right  at  Gainesville." 

The  next  day,  at  one  o'clock  p.  M.,  he  telegraphs  :— 

"I  have  been  doing  all  possible  to  hurry  artillery  and  cavalry.  The 
moment  Franklin  can  be  started  with  a  reasonable  amount  of  artillery  he 
shall  go." 

Again,  at  forty  minutes  past  four  of  the  28th,  he  tele 
graphs  :— 

General  Franklin  is  with  me  here.  I  will  know  in  a  few  moments  the 
condition  of  artillery  and  cavalry.  We  are  not  yet  in  a  condition  to 
move ;  may  be  by  to-morrow  morning. 


312  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

A.  few  moments  later,  he  says : — 

Your  dispatch  received.  Neither  Franklin's  nor  Simmer's  Corps  is 
now  in  a  condition  to  move  and  fight  a  battle.  It  would  be  a  sacrifice  to 
send  them  out  now !  I  have  sent  aids  to  ascertain  the  condition  of  Col 
onel  Tyler ;  but  I  still  think  that  a  premature  movement  in  small  force 
will  accomplish  nothing  but  the  destruction  of  the  troops  sent  out. 

The  small  force  (?)  to  which  he  refers  consisted,  as  here 
tofore  stated,  of  Sumner's  Corps  of  fourteen  thousand 
and  Franklin' s  of  eleven  thousand,  a  total  of  twenty-five 
thousand — not  going  to  fight  a  battle  by  itself,  but  to  re- 
enforce  an  army  already  engaged,  and  constituting  cer 
tainly  a  handsome  re-enforcement  on  any  field.  On  the 
29th,  he  says  : — 

Franklin  has  but  forty  rounds  of  ammunition,  and  no  wagons  to  move 
more.  I  do  not  think  Franklin  is  in  a  condition  to  accomplish  much  if 
he  meets  strong  resistance.  I  should  not  have  moved  him  but  for  your 
pressing  orders  of  last  night. 

On  this  same  day  : — 

Do  you  wish  the  movement  of  Franklin's  Corps  to  continue?  He  is 
without  reserve  ammunition  and  without  transportation. 

It  may  be  remarked  here,  that  Franklin  had  not  yet 
gone  beyond  Anandale — about  seven  miles — and  had,  as 
yet,  neither  come  upon  the  enemy,  nor  joined  the  army  in 
front,  nor  gained  any  information  about  either.  If,  there 
fore,  his  movement  was  not  to  continue,  it  must  be  be 
cause  it  w^as  too  hazardous,  or  because  he  had  no  reserve 
ammunition  or  transportation. 

So,  it  seems,  it  was  General  McClellan's  judgment  that 
Franklin  could  not  be  sent,  as  soon  as  he  landed,  to  re- 
enforce  Pope — because,  first,  he  had  his  artillery  only 
partially  mounted  ;  second,  he  had  no  cavalry;  third,  he 
had  but  forty  rounds  of  ammunition,  and  no  transporta 
tion  for  more.  The  subsequent  difficulties  were,  that  lie 
had  no  transportation  for  his  reserve  ammunition,  and 
was  too  weak  alone,  and  Sumner  ought  not  to  be  sent  to 
support  him,  as  it  would  leave  the  Capital  unprotected  ! 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  313 

It  is  fortunate  some  of  McClellan'  s  Corps  preceded  him 
from  the  Peninsula,  and  arrived  and  inarched  before  he 
came  up.  For,  if  not,  two  of  the  corps  who  joined  Pope 
and  fought  under  him  would  have  been  halted  for  Ihe 
reasons  that  stayed  Franklin.  Kearney  joined  without 
artillery,  and  Pope  ordered  two  batteries  to  be  given 
him  ;  Porter  had  but  forty  rounds  of  ammunition — Heint- 
zelman  joined  without  cavalry. 

Why,  may  it  be  asked,  were  "  neither  Sumner's  nor 
Franklin's  Corps  in  a  condition  to  move  and  fight  a  bat 
tle?"  McClellan  had  been  told  that  in  embarking  his 
troops  he  must  see  they  were  supplied  with  ammunition, 
"as  they  might  have  to  fight  as  soon  as  they  landed." 
The  men  were  not  fatigued  by  hard  marches,  nor  ex 
hausted  with  fighting  and  lack  of  food,  as  were  their 
companions  in  front.  What  was  there  to  prevent  their 
going  to  re-enforce  them,  but  the  orders  and  pretexts  for 
delay  of  General  McClellan  ? 

It  will  have  been  noticed  that  lack  of  transportation 
was  at  the  bottom  of  the  alleged  difficulties.  Transpor 
tation  was  not  required  for  supplies,  for  the  men  were 
ordered  to  carry  their  food  with  them.  Is  it  not  strange 
tliat,  in  view  of  the  emergency  of  the  case,  some  extraor 
dinary  means  were  not  resorted  to,  to  impress  horses  and 
wagons — if  none  existed  in  the  hands  of  the  Government 
— in  the  cities  of  Alexandria,  Georgetown,  and  Washing 
ton,  where  there  was  an  abundance  of  both  ?  Such  things 
have  been  done  even  in  this  war,  on  much  less  important 
occasions  than  this  one. 

But  will  not  this  plea  seem  stranger  still  when  it  is 
found  that  there  was  no  need  of  pressing  any  private 
property  into  service — that  there  was  plenty  of  public 
transportation  on  hand?  Let  the  following  dispatch 
show : — 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  August  30,  1862. 

I  am  by  no  means  satisfied  with  General  Franklin's  march  of  yester 
day,  considering  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  He  was  very  wrong  in 
stopping  at  Alexandria.  Moreover,  I  learned  last  night  that  the  Quarter 
master's  Department  would  have  given  him  plenty  of  transportation  if 


314  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

be  had  applied  for  it  any  time  since  his  arrival  at  Alexandria.  He  knew 
tho  importance  of  opening  communication  with  General  Pope's  army, 
and  should  have  acted  more  promptly. 

H.  W.  HALLEOK,  General-in-Chief. 
Major-General  MCCLELLAN,  Alexandria. 

But  most  strange  of  all  is,  that  General  McClellan  knew 
of  there  being  public  transportation  at  hand,  and  yet  did 
not  use  it,  even  when  the  fate  of  a  campaign  depended 
upon  it,  and  afterwards  assigned  the  want  of  it  as  the 
reason  for  not  obeying  his  orders  to  send  re-enforcements. 
He  says,  in  hip  dispatch  of  August  30,  to  General  Pope  :— 

The  quartermasters  here  (Alexandria)  said  there  was  none  disposable. 
The  difficulty  seems  to  consist  in  the  fact  (he  adds),  that  the  greater  part 
of  the  transportation  on  hand  at  Alexandria  and  Washington  has  been 
needed  for  current  supplies  of  the  garrisons. 

The  inference  is  irresistible  that  General  McClellan, 
who  had  charge  of  every  thing  in  and  around  Alexan 
dria  and  Washington,  thought  it  was  better  that  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  under  Pope,  should  not  be  re- 
enforced,  and  be  defeated,  than  that  the  garrisons  should 
be  subjected  to  the  slightest  inconvenience  ! 

The  answer  of  General  Halleck  to  the  telegrams  of  Gen 
eral  McClellan,  in  which  the  latter  made  so  many  propo 
sitions  about  the  movements  of  Sumner's  Corps  and  the 
disposition  of  Cox' s  force  and  the  other  troops  for  the 
defence  of  Washington,  is  as  follows  : — 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  August  29,  1862. 

Your  proposed  disposition  of  Sumner's  Corps  seems  to  me  judicious. 
Of  course  I  have  no  time  to  examine  into  details.  The  present  dangei 
is  a  raid  upon  Washington  in  the  night-time.  Dispose  of  all  troops  as 
you  deem  best.  I  want  Franklin's  Corps  to  go  far  enough  to  find  out 
something  about  the  enemy.  Perhaps  he  may  get  such  information  at 
Anandale  as  to  prevent  his  going  further.  Otherwise,  he  will  push  on 
towards  Fairfax.  Try  to  get  something  from  direction  of  Manassas  eithei 
by  telegrams  or  through  Franklin's  scouts.  Our  people  must  move  a<r 
tively  and  find  out  where  the  enemy  is.  I  am  tired  of  guesses. 

H.  W.  HALLECK,  General-in-  Chief 

Major-General  McnJELi,AN,  Alexandria. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  315 

It  is  in  this  dispatch,  that  General  McClellan  finds  his 
authority  to  halt  Franklin  at  Anandale.  Franklin  had 
been  repeatedly  ordered  to  join  Pope,  but  had  been  de 
layed  by  McClellan,  who  evidently  did  not  intend  he 
should  get  beyond  his  control  if  possible. 

In  his  telegram  to  Halleck  of  one  o'clock  P.  M.  of  the 
29th,  he  asks  if  he  may  <Jo  as  seems  to  him  best  with 
all  the  troops  in  the  vicinity  of  Alexandria,  including 
Franklin — Franklin  being  still  in  the  vicinity  of  Alexan 
dria.  Halleck,  in  giving  him  authority  to  dispose  of  all 
troops  in  his  vicinity  evidently  refers  to  the  disposition 
to  be  made  of  those  for  the  forts  and  defences,  for  he  pro 
ceeds  to  say,  I  want  "  Franklin's  Corps  to  go  far  enough 
to  find  out  something  about  the  enemy."  Franklin's 
Corps  did  not  go  out  far  enough  to  learn  any  thing  about 
the  enemy.  What  he  learned  he  picked  up  at  Anandale 
from  citizens,  and  probably  from  Banks' s  wagon-train, 
which  passed  him  as  it  came  from  the  front,  which  it 
seems  it  was  able  to  do  with  safety  at  the  time  McClellan 
considered  it  too  hazardous  for  forty  thousand  men  to 
move  to  the  front  to  join  the  army. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  this  matter  any  further,  and 
show,  as  might  easily  be  done,  how  similar  delays  were 
procured  with  respect  to  other  troops  which  might  have 
been  sent  to  re-enforce  Pope.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that 
forty  thousand  men,  exclusive  of  Burnside'  s  force,  were 
thus — as  it  seems  to  us  intentionally — withheld  from  Pope 
at  the  time  he  was  engaged  in  holding  the  army  of  Lee  in 
check. 

Having  thus  disposed  of  the  question  of  re-enforcements, 
it  now  remains  to  say  a  word  about  supplies,  which  Gen 
eral  McClellan  says  he  left  nothing  undone  to  forward  to 
Pope. 

When  at  Fort  Monroe  he  telegraphed  (August  21st,  10. 
52  P.  M.)  :- 

I  have  ample  supplies  of  ammunition  for  infantry  and  artillery,  and 
will  have  it  up  in  time.  I  can  supply  any  deficiency  that  may  exist  in 
General  Pope's  army. 


316  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

August  the  30th  (1.45  p.  M.),  General  Halleck  tele 
graphed  him : — 

Ammunition,  and  particularly  for  artillery,  must  be  immediately  sent 
forward  to  Centreville  for  General  Pope. 

To  which  he  replied  : — 

I  know  nothing  of  the  calibres  of  Pope's  artillery.  All  I  can  do  is  to 
direct  my  ordnance  officer  to  load  up  all  the  wagons  sent  to  him. 

General  McClellan  might  hare  very  easily  found  out 
those  calibres.  His  ordnance  officer  knew  those  of  the 
corps  of  his  own  army,  and  he  was  in  telegraphic  commu 
nication  with  the  ordnance  officer  in  Washington,  where  a 
register  is  kept  of  all  the  batteries  in  service. 

What  was  his  course  with  respect  to  supplies  of  forage 
and  subsistence,  of  which  Pope' s  army  was  in  such  ex 
treme  need  ? 

He  directed  Franklin  to  say  to  Pope  he  would  send 
him  out  supplies  if  he,  Pope,  would  send  cavalry  to  es 
cort  them  out!  "Such  a  request"  (says  Pope,  in  his 
dispatch  of  5  A.  M.,  August  30),  "when  Alexandria  is  full 
of  troops,  and  I  fighting  the  enemy,  needs  no  comment." 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac,  under  General  Pope,  was 
defeated  and  driven  back  upon  Washington.  But  it  had 
contested  every  inch  of  the  ground,  and  had  fought  every 
battle  with  a  gallantry  and  tenacious  courage  that  would 
have  insured  a  decisive  victory  if  it  had  been  properly 
and  promptly  supported.  It  was  not  broken,  either  in 
spirit  or  in  organization  ;  and  it  fell  back  upon  the  Capital 
prepared  to  renew  the  struggle  for  its  salvation. 

By  this  time,  however,  General  McClellan  had  become 
the  recognized  head  of  a  political  party  in  the  country, 
and  a  military  clique  in  the  army  ;  and  it  suited  the  pur 
poses  of  both  to  represent  the  defeat  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  as  due  to  the  fact  that  General  McClellan  was 
no  longer  at  its  head.  The  progress  of  the  rebel  army, 
moreover,  up  the  Potomac,  with  the  evident  intention  of 
moving  upon  Baltimore  or  into  Pennsylvania,  had  created 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  317 

a  state  of  feeling  throughout  the  country  and  in  Washing 
ton  eminently  favorable  to  the  designs  of  General  Mo 
Clellan's  partisans;  and  upon  the  urgent  but  unjust  rep 
resentation  of  some  of  his  officers  that  the  army  would 
not  serve  under  any  other  commander,  General  Pope  was 
relieved,  and  General  McClellan  again  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  on  the  4th  of  September 
he  commenced  the  movement  into  Maryland  to  repel  the 
invading  rebel  forces. 

On  the  llth,  he  made  urgent  application  for  re-enforce 
ments,  asking  that  Colonel  Milet  be  withdrawn  from  Har 
per'  s  Ferry,  and  that  one  or  two  of  the  three  army  corps 
on  the  Potomac,  opposite  Washington,  be  at  once  sent  to 
join  him.  "Even  if  Washington  should  be  taken,"  he 
said,  "while  these  armies  are  confronting  each  other,  this 
would  not  in  my  judgment  bear  comparison  with  the  ruin 
and  disaster  that  would  follow  a  single  defeat  of  this 
army,"  although,  as  will  be  remembered,  when  that  army 
was  under  Pope,  and  engaged  in  a  battle  which  might 
destroy  it,  he  had  said  (Aug.  27),  UI  think  we  should  first 
provide  for  the  defence  of  the  Capital."  General  Halleck 
reDlied  that  "the  capture  of  Washington  would  throw 
them  back  six  months,  if  not  destroy  them,"  and  that  Miles 
could  not  join  him  until  communications  were  opened. 
On  the  14th,  the  battle  of  South  Mountain  took  place,  the 
rebels  falling  back  to  the  Potomac  ;  and  on  the  17th  the 
battle  of  Antietam  was  fought,  resulting  in  the  defeat  of 
the  rebel  forces,  although  no  pursuit  was  made,  and  they 
were  allowed,  during  the  night  and  the  whole  of  the  next 
day,  quietly  to  withdraw  their  shattered  forces  to  the 
other  side  of  the  Potomac.  The  losses  he  had  sustained 
and  the  disorganization  of  some  of  his  commands  were 
assigned  by  General  McClellan  as  his  reason  for  not  renew 
ing  the  attack,  although  the  corps  of  General  Fitz-John 
Porter  had  not  been  brought  into  action  at  all.  Orders 
were  issued,  however,  for  a  renewal  of  the  battle  on  the 
19th,  but  it  was  then  suddenly  discovered  that  the  enemy 
was  on  the  other  side  of  the  Potomac.  General  McClellan 
did  not  feel  authorized  on  account  of  the  condition  of  his 


318  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

army  to  cross  in  pursuit,  and  on  the  23d  wrote  to  Wash 
ington,  asking  for  re-enforcements,  renewing  the  applica  - 
tion  on  the  27th,  and  stating  his  purpose  to  Ibe  to  hold  the 
army  where  it  was,  and  to  attack  the  enemy  should  Tie 
attempt  to  recross  into  Maryland.  He  thought  that  only 
the  troops  necessary  to  garrison  Washington  should  be 
retained  there,  and  that  every  thing  else  available  should 
be  sent  to  him.  If  re-enforced  and  allowed  to  take  his 
own  course,  he  said,  he  would  be  responsible  for  the 
safety  of  the  Capital. 

On  the  1st  of  Octob^  ,  President  Lincoln  visited  the 
army  and  made  careful  inquiry  into  its  strength  and  con 
dition.  On  the  6th,  he  issued  the  following-  order  for  an 
immediate  advance : — 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  October  6, 1862. 

I  am  instructed  to  telegraph  to  you  as  follows :  The  President  directs 
that  you  cross  the  Potomac  and  give  battle  to  the  enemy,  or  drive  him 
south.  Your  army  must  move  now,  while  the  roads  are  good.  If  you 
cross  the  river  between  the  enemy  and  Washington,  and  cover  the  latter 
by  your  operation,  you  can  be  re-enforced  with  thirty  thou&and  men.  If 
you  move  up  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah  not  more  than  twelve  or  fif 
teen  thousand  can  be  sent  you.  The  President  advises  the  interior  line 
between  Washington  and  the  enemy,  but  does  not  order  it.  He  is  very 
desirous  that  your  army  move  as  soon  as  possible.  You  will  immediately 
report  what  line  you  adopt,  and  when  you  intend  to  cross  the  river :  also 
to  what  point  the  re-enforcements  are  to  be  sent.  It  is  necessary  that 
the  plan  of  your  operations  be  positively  determined  on,  before  orders 
are  given  for  building  bridges  and  repairing  railroads.  I  am  directed  to 
add,  that  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  General-in-Chief  fully  "concur  with 
the  President  in  these  instructions. 

H.  W.  HALLECK,  General-in-Chief. 

Major-General  HoCLELLAtf. 

On  receiving  this  order,  General  McClellan  inquired  as 
to  the  character  of  troops  that  would  be  sent  him,  and  as 
to  the  number  of  tents  at  command  of  the  army.  He  also 
called  for  very  large  quantities  of  shoes,  clothing,  and 
supplies,  and  said  that  without  these  the  army  could  not 
move.  On  the  llth,  the  rebel  General  Stuart,  with  a 
force  of  about  twenty  five  hundred  men,  made  a  raid  into 
Pennsylvania,  going  completely  round  our  army,  and 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  319 

thwarting  all  the  arrangements  by  which  General  Me 
Clellan  had  reported  that  his  capture  was  certain.     On  the 
13th,  in  consequence  of  his  protracted  delays,  the  Presi 
dent  addressed  to  General  McClellan  the  following  letter  : 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  October  18, 1862. 

MY  DEAE  SIE  : — Yon  remember  my  speaking  to  you  of  what  I  called 
your  over-cautiousness.  Are  you  not  over-cautious  when  you  assume  that 
you  cannot  do  what  the  enemy  is  constantly  doing?  Should  you  not 
claim  to  be  at  least  his  equal  in  prowess,  and  act  upon  the  claim  ? 

As  I  understand,  you  telegraphed  General  Halleck  that  you  cannot  sub 
sist  your  army  at  Winchester  unless  the  railroad  from  Harper's  Ferry  to 
that  point  be  put  in  working  order.  But  the  enemy  does  now  subsist  his 
army  at  Winchester,  at  a  distance  nearly  twice  as  great  from  railroad 
transportation  as  you  would  have  to  do  without  the  railroad  last  named. 
He  now  wagons  from  Oulpepper  Court-House,  which  is  just  about  twice 
as  far  as  you  would  have  to  do  from  Harper's  Ferry.  He  is  certainly  not 
more  than  half  as  well  provided  with  wagons  as  you  are.  I  certainly 
should  be  pleased  for  you  to  have  the  advantage  of  the  railroad  from 
Harper's  Ferry  to  Winchester ;  but  it  wastes  all  the  remainder  of  autumn 
to  give  it  to  you,  and,  in  fact,  ignores  the  question  of  time,  which  cannot 
and  must  not  be  ignored. 

Again,  one  of  the  standard  maxims  of  war,  as  you  know,  is,  "  to  operate 
upon  the  enemy's  communications  as  much  as  possible,  without  exposing 
your  own."  You  seem  to  act  as  if  this  applies  against  you,  but  cannot 
apply  in  your  favor.  Change  positions  with  the  enemy,  and  think  you 
not  he  would  break  your  communication  with  Richmond  within  the  next 
twenty-four  hours  ?  You  dread  his  going  into  Pennsylvania.  But  if  he 
does  so  in  full  force,  he  gives  up  his  communications  to  you  absolutely, 
and  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  follow  and  ruin  him ;  if  he  does  so 
with  less  than  full  forr»p.,  fall  upon  and  beat  what  is  left  behind  all  the 
easier. 

Exclusive  of  the  water  line,  you  are  now  nearer  Richmond  than  the 
enemy  is,  by  the  route  that  you  can  and  he  must  take.  Why  can  you  not 
reach  there  before  him,  unless  you  admit  that  he  is  more  than  your  equal 
on  a  march?  His  route  is  the  arc  of  a  circle,  while  yours  is  the  chord. 
The  roads  are  as  good  on  yours  as  on  his. 

You  know  I  desired,  but  did  not  order,  you  to  cross  the  Potomac  below 
instead  of  above  the  Shenandoah  and  Blue  Ridge.  My  idea  was,  that 
this  would  at  once  menace  the  enemy's  communications,  which  I  would 
seize  if  he  would  permit.  If  he  should  move  northward,  I  would  follow 
him  closely,  holding  his  communications.  If  he  should  prevent  our 
seizing  his  communications,  and  move  toward  Richmond,  I  would  press 
closely  to  him,  fight  him  if  a  favorable  opportunity  should  present,  and  at 
least  try  to  beat  him  to  Richmond  on  the  inside  track.  I  say  "try  "  if 


320  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

we  never  try,  we  shall  never  succeed.  If  he  make  a  stand  at  Winchester, 
moving  neither  north,  nor  south,  I  would  fight  him  there,  on  the  idea  thai 
if  we  cannot  beat  him  when  he  bears  the  wastage  of  coming  to  us,  we 
never  can  when  we  bear  the  wastage  of  going  to  him.  This  proposition 
is  a  simple  truth,  and  is  too  important  to  be  lost  sight  of  for  a  moment. 
In  coining  to  us,  he  tenders  us  an  advantage  which  we  should  not  waive. 
We  should  not  so  operate  as  to  merely  drive  him  away.  As  we  must  beat 
him  somewhere,  or  fail  finally,  we  can  do  it,  if  at  all,  easier  near  to  us 
than  far  away.  If  we  cannot  beat  the  enemy  where  he  now  is,  we  nevei 
can,  he  again  being  within  the  intrenchments  of  Richmond.  Recurring 
to  the  idea  of  going  to  Richmond  on  the  inside  track,  the  facility  of  sup 
plying  from  the  side  away  from  the  enemy  is  remarkable,  as  it  were,  by 
the  different  spokes  of  a  wheel,  extending  from  the  hub  towards  the  rim; 
and  this  whether  you  move  directly  by  the  chord,  or  on  the  inside  arc, 
hugging  the  Blue  Ridge  more  closely.  The  chord-line,  as  you  see,  carries 
you  by  Aldie,  Haymarket,  and  Fredericksburg,  and  you  see  how  turn 
pikes,  railroads,  and  finally  the  Potomac  by  Aquia  Creek,  meet  you  at 
all  points  from  Washington.  The  same,  only  the  lines  lengthened  a  little, 
if  you  press  closer  to  the  Blue  Ridge  part  of  the  way.  The  gaps  through 
the  Blue  Ridge  I  understand  to  be  about  the  following  distances  from 
Harper's  Ferry,  to  wit:  Vestal's,  five  miles;  Gregory's,  thirteen;  Snick 
er's,  eighteen;  Ashby's,  twenty-eight;  Manassas,  thirty-eight;  Chester, 
forty-five;  and  Thornton's,  fifty-three.  I  should  think  it  preferable  to 
take  the  route  nearest  the  enemy,  disabling  him  to  make  an  important 
move  without  your  knowledge,  and  compelling  him  to  keep  his  forces 
together  for  dread  of  you.  The  gaps  would  enable  you  to  attack  if  you 
should  wish.  For  a  great  part  of  the  way  you  would  be  practically 
between  the  enemy  and  both  Washington  and  Richmond,  enabling  us  to 
spare  you  the  greatest  number  of  troops  from  here.  When,  at  length, 
running  to  Richmond  ahead  of  him  enables  him  to  move  this  way,  if  he 
does  so,  turn  and  attack  him  in  the  rear.  But  I  think  he  should  be 
engaged  long  before  such  point  is  reached.  It  is  all  easy  if  our  troops 
march  as  well  as  the  enemy,  and  it  is  unmanly  to  say  they  cannot  do  it. 

This  letter  is  in  no  sense  an  order. 

Yours,  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

Major-General  MCCLELLAN. 

For  over  a  fortnight  longer  General  McClellan  delayed 
any  attempt  to  move  his  army  in  obedience  to  the  Presi 
dent'  s  order.  He  spent  this  interval  in  complaints  of  inad 
equate  cupplies,  and  in  incessant  demands  for  re-enforce 
ments  ;  and  on  the  21st  inquired  whether  it  was  still  the 
President's  wish  that  he  should  march  upon  the  enemy  at 
once,  or  await  the  arrival  of  fresh  horses.  He  was  told  in 
reply  that  the  order  of  the  6th  was  unchanged,  and  that 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  321 

while  the  President  did  not  expect  impossibilities,  he  was 
' '  very  anxious  that  all  this  good  weather  should  not  "be 
wasted  in  inactivity."  General  McClellan  states  in  his 
report  that  he  inferred,  from  the  tenor  of  this  dispatch, 
that  it  was  left  to  his  own  judgment  whether  it  would  be 
safe  for  the  army  to  advance  or  not ;  and  he  accordingly 
fixed  upon  the  first  of  November  as  the  earliest  date  at 
which  the  forward  movement  could  be  commenced.  On 
the  25th  he  complained  to  the  Department  of  the  con 
dition  of  his  cavalry,  saying  that  the  horses  were  fatigued 
and  greatly  troubled  with  sore  tongue  ;  whereupon  the 
President  addressed  him  the  following  inquiry  :— 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  "WASHINGTON,  October  25,  1SC2. 

I  have  just  read  your  dispatch  about  sore-tongue  and  fatigued  horses. 
Will  you  pardon  me  for  asking  what  the  horses  of  your  army  have  done 
since  the  battle  of  Antietam  that  fatigues  any  thing  ? 

A.  LIXCOLN. 

The  General  replied  that  they  had  been  engaged  in 
making  reconnoissances,  scouting,  and  picketing ;  to  which 
the  President  thus  rejoined  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  October  26,  1862. 

Yours  in  reply  to  mine  about  horses  received.  Of  course  you  know  tho 
facts  better  than  I.  Still,  two  considerations  remain :  Stuart's  cavalry 
outmarched  ours,  having  certainly  done  more  marked  service  on  the  Pen 
insula  and  everywhere  since.  Secondly :  will  not  a  movement  of  our 
army  be  a  relief  to  the  cavalry,  compelling  the  enemy  to  concentrate  in 
stead  of  "  foraging  "  in  squads  everywhere  ?  But  I  am  so  rejoiced  to  learn 
from  your  dispatch  to  General  Ilalleck  that  you  began  crossing  the  river 
this  morning.  A.  LIXCOLX. 

The  General  replied  in  a  long  dispatch,  rehearsing  in 
detail  the  labors  performed  by  his  cavalry,  to  which  he 
thought  the  President  had  done  injustice.  This  note  eli 
cited  the  following  reply  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  October  26,  1862. 

Yours  of  yesterday  received.  Most  certainly  I  intend  no  injustice  to 
any,  and  if  I  have  done  any  I  deeply  regret  it.  To  be  told,  after  more 
than  five  weeks'  total  inaction  of  the  army,  and  during  which  period  we 
had  sent  to  that  army  every  fresh  horse  we  possibly  could,  amounting  in 

tlo  whole  to  seven  thousand  nine  hundred  and  eighteen,  that  the  cavalry 
21 


322  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AJND 

horses  were  too  much  fatigued  to  move,  presented  a  very  cheerless,  almost 
hopeless,  prospect  for  the  future,  and  it  may  have  forced  something  of 
impatience  into  my  dispatches.  If  not  recruited  and  rested  then,  when 
could  they  ever  be  ?  I  suppose  the  river  is  rising,  and  I  am  glad  to  believe 
you  are  crossing.  A.  LINCOLN. 

The  General  next  started,  as  a  new  topic  of  discussion, 
the  extent  to  which  the  line  of  the  Potomac  should  "be 
guarded  after  he  left  it,  so  as  to  cover  Maryland  and  Penn 
sylvania  from  further  invasions.  He  thought  strong  gar 
risons  should  be  left  at  certain  points,  complained  that  his 
forces  were  inadequate,  and  made  some  suggestion  con 
cerning  the  position  of  the  rebel  army  under  Bragg,  which 
led  General  Halleck  in  reply  to  remind  him  that  Bragg 
was  four  hundred  miles  away,  while  Lee  was  but  twenty. 
On  the  27th  the  General  telegraphed  to  the  President  that 
it  was  necessary  to  "fill  up  the  old  regiments  of  his  com 
mand  before  taking  them  again  into  action,"  to  which  the 
President  thus  replied  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  October  27,  i8G2. 

Your  dispatch  of  three  p.  M.  to-day,  in  regard  to  filling  up  old  regiments 
with  drafted  men,  is  received,  and  the  request  therein  shall  be  complied 
with  as  far  as  practicable.  And  now  I  ask  a  distinct  answer  to  the  ques 
tion,  uls  it  your  purpose  not  to  go  into  action  again  till  the  men  nov»  being 
drafted  in  the  States  are  incorporated  in  the  old  regiments?'' 

A.  LINCOLN. 

The  General,  in  reply,  explained  that  the  language  of 
the  dispatch,  which  was  prepared  by  one  of  his  aids,  had 
incorrectly  expressed  his  meaning,  and  that  he  should  not 
postpone  the  advance  until  the  regiments  were  filled  by 
drafted  men.  The  army  was  gradually  crossed  over,  and 
on  the  5th  of  November  the  General  announced  to  the 
President  that  it  was  all  on  the  Virginia  side.  This  was 
just  a  month  after  the  order  to  cross  had  been  given — the 
enemy  meantime  having  taken  possession  of  all  the  strong 
points,  and  falling  back,  at  his  leisure,  towards  his  base 
of  operations.  These  unaccountable  delays  in  the  move 
ment  of  the  army  created  the  most  intense  dissatisfaction 
in  the  public  mind,  and  completely  exhausted  the  patience 
of  the  Government.  Accordingly,  on  the  5th  of  Govern- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  323 

Iber,  an  order  was  issued  relieving  General  McClellan  from 
the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  directing 
General  Burnside  to  take  his  place. 

Thus  closed  a  most  remarkable  chapter  in  the  history  of 
the  war.  For  over  fifteen  months  General  McClellan  had 
commanded  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  the  largest  and  most 
powerful  army  ever  marshalled  till  then  upon  this  con 
tinent—consisting  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
men,  and  furnished,  in  lavish  profusion,  with  every  thing 
requisite  for  effective  service.  Throughout  the  whole  of 
this  long  period  that  army  had  been  restrained  by  its  com 
mander  from  attacking  the  enemy.  Except  in  the  single 
instance  of  Antietam,  where,  moreover,  there  was  no  pos 
sibility  of  avoiding  an  engagement,  every  battle  which  it 
fought  was  on  the  defensive.  According  to  the  sworn 
testimony  of  his  own  commanders,  General  McClellan 
might  have  overwhelmed  the  rebel  forces  arrayed  against 
him  at  Manassas,  at  Yorktown,  after  Williamsburg,  Fair 
Oaks,  Malvern  Hill,  and  Antietam ;  but  on  every  one  of 
these  occasions  he  carefully  forbore  to  avail  himself  of  the 
superiority  of  his  position,  and  gave  the  enemy  ample 
time  to  prepare  for  more  complete  and  effective  resistance. 
It  is  no  part  of  our  present  purpose  to  inquire  into  the 
causes  of  this  most  extraordinary  conduct  on  the  part  of 
a  commander  to  whom,  more  completely  than  to  any  other, 
were  intrusted  the  destinies  of  the  Nation  during  one 
of  the  most  critical  periods.  Whether  he  acted  from 
an  innate  disability,  or  upon  a  political  theory — whether 
he  intentionally  avoided  a  decisive  engagement  in  order 
to  accomplish  certain  political  results  which  he  and  his 
secret  advisers  deemed  desirable,  or  whether  he  was,  by 
the  native  constitution  of  his  mind,  unable  to  meet  the 
gigantic  responsibilities  of  his  position  when  the  critical 
moment  of  trial  arrived,  are  points  which  the  public  and 
posterity  will  decide  from  an  unbiased  study  of  the  evi 
dence  which  his  acts  and  his  words  afford.  As  the  record 
we  have  given  shows,  President  Lincoln  lost  no  oppor 
tunity  of  urging  upon  him  more  prompt  and  decisive 


324  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

action,  while  in  no  instance  did  he  withhold  from  him  any 
aid  which  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  Government  to  give. 
Nothing  can  show  more  clearly  the  disposition  of  the 
President  to  sustain  him  to  the  utmost,  and  to  protect  him 
from  the  rapidly  nsing  tide  of  public  censure  and  discon 
tent  with  his  ruinous  and  inexplicable  delays,  than  the 
following  remarks  made  by  him  at  a  war  meeting  held  at 
Washington  on  the  6th  of  August,  after  the  retreat  to  the 
James  River,  and  just  before  the  withdrawal  of  the  army 
from  the  Peninsula  : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  believe  there  is  no  precedent  for  my  appearing 
before  you  on  this  occasion,  but  it  is  also  true  that  there  is  no  precedent 
for  your  being  here  yourselves,  and  I  offer,  in  justification  of  myself  and 
of  you,  that,  upon  examination,  I  have  found  nothing  in  the  Constitution 
against  it.  I,  however,  have  an  impression  that  there  are  younger  gentle 
men  who  will  entertain  you  better,  and  better  address  your  understanding 
than  I  will  or  could,  and  therefore  I  propose  but  to  detain  you  a  moment 
longer. 

I  am  very  little  inclined  on  any  occasion  to  say  any  thing  unless  I  hope 
to  produce  some  good  by  it.  The  only  thing  I  think  of  just  now  not 
likely  to  be  better  said  by  some  one  else,  is  a  matter  in  which  we  have 
heard  some  other  persons  blamed  for  what  I  did  myself.  There  has  been 
a  very  wide-spread  attempt  to  have  a  quarrel  between  General  McClellan 
and  the  Secretary  of  War.  Now,  I  occupy  a  position  that  enables  me  to 
observe,  that  these  two  gentlemen  are  not  nearly  so  deep  in  the  quarrel  as 
some  pretending  to  be  their  friends.  General  McClellan's  attitude  is  such 
that,  in  the  very  selfishness  of  his  nature,  he  cannot  but  wish  to  be  suc 
cessful,  and  I  hope  he  will — and  the  Secretary  of  War  is  in  precisely  the 
same  situation.  If  the  military  commanders  in  the  field  cannot  be  success 
ful,  not  only  the  Secretary  of  War,  but  myself,  for  the  time  being  the 
master  of  them  both,  cannot  but  be  failures.  I  know  General  McClellan 
wishes  to  be  successful,  and  I  know  he  does  not  wish  it  any  more  than  the 
Secretary  of  War  for  him,  and  both  of  them  together  no  moi  c  than  I  wish 
it.  Sometimes  we  have  a  dispute  about  how  many  men  General  McClel 
lan  has  had,  and  those  who  would  disparage  him  say  that  he  has  had  a 
very  large  number,  and  those  who  would  disparage  the  Secretary  of  War 
insist  that  General  McClellan  has  had  a  very  small  number.  The  basis 
for  this  is,  there  is  always  a  wide  difference,  and  on  this  occasion,  perhaps 
a  wider  one  than  usual,  between  the  grand  total  on  McClellan's  rolls  and 
the  men  actually  fit  for  duty ;  and  those  who  would  disparage  him  talk  of  the 
grand  total  on  paper,  and  those  who  would  disparage  the  Secretary  of  War 
talk  of  those  at  present  fit  for  duty.  General  McClellan  has  sometimes 
asked  for  things  that  the  Secretary  of  War  did  not  give  him.  General 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  325 

McClellan  is  not  to  blame  for  asking  what  he  wanted  and  needed,  and  the 
Secretary  of  War  is  not  to  blame  for  not  giving  when  he  had  none  to  give. 
And  I  say  here,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  Secretary  of  War  has  withheld  no 
one  thing  at  any  time  in  my  power  to  give  him.  I  have  no  accusation 
against  him.  I  believe  he  is  a  brave  and  able  man,  and  I  stand  here,  as 
justice  requires  me  to  do,  to  take  upon  myself  what  has  been  charged  on 
the  Secretary  of  War,  as  withholding  from  him. 

I  have  talked  longer  than  I  expected  to  do,  and  now  I  avail  myself  of 
•ny  privilege  of  saying  no  more. 


326  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


CHAPTER  X. 

GENERAL  CONDUCT   OF  THE  ADMINISTRATION  IN   1862. 

SUCCESSES  IN  THE  SOUTHWEST. — RECOGNIZED  OBJECTS  OF  THE  WAE. — 
RELATIONS  OF  THE  WAR  TO  SLATERT. — OUR  FOREIGN  RELATIONS. — 
PROPOSED  MEDIATION  OF  THE  FRENCH  EMPEROR. — REPLY  TO  THE 
FRENCH  PROPOSAL. — SECRETARY  SEWARD'S  DISPATCH. — THE  PRESI 
DENT'S  LETTER  TO  FERNANDO  WOOD. — OBSERVANCE  OP  THE  SAP>BATH 

IN  every  other  section  of  the  country,  except  in  East 
ern  Virginia,  the  military  operations  of  the  year  1862 
were  marked  by  promptitude  and  vigor,  and  attended  "by 
success  to  the  National  arms.  Early  in  February,  a  lodg 
ment  had  been  effected  by  the  expedition  under  General 
Burnside  on  the  coast  of  North  Carolina ;  and,  on  the 
19th  of  January,  the  victory  of  Mill  Springs  had  released 
Western  Kentucky  from  rebel  rule,  and  opened  a  path 
for  the  armies  of  the  Union  into  East  Tennessee.  The 
President' s  order  of  January  27th,  for  an  advance  of  all 
the  forces  of  the  Government  on  the  22d  of  February,  had 
been  promptly  followed  by  the  capture  of  Forts  Henry 
and  Donelson  on  the  Cumberland  and  Tennessee  Rivers, 
which  led  to  the  evacuation  of  Bowling  Green,  the  surren 
der  of  Nashville,  and  the  fall  of  Columbus,  the  rebel  strong 
hold  on  the  Mississippi.  Fort  Pulaski,  which  guarded  the 
entrance  to  Savannah,  was  taken,  after  eighteen  hours' 
bombardment,  on  the  12th  of  April,  and  the  whole  west 
coast  of  Florida  had  been  occupied  by  our  forces.  By 
the  skilful  strategy  of  General  Halleck,  commanding  the 
Western  Department,  seconded  by  the  vigorous  activity 
of  General  Curtis,  the  rebel  commander  in  Missouri,  Gen 
eral  Price,  had  been  forced  to  retreat,  leaving  the  whole 
of  that  State  in  our  hands  ;  and  he  was  badly  beaten  in  a 
subsequent  engagement  at  Sugar  Creek  in  Arkansas.  On 
the  14th,  Island  No.  10,  commanding  the  passage  of  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  327 

Mississippi,  was  taken  by  General  Pope ;  and,  on  the 
4th  of  June,  Forts  Pillow  and  Randolph,  still  lower 
down,  were  occupied  by  our  forces.  On  the  6th,  the 
city  of  Memphis  was  surrendered  by  the  rebels.  Soon 
after  the  fall  of  Nashville,  a  formidable  expedition  had 
ascended  the  Tennessee  River,  and,  being  joined  by  all 
the  available  Union  forces  in  that  vicinity,  the  whole, 
under  command  of  General  Halleck,  prepared  to  give 
battle  to  the  rebel  army,  which,  swelled  by  large  re- 
enforcements  from  every  quarter,  was  posted  in  the  vicin 
ity  of  Corinth,  ninety  miles  east  of  Memphis,  intending 
by  a  sudden  attack  to  break  the  force  of  the  Union  army, 
which  was  sweeping  steadily  down  upon  them  from  the 
field  of  its  recent  conquests.  The  rebels  opened  the 
attack  with  great  fury  and  effect,  on  the  morning  of  the 
6th  of  April,  at  Pittsburg  Landing,  three  miles  in  ad 
vance  of  Corinth.  The  fight  lasted  nearly  all  day,  the 
rebels  having  decidedly  the  advantage  ;  but  in  their  final 
onset  they  were  driven  back,  and  the  next  day  our  army, 
strengthened  by  the  opportune  arrival  of  General  Buell, 
completed  what  proved  to  be  a  signal  and  most  im 
portant  victory.  When  news  of  it  reached  Washing 
ton,  President  Lincoln  issued  the  following  proclama 
tion  :— 

It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  vouchsafe  signal  victories  to  the  land 
and  naval  forces  engaged  in  suppressing  an  internal  rebellion,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  avert  from  our  country  the  dangers  of  foreign  intervention 
and  invasion. 

It  is  therefore  recommended  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  that  at 
their  next  weekly  assemblages  in  their  accustomed  places  of  public  wor 
ship  which  shall  occur  after  the  notice  of  this  Proclamation  shall  have 
been  received,  they  especially  acknowledge  and  render  thanks  to  our 
Heavenly  Father  for  these  inestimable  blessings ;  that  they  then  and  there 
implore  spiritual  consolation  in  behalf  of  all  those  who  have  been  brought 
into /affliction  by  the  casualties  and  calamities  of  sedition  and  civil  war; 
and  that  they  reverently  invoke  the  Divine  guidance  for  our  national 
counsels,  to  the  end  that  they  may  speedily  result  in  the  restoration  of 
peace,  harmony,  and  unity  throughout  our  borders,  and  hasten  the  estab 
lishment  of  fraternal  relations  among  all  the  countries  of  the  earth. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 


328  THE  LIFE;  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  tenth  day  of  April,  in  the 
[L.  s.]     year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-two, 
and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-sixth. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President : 

WM.  H.  SEWAKD,  Secretary  of  State. 

On  the  28th  of  May  the  rebels  evacuated  Corinth,  and 
were  pushed  southward  by  our  pursuing  forces  for  some 
twenty-five  or  thirty  miles.  General  Mitchell,  by  a 
daring  and  most  gallant  enterprise  in  the  latter  part  of 
April,  took  possession  of  Huntsville  in  Alabama.  In 
February  a  formidable  naval  expedition  had  been  fitted 
out  under  Commodore  Farragut  for  the  capture  of  New 
Orleans  ;  and  on  the  18th  of  April  the  attack  commenced 
upon  Forts  Jackson  and  St.  Philip,  by  which  the  passage 
of  the  Mississippi  below  the  city  is  guarded.  After  six 
days'  bombardment,  the  whole  fleet  passed  the  forts  on 
the  night  of  the  23d,  under  a  terrible  fire  from  both  ;  and 
on  the  25th  the  rebel  General  Lovell,  who  had  command 
of  the  military  defences  of  the  city,  withdrew,  and  Com 
modore  Farragut  took  possession  of  the  town,  which  he 
retained  until  the  arrival  of  General  Butler  on  the  1st  of 
May,  who  thereupon  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  as  commander  of  that  Department. 

During  the  summer,  a  powerful  rebel  army,  under 
General  Bragg,  invaded  Kentucky  for  the  double  pur 
pose  of  obtaining  supplies  and  affording  a  rallying  point 
for  what  they  believed  to  be  the  secession  sentiment  of 
the  State.  In  the  accomplishment  of  the  former  object 
they  were  successful,  but  not  in  the  latter.  They  lost 
more  while  in  the  State  from  desertions  than  they  gained 
by  recruits ;  and  after  a  battle  at  Perryville,  on  the  7th 
of  October,  they  began  their  retreat.  On  the  5th  of  Oc 
tober  a  severe  battle  was  fought  at  Corinth,  from  which  a 
powerful  rebel  army  attempted  to  drive  our  troops  under 
General  Rosecrans,  but  they  were  repulsed  with  very 
heavy  losses,  and  the  campaign  in  Kentucky  and  Ten 
nessee  was  virtually  at  an  end.  A  final  effort  of  the 
snemy  in  that  region  led  to  a  severe  engagement  at  Mur- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          320 

freesboro'  on  the  31st  of  December,  which  resulted  in 
the  defeat  of  the  rebel  forces,  and  in  relieving  Tennessee 
from  the  presence  of  the  rebel  armies. 

In  all  the  military  operations  of  this  year,  especial  care 
had  been  taken  by  the  generals  in  command  of  the  several 
departments,  acting  under  the  general  direction  of  the 
Government,  to  cause  it  to  be  distinctly  understood  that 
the  object  of  the  war  was  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
and  the  restoration  of  the  authority  of  the  Constitution. 
The  rebel  authorities,  both  civil  and  military,  lost  no 
opportunity  of  exciting  the  fears  and  resentments  of  the 
people  of  the  Southern  States,  by  ascribing  to  the  Nation 
al  Government  designs  of  the  most  ruthless  and  implaca 
ble  hostility  to  their  institutions  and  their  persons.  It 
was  strenuously  represented  that  the  object  of  the  war 
was  to  rob  the  Southern  people  of  their  rights  and  their 
property,  and  especially  to  set  free  their  slaves.  The 
Government  did  every  thing  in  its  power  to  allay  the 
apprehensions  and  hostilities  which  these  statements  were 
calculated  to  produce.  General  Garfield,  while  in  Ken 
tucky,  just  before  the  victory  of  Mill  Springs,  issued  on 
the  16th  of  January  an  address  to  the  citizens  of  that 
section  of  the  State,  exhorting  them  to  return  to  their 
allegiance  to  the  Federal  Government,  which  had  never 
made  itself  injuriously  felt  by  any  one  among  them,  and 
promising  them  full  protection  for  their  persons  and  their 
property,  and  full  reparation  for  any  wrongs  they  might 
have  sustained.  After  the  battle  of  Mill  Springs,  the 
Secretary  of  War,  under  the  direction  of  the  President, 
issued  an  order  of  thanks  to  the  soldiers  engaged  in  it,  in 
which  he  again  announced  that  the  ' '  purpose  of  the  war 
was  to  attack,  pursue,  and  destroy  a  rebellious  enemy, 
and  to  deliver  the  country  from  danger  menaced  by 
traitors."  On  the  20th  of  November,  1861,  General 
Halleck,  commanding  the  Department  of  the  Missouri,  on 
the  eve  of  the  advance  into  Tennessee,  issued  an  order 
enjoining  upon  the  troops  the  necessity  of  discipline  and 
of  order,  and  calling  on  them  to  prove  by  their  acts  that 
they  came  ' '  to  restore,  not  to  violate  the  Constitution  and 


330  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  laws,"  and  that  the  people  of  the  South  under  the 
flag  of  the  Union  should  "enjoy  the  same  protection  of 
life  and  property  as  in  former  days."  "It  does  not 
belong  to  the  military,"  said  this  order,  "to  decide  upon 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave.  Sucli  questions  must  be 
settled  "by  the  civil  courts.  No  fugitive  slave  will,  there 
fore,  be  admitted  within  our  lines  or  camps  except  when 
specially  ordered  by  the  General  commanding."  *  So 
also  General  Burn  side,  when  albout  to  land  on  the  soil  of 
North  Carolina,  issued  an  order,  February  3d,  1862,  call 
ing  upon  the  soldiers  of  his  army  to  remember  that  they 
were  there  "to  support  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  to 
put  down  rebellion,  and  to  protect  the  persons  and  prop 
erty  of  the  loyal  and  peaceable  citizens  of  the  State." 
And  on  the  18th  of  the  same  month,  after  Fort  Henry  and 
Roanoke  Island  had  fallen  into  our  hands,  Commodore 
Goldsborough  and  General  Burnside  issued  a  joint  proc 
lamation,  denouncing  as  false  and  slanderous  the  attempt 
of  the  rebel  leaders  to  impose  on  the  credulity  of  the 
Southern  people  by  telling  them  of  ' '  our  desire  to  de 
stroy  their  freedom,  demolish  their  property,  and  liberate 
their  slaves,"  and  declaring  that  the  Government  asked 
only  that  its  authority  might  be  recognized,  and  that  "in 
no  way  or  manner  did  it  desire  to  interfere  with  their 
laws,  constitutionally  established,  their  institutions  of  any 
kind  whatever,  their  property  of  any  sort,  or  their  usages 
in  any  respect."  And,  on  the  1st  of  March,  Genera] 
Curtis,  in  Arkansas,  had  addressed  a  proclamation  to  the 

*  In  regard  to  this  order,  -which  was  afterwards  severely  criticised  in  Congress, 
General  Ilalleck  wrote  the  following  letter  of  explanation : — 

IlEAD-QtJAETEKS   DEPARTMENT  OF  TUB  MISSOURI,  | 

ST.  LOTTIS,  December  8,  1861.  1 

My  DEAR  COLONEL  :— Tours  of  the  4th  instant  is  just  received.  Order  No.  8  was,  in  my  mind, 
clearly  a  military  necessity.  Unauthorized  persons,  black  or  white,  free  or  slaves,  must  he  kept 
out  of  our  camps,  unless  we  are  willing  to  publish  to  the  enemy  every  thing  we  do  or  intend  to 
do.  It  was  a  military  and  not  apolitical  order. 

I  am  ready  to  carry  out  any  lawful  instructions  in  regard  to  fugitive  slaves  which  my  supe 
riors  may  give  me,  and  to  enforce  any  law  which  Congress  may  pass.  But  I  cannot  make  law, 
and  will  not  violate  it.  Ton  know  my  private  opinion  on  the  policy  of  confiscating  the  slave 
property  of  the  rebels  in  arms.  If  Congress  shall  pass  it,  you  may  be  certain  that  I  shall  enforce 
it.  Perhaps  my  policy  as  to  the  treatment  of  rebels  and  their  property  is  as  well  set  out  In  Or- 
•ier  No.  15,  issued  the  day  your  letter  was  written,  as  I  could  now  describe  it. 
Hon.  F.  P.  BLMK,  Washington. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  331 

people  of  that  State,  denouncing  as  false  and  calumnious 
the  statements  widely  circulated  of  the  designs  and  sen 
timents  of  the  Union  armies,  and  declaring  that  they 
sought  only  "to  put  down  rebellion  Tby  making  war 
against  those  in  arms,  their  aiders  and  abettors" — and 
that  they  came  to  "vindicate  the  Constitution,  and  to 
preserve  and  perpetuate  civil  and  religious  liberty  under 
a  flag  that  was  embalmed  in  the  blood  of  our  Eevolution- 
ary  fathers."  In  all  this  the  Government  adhered,  with 
just  and  rigorous  fidelity,  to  the  principles  it  had  adopt 
ed  for  its  conduct  at  the  outset  of  the  war ;  and  in  its 
anxiety  to  avoid  all  cause  of  complaint  and  all  appear 
ance  of  justification  for  those  who  were  in  arms  against  its 
authority,  it  incurred  the  distrust  and  even  the  denuncia 
tion  of  the  more  zealous  and  vehement  among  its  own 
friends  and  supporters  in  the  Northern  States. 

On  the  22d  of  July,  in  order  to  secure  unity  of  action 
among  the  commanders  of  the  several  military  departments, 
upon  the  general  use  to  be  made  of  rebel  property,  the 
President  directed  the  issue  of  the  following  order : — 

WAB  DEPARTMENT,  "WASHINGTON,  Jidy  22,  1862. 

First.  Ordered  that  military  commanders  within  the  States  of  Virginia, 
K or th  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas, 
and  Arkansas,  in  an  orderly  manner  seize  and  use  any  property,  real  or 
personal,  which  may  be  necessary  or  convenient  for  their  several  com 
mands,  for  supplies,  or  for  other  military  purposes ;  and  that  while  prop 
erty  may  be  destroyed  for  proper  military  objects,  none  shall  be  destroyed 
in  wantonness  or  malice. 

Second.  That  military  and  naval  commanders  shall  employ  as  laborers, 
within  and  from  said  States,  so  many  persons  of  African  descent  as  can 
be  advantageously  used  for  military  or  naval  purposes,  giving  them  reason 
able  wages  for  their  labor. 

Third.  That,  as  to  both  property,  and  persons  of  African  descent, 
accounts  shall  be  kept  sufficiently  accurate  and  in  detail  to  show  quan 
tities  and  amounts,  and  from  whom  both  property  and  such  persons  shall 
have  come,  as  a  basis  upon  which  compensation  can  be  made  in  proper 
cases ;  and  the  several  departments  of  this  Government  shall  attend  to  and 
perform  their  appropriate  parts  towards  the  execution  of  these  orders. 

By  order  of  the  President : 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

And  on  the  25th  of  July  he  issued  the  following  procla- 


332  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

mation,  warning  the  people  of  the  Southern  States  against 
persisting  in  their  rebellion,  under  the  penalties  prescribed 
by  the  confiscation  act  passed  by  Congress  at  its  preceding 
session : — 

By  order  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

A   PKOCLAMATION. 

In  pursuance  of  the  sixth  section  of  the  Act  of  Congress,  entitled  "  An 
Act  to  suppress  insurrection,  to  punish  treason  and  rebellion,  to  seize  and 
confiscate  the  property  of  rebels,  and  for  other  purposes,"  approved  July 
17th,  1862,  and  which  Act,  and  the  joint  resolution  explanatory  thereof, 
are  herewith  published,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United 
States,  do  hereby  proclaim  to  and  warn  all  persons  within  the  contem 
plation  of  said  sixth  section  to  cease  participating  in,  aiding,  countenan 
cing,  or  abetting  the  existing  rebellion,  or  any  rebellion,  against  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States,  and  to  return  to  their  proper  allegiance  to 
the  United  States,  on  pain  of  the  forfeiture  and  seizures  as  within  and 
by  said  sixth  section  provided. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twenty-fifth  day  of  July,  in  the 

r       -|  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-two, 
and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-seventh. 

ABKAIIAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President : 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWAKD,  Secretary  of  State. 

Our  relations  with  foreign  nations  during  the  year  1862 
continued  to  be  in  the  main  satisfactory.  The  President 
held  throughout,  in  all  his  intercourse  with  European 
powers,  the  same  firm  and  decided  language  in  regard  to 
the  rebellion  which  had  characterized  the  correspondence 
of  the  previous  year.  OurMinister  in  London,  with  vigi 
lance  and  ability,  pressed  upon  the  British  Government 
the  duty  of  preventing  the  rebel  authorities  from  building 
and  fitting  out  vessels  of  war  in  English  ports  to  prey 
upon  the  commerce  of  the  United  States;  but  in  every 
instance  these  remonstrances  were  without  practical  effect. 
The  Government  could  never  be  convinced  that  the  evi 
dence  in  any  specific  case  was  sufficient  to  warrant  its 
interference,  and  thus  one  vessel  after  another  was  allowed 
to  leave  British  ports,  go  to  some  other  equally  neutral 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  333 

locality  and  take  on  "board  munitions  of  war,  and  enter 
upon  its  career  of  piracy  in  the  rebel  service.  As  early 
as  the  18th  of  February,  1862,  Mr.  Adams  had  called  the 
attention  of  Earl  Russell  to  the  fact  that  a  steam  gunboat, 
afterwards  called  the  Oreto,  was  being  built  in  a  Liverpool 
ship-yard,  under  the  supervision  of  well-known  agents 
of  the  rebel  Government,  and  evidently  intended  for  the 
rebel  service.  The  Foreign  Secretary  replied  that  the 
vessel  was  intended  for  the  use  of  parties  in  Palermo, 
Sicily,  and  that  there  was  no  reason  to  suppose  she  was 
intended  for  any  service  hostile  to  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Adams  sent  evidence  to  show  that  the  claim  of  being 
designed  for  service  in  Sicily  was  a  mere  pretext;  but 
he  failed,  by  this  dispatch,  as  in  a  subsequent  personal 
conference  with  Earl  Russell  on  the  15th  of  April,  to  in 
duce  him  to  take  any  steps  for  her  detention.  She  sailed 
soon  after,  and  was  next  heard  of  at  the  British  "  neutral" 
port  of  Nassau,  where  she  was  seized  by  the  authorities 
at  the  instance  of  the  American  consul,  but  released  by 
the  same  authorities  on  the  arrival  of  Captain  Semmes  to 
take  command  of  her  as  a  Confederate  privateer.  In  Oc 
tober  an  intercepted  letter  was  sent  to  Earl  Russell  by 
Mr.  Adams,  written  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  of  the 
Confederate  Government,  to  a  person  in  England,  com 
plaining  that  he  had  not  followed  the  Oreto  on  her  de 
parture  from  England  and  taken  command  of  her,  in  ac 
cordance  with  his  original  appointment.  In  June,  Mr. 
Adams  called  Earl  Russell's  attention  to  another  power 
ful  war-steamer,  then  in  progress  of  construction  in  the 
ship-yard  of  a  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  evi 
dently  intended  for  the  rebel  service.  This  complaint 
went  through  the  usual  formalities,  was  referred  to  the 
"  Lords  Commissioners  of  her  Majesty's  Treasury,"  who 
reported  in  due  time  that  they  could  discover  no  evidence 
sufficient  to  warrant  the  detention  of  the  vessel.  Soon 
afterwards,  however,  evidence  was  produced  which  was 
sufficient  to  warrant  the  collector  of  the  port  of  Liverpool 
in  ordering  her  detention  ;  but  before  the  necessary  for 
malities  could  be  gone  through  with,  and  through  delays 


334  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

caused,  as  Earl  Russell  afterwards  explained,  by  tlie 
" sudden  development  of  a  malady  of  the  Queen's  ad 
vocate,  totally  incapacitating  him  for  the  transaction  of 
business,"  the  vessel,  whose  managers  were  duly  adver 
tised  of  every  thing  that  was  going  on,  slipped  out  of  port, 
took  on  board  an  armament  in  the  Azores,  and  entered 
the  rebel  service  as  a  privateer.  Our  Government  sub 
sequently  notified  the  British  Government  that  it  would 
be  held  responsible  for  all  the  damage  which  this  vessel, 
known  first  as  "290,"  and  afterwards  as  the  Alabama, 
might  inflict  on  American  commerce. 

Discussions  were  had  upon  the  refusal  of  the  British 
authorities  to  permit  American  vessels  of  war  to  take  in 
coal  at  Nassau,  upon  the  systematic  attempts  of  British 
merchants  to  violate  our  blockade  of  Southern  ports,  and 
upon  the  recapture,  by  the  crew,  of  the  Emily  St.  Pierre, 
which  had  been  seized  in  attempting  to  run  the  blockade 
at  Charleston,  and  was  on  her  way  as  a  prize  to  the  port 
of  New  York.  The  British  Government  vindicated  her 
rescue  as  sanctioned  by  the  principles  of  international  ]aw. 

The  only  incident  of  special  importance  which  occurred 
during  the  year  in  our  foreign  relations,  grew  out  of  an 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor  of  the  French  to  secure 
a  joint  effort  at  mediation  between  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  and  the  rebel  authorities,  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain  and  Russia  in  connection  with  his  own 
Government.  Rumors  of  such  an  intention  on  the  part 
of  the  Emperor  led  Mr.  Dayton  to  seek  an  interview  with 
the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  on  the  6th  of  November, 
at  which  indications  of  such  a  purpose  were  apparent. 
The  attempt  failed,  as  both  the  other  powers  consulted 
declined  to  join  in  any  such  action.  The  French  Govern 
ment  thereupon  determined  to  take  action  alone,  and  on 
the  9th  of  January,  1863,  the  Foreign  Secretary  wrote  to 
the  French  Minister  at  Washington  a  dispatch,  declaring 
the  readiness  of  the  French  Emperor  to  do  any  thing  in 
his  power  which  might  tend  towards  the  termination  of 
the  war,  and  suggesting  that  "  nothing  would  hinder  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  without  renouncing  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         335 

advantages  which,  it  "believes  it  can  attain  by  a  continua 
tion  of  the  war,  from  entering  upon  informal  conferences 
with  the  Confederates  of  the  South]  in  case  they  should 
show  themselves  disposed  thereto."  The  specific  advan 
tages  of  such  a  conference,  and  the  mode  in  which  it  was 
to  be  brought  about,  were  thus  set  forth  in  this  dispatch  :— 

Representatives  or  commissioners  of  the  two  parties  could  assemble  at 
such  point  as  it  should  be  deemed  proper  to  designate,  and  which  could, 
for  this  purpose,  be  declared  neutral.  Reciprocal  complaints  could  be 
examined  into  at  this  meeting.  In  place  of  the  accusations  which  North 
and  South  mutually  cast  upon  each  other  at  this  time,  would  be  substituted 
an  argumentative  discussion  of  the  interests  which  divide  them.  They 
would  seek  out  by  means  of  well-ordered  and  profound  deliberations 
whether  these  interests  are  definitively  irreconcilable — whether  separation 
is  an  extreme  which  can  no  longer  be  avoided,  or  whether  the  memories 
of  a  common  existence,  whether  the  ties  of  any  kind  which  have  made  of 
the  North  and  of  the  South  one  sole  and  whole  Federative  State,  and  have 
borne  them  on  to  so  high  a  degree  of  prosperity,  are  not  more  powerful 
than  the  causes  which  have  placed  arms  in  the  hands  of  the  two  popula 
tions.  A  negotiation,  the  object  of  which  would  be  thus  determinate, 
would  not  involve  any  of  the  objections  raised  against  the  diplomatic  in 
terventions  of  Europe,  and,  without  giving  birth  to  the  same  hopes  as  the 
immediate  conclusion  of  an  armistice,  would  exercise  a  happy  influence 
on  the  march  of  events. 

Why,  therefore,  should  not  a  combination  which  respects  all  the  rela 
tions  of  the  United  States  obtain  the  approbation  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment?  Persuaded  on  our  part  that  it  is  in  conformity  with  their  true 
interests,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  recommend  it  to  their  attention ;  and,  not 
having  sought  in  the  project  of  a  mediation  of  the  maritime  powers  of 
Europe  any  vain  display  of  influence,  we  would  applaud,  with  entire  free 
dom  from  all  susceptibility  of  self-esteem,  the  opening  of  a  negotiation 
which  would  invite  the  two  populations  to  discuss,  without  the  co-opera 
tion  of  Europe,  the  solution  of  their  differences. 

The  reply  which  the  President  directed  to  be  made  to 
this  proposition  embraces  so  many  points  of  permanent 
interest  and  importance  in  connection  with  his  Adminis 
tration,  that  we  give  it  in  full.  It  was  as  follows  :— 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  WASHIXGTOX.  February  6,  1863. 

SIR: — The  intimation  given  in  your  dispatch  of  January  15th,  that  1 
might  expect  a  special  visit  from  M.  Mercier,  has  been  realized.  He  called 
on  the  3d  instant,  and  gave  me  a  copy  of  a  dispatch  whic/i  he  had  just  then 
received  from  M.  Drouyn  de  1'Iluys  under  the  date  of  the  9th  of  January. 


336  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

I  have  taken  the  President's  instructions,  and  I  now  proceed  to  giva 
you  his  views  upon  the  subject  in  question. 

It  has  been  considered  with  seriousness,  resulting  from  the  reflection 
that  the  people  of  France  are  known  to  be  faultless  sharers  with  the 
American  nation  in  the  misfortunes  and  calamities  of  our  unhappy  civil 
war ;  nor  do  we  on  this,  any  more  than  on  other  occasions,  forget  the 
traditional  friendship  of  the  two  countries,  which  we  unhesitatingly  be 
lieve  has  inspired  the  counsels  that  M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys  has  imparted. 

He  says,  "the  Federal  Government  does  not  despair,  we  know,  of  giv 
ing  more  active  impulse  to  hostilities;"  and  again  he  remarks,  "the  pro 
traction  of  the  struggle,  in  a  word,  has  not  shaken  the  confidence  (of  the 
Federal  Government)  in  the  definite  success  of  its  efforts." 

These  passages  seem  to  me  to  do  unintentional  injustice  to  the  language, 
whether  confidential  <}r  public,  in  which  this  Government  has  constantly 
spoken  on  the  subject  of  the  war.  It  certainly  has  had  and  avowed  only 
one  purpose — a  determination  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  country. 
So  far  from  admitting  any  laxity  of  effort,  or  betraying  any  despondency, 
the  Government  has,  on  the  contrary,  borne  itself  cheerfully  in  all  vicissi 
tudes,  with  unwavering  confidence  in  an  early  and  complete  triumph  of 
the  national  cause.  Now,  when  we  are,  in  a  manner,  invited  by  a  friendly 
power  to  review  the  twenty-one  months'  history  of  the  conflict,  we  find 
no  occasion  to  abate  that  confidence.  Through  such  an  alternation  of 
victories  and  defeats  as  is  the  appointed  incident  of  every  war,  the  land 
and  naval  forces  of  the  United  States  have  steadily  advanced,  reclaiming 
from  the  insurgents  the  ports,  forts,  and  posts  which  they  had  treacher 
ously  seized  before  the  strife  actually  began,  and  even  before  it  was  seri 
ously  apprehended.  So  many  of  the  States  and  districts  which  the  insur 
gents  included  in  the  field  of  their  projected  exclusive  slaveholding 
dominions  have  already  been  re-established  under  the  flag  of  the  Union, 
that  they  now  retain  only  the  States  of  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Texas, 
with  half  of  Virginia,  half  of  North  Carolina,  two-thirds  of  South  Caro 
lina,  half  of  Mississippi,  and  one-third  respectively  of  Arkansas  and 
Louisiana.  The  national  forces  hold  even  this  small  territory  in  close 
blockade  and  siege. 

This  Government,  if  required,  does  not  hesitate  to  submit  its  achieve 
ments  to  the  test  of  comparison ;  and  it  maintains  that  in  no  part  of  the 
world,  and  in  no  times,  ancient  or  modern,  has  a  nation,  when  rendered 
all  unready  for  combat  by  the  enjoyment  of  eighty  years  of  almost  un 
broken  peace,  so  quickly  awakened  at  the  alarm  of  sedition,  put  forth 
energies  so  vigorous,  and  achieved  successes  so  signal  and  effective  as 
those  which  have  marked  the  progress  of  this  contest  on  the  part  of  tho 
Union. 

M.  Drouyn  de  1'ITuys,  I  fear,  has  taken  other  light  than  the  correspond 
ence  of  this  Government  for  his  guidance  in  ascertaining  its  temper  and 
firmness.  He  has  probably  read  of  divisions  of  sentiment  among  thoso 
who  hold  themselves  fort},  as  organs  of  public  opinion  here,  and  has 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  337 

to  them  an  undue  importance.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  this  is  a  nation 
of  thirty  millions,  civilly  divided  into  forty-one  States  and  Territories, 
which  cover  an  expanse  hardly  less  than  Europe  ;  that  the  people  are  a 
pure  democracy,  exercising  everywhere  the  utmost  freedom  of  speech  and 
suffrage  ;  that  a  great  crisis  necessarily  produces  vehement  as  well  as  pro 
found  debate,  with  sharp  collisions  of  individual,  local,  and  sectional 
interests,  sentiments,  and  ambitions ;  and  that  this  heat  of  controversy  is 
increased  by  the  intervention  of  speculations,  interests,  prejudices,  and 
passions  from  every  other  part  of  the  civilized  world.  It  is,  however, 
through  such  debates  that  the  agreement  of  the  nation  upon  any  subject 
is  habitually  attained,  its  resolutions  formed,  and  its  policy  established. 
While  there  has  been  much  difference  of  popular  opinion  and  favor 
concerning  the  agents  who  shall  carry  on  the  war,  the  principles  OD 
which  it  shall  be  waged,  and  the  means  with  which  it  shall  be  pros 
ecuted,  M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys  has  only  to  refer  to  the  statute-book  of 
Congress  and  the  Executive  ordinances  to  learn  that  the  national  ac 
tivity  has  hitherto  been,  and  yet  is,  as  efficient  as  that  of  any  other 
nation,  whatever  its  form  of  government,  ever  was,  under  circumstances 
of  equally  grave  import  to  its  peace,  safety,  and  welfare.  Not  one  voice 
has  been  raised  anywhere,  out  of  the  immediate  field  of  the  insurrection, 
in  favor  of  foreign  intervention,  of  mediation,  of  arbitration,  or  of  com 
promise,  with  the  relinquishment  of  one  acre  of  the  national  domain,  or 
the  surrender  of  even  one  constitutional  franchise.  At  the  same  time,  it 
is  manifest  to  the  world  that  our  resources  are  yet  abundant,  and  our 
credit  adequate  to  the  existing  emergency. 

What  M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys  suggests  is,  that  this  Government  shall  ap 
point  commissioners  to  meet,  on  neutral  ground,  commissioners  of  the 
insurgents.  He  supposes  that  in  the  conferences  to  be  thus  held,  recipro 
cal  complaints  could  be  discussed,  and  in  place  of  the  accusations  which 
the  North  and  South  now  mutually  cast  upon  each  other,  the  conferees 
would  be  engaged  with  discussions  of  the  interests  which  divide  them. 
He  assumes,  further,  that  the  commissioners  would  seek,  by  means  of  well- 
ordered  and  profound  deliberation,  whether  these  interests  are  definitively 
irreconcilable,  whether  separation  is  an  extreme  that  can  no  longer  be 
avoided,  or  whether  the  memories  of  a  common  existence,  the  ties  of  every 
kind  which  have  made  the  North  and  the  South  one  whole  Federative 
State,  and  have  borne  them  on  to  so  high  a  degree  of  prosperity,  are  not 
more  powerful  than  the  causes  which  have  placed  arms  in  the  hands  of  the 
two  populations. 

The  suggestion  is  not  an  extraordinary  one,  and  it  may  well  have  been 
thought  by  the  Emperor  of  the  French,  in  the  earnestness  of  his  benevo 
lent  desire  for  the  restoration  of  peace,  a  feasible  one.  But  when  M. 
Drouyn  de  1'Huys  shall  come  to  review  it  in  the  light  in  which  it  must 
necssearily  be  examined  in  this  country,  I  think  he  can  hardly  fail  to  per 
ceive  that  it  amounts  to  nothing  less  than  a  proposition  that,  while  this 
Government  is  engaged  in  suppressing  an  armed  insurrection,  with  the 
23 


338  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

pnrpose  of  maintaining  the  constitutional  national  authority,  and  preserving 
the  integrity  of  the  country,  it  shall  enter  into  diplomatic  discussion  with 
the  insurgents  upon  the  questions  whether  that  authority  shall  not  be  re 
nounced,  and  whether  the  country  shall  not  he  delivered  over  to  disunion, 
to  be  quickly  followed  by  ever-increasing  anarchy. 

If  it  were  possible  for  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  com 
promise  the  national  authority  so  far  as  to  enter  into  such  debates,  it  is 
not  easy  to  perceive  what  good  results  could  be  obtained  by  them. 

The  commissioners  must  agree  in  recommending  either  that  the  Union 
shall  stand  or  that  it  shall  be  voluntarily  dissolved ;  or  else  they  must  leave 
the  vital  question  unsettled,  to  abide  at  last  the  fortunes  of  the  war.  The 
Government  has  not  shut  out  the  knowledge  of  the  present  temper,  any 
more  than  of  the  past  purposes,  of  the  insurgents.  There  is  not  the  least 
ground  to  suppose  that  the  controlling  actors  would  be  persuaded  at  this 
moment,  by  any  arguments  which  national  commissioners  could  offer,  to 
forego  the  ambition  that  has  impelled  them  to  the  disloyal  position  they 
are  occupying.  Any  commissioners  who  should  be  appointed  by  these 
actors,  or  through  their  dictation  or  influence,  must  enter  the  conference 
imbued  with  the  spirit  and  pledged  to  the  personal  fortunes  of  the  insur 
gent  chiefs.  The  loyal  people  in  the  insurrectionary  States  would  be  un 
heard,  and  any  offer  of  peace  by  this  Government,  on  the  condition  of  the 
maintenance  of  the  Union,  must  necessarily  be  rejected. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  this  Government  has 
not  the  least  thought  of  relinquishing  the  trust  which  has  been  confided 
to  it  by  the  nation  under  the  most  solemn  of  all  political  sanctions ;  and 
if  it  had  any  such  thought,  it  would  still  have  abundant  reason  to  know 
that  peace  proposed  at  the  cost  of  dissolution  would  be  immediately,  un 
reservedly,  and  indignantly  rejected  by  the  American  people.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  that  European  statesmen  make,  if  they  suppose  this  people  are 
demoralized.  Whatever,  in  the  case  of  an  insurrection,  the  people  of 
France,  or  of  Great  Britain,  or  of  Switzerland,  or  of  the  Netherlands  would 
do  to  save  their  national  existence,  no  matter  how  the  strife  might  be  re 
garded  by  or  might  affect  foreign  nations,  just  so  much,  and  certainly  no 
less,  the  people  of  the  United  States  will  do,  if  necessary  to  save  for  the  com 
mon  benefit  the  region  which  is  bounded  by  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic 
coasts,  and  by  the  shores  of  the  Gulfs  of  St.  Lawrence  and  Mexico,  together 
with  the  free  and  common  navigation  of  the  Rio  Grande,  Missouri,  Arkan 
sas,  Mississippi,  Ohio,  St.  Lawrence,  Hudson,  Delaware,  Potomac,  and 
other  natural  highways  by  which  this  land,  which  to  them  is  at  once  a 
land  of  inheritance  and  a  land  of  promise,  is  opened  and  watered.  Even 
if  the  agents  of  the  American  people  now  exercising  their  power  should, 
through  fear  or  faction,  fall  below  this  height  of  the  national  virtue,  they 
would  be  speedily,  yet  constitutionally,  replaced  by  others  of  sterner 
character  and  patriotism. 

I  must  be  allowed  to  say,  also,  that  M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys  errs  in  his 
description  of  the  parties  to  the  present  conflict.  We  have  here,  in  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  339 

political  sense,  no  North  and  South,  no  Northern  and  Southern  States. 
We  have  an  insurrectionary  party,  which  is  located  chiefly  upon  and  adja 
cent  to  the  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  and  we  have,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  loyal  people,  who  constitute  not  only  Northern  States,  but  also  Eastern, 
Middle,  Western,  and  Southern  States. 

I  have  on  many  occasions  heretofore  submitted  to  the  French  Govern 
ment  the  President's  views  of  the  interests,  and  the  ideas  more  effective 
for  the  time  than  even  interests,  which  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the  determi 
nation  of  the  American  Government  and  people  to  maintain  the  Federal 
Union.  The  President  has  done  the  same  thing  in  his  Messages  and  other 
public  declarations.  I  refrain,  therefore,  from  reviewing  that  argument  in 
connection  with  the  existing  question. 

M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys  draws  to  his  aid  the  conferences  which  took  place 
between  the  Colonies  and  Great  Britain  in  our  Eevolutionary  War.  He 
will  allow  us  to  assume  that  action  in  the  crisis  of  a  nation  must  accord 
with  its  necessities,  and  therefore  can  seldom  be  conformed  to  precedents. 
Great  Britain,  when  entering  on  the  negotiations,  had  manifestly  come  to 
entertain  doubts  of  her  ultimate  success ;  and  it  is  certain  that  the  councils 
of  the  Colonies  could  not  fail  to  take  new  courage,  if  not  to  gain  other 
advantage,  when  the  parent  State  compromised  so  far  as  to  treat  of  peace 
on  the  terms  of  conceding  their  independence. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  peace  must  come  at  some  time,  and  that  con 
ferences  must  attend,  if  they  are  not  allowed  to  precede  the  pacification. 
There  is,  however,  a  better  form  for  such  conferences  than  the  one  which 
M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys  suggests.  The  latter  would  be  palpably  in  deroga 
tion  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  would  carry  no  weight, 
because  destitute  of  the  sanction  necessary  to  bind  either  the  disloyal  or 
the  loyal  portions  of  the  people.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  furnishes  a  constitutional  forum  for  debates  between  the 
alienated  parties.  Senators  and  representatives  from  the  loyal  portion 
of  the  people  are  there  already,  freely  empowered  to  confer ;  and  seats 
also  are  vacant,  and  inviting  senators  and  representatives  of  this  discon 
tented  party  who  may  be  constitutionally  sent  there  from  the  States  in 
volved  in  the  insurrection.  Moreover,  the  conferences  which  can  thus  be 
held  in  Congress  have  this  great  advantage  over  any  that  could  be  organ 
ized  upon  the  plan  of  M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys,  namely,  that  the  Congress,  if 
it  were  thought  wise,  could  call  a  national  convention  to  adopt  its  recom 
mendations,  and  give  them  all  the  solemnity  and  binding  force  of  organic 
law.  Such  conferences  between  the  alienated  parties  may  be  said  to  have 
already  begun.  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Missouri 
— States  which  are  claimed  by  the  insurgents — are  already  represented  in 
Congress,  and  submitting  with  perfect  freedom  and  in  a  proper  spirit 
their  advice  upon  the  course  best  calculated  to  bring  about,  in  the  shortest 
time,  a  firm,  lasting,  and  honorable  peace.  Representatives  have  been 
sent  also  from  Louisiana,  and  others  are  understood  to  be  coming  from 
Arkansas. 


340  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

There  is  a  preponderating  argument  in  favor  of  the  Congressional  form 
of  conference  over  that  which  is  suggested  by  M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys, 
namely,  that  while  an  accession  to  the  latter  would  bring  this  Govern 
ment  into  a  concurrence  with  the  insurgents  in  disregarding  and  setting 
aside  an  important  part  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  so 
would  be  of  pernicious  example,  the  Congressional  conference,  on  the 
contrary,  preserves  and  gives  new  strength  to  that  sacred  writing  which 
must  continue  through  future  ages  the  sheet-anchor  of  the  Eepublic. 

You  will  be  at  liberty  to  read  this  dispatch  to  M.  Drouyn  de  Tlluys, 
and  to  give  him  a  copy  if  he  shall  desire  it. 

To  the  end  that  you  may  be  informed  of  the  whole  case,  I  transmit  a 
copy  of  M.  Drouyn  de  1'Huys's  dispatch. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD. 

The  effect  of  tMs  dispatch  was  very  marked.  It  put  an 
end  to  all  talk  of  foreign  intervention  in  any  form,  and 
met  the  cordial  and  even  enthusiastic  approbation  of  the 
people  throughout  the  country.  Its  closing  suggestions, 
as  to  the  mode  in  which  the  Southern  States  could  resume 
their  old  relations  to  the  Federal  Government,  were  re 
garded  as  significant  indications  of  the  policy  the  Ad 
ministration  was  inclined  to  pursue  whenever  the  ques 
tion  of  restoration  should  become  practical ;  and  while 
they  were  somewhat  sharply  assailed  in  some  quarters, 
they  commanded  the  general  assent  of  the  great  body  of 
the  people. 

The  subject  of  appointing  commissioners  to  confer  with 
the  authorities  of  the  rebel  Confederacy  had  been  dis 
cussed,  before  the  appearance  of  this  correspondence,  in 
the  Northern  States.  It  had  emanated  from  the  party 
most  openly  in  hostility  to  the  Administration,  and  those 
men  in  that  party  who  had  been  most  distinctly  opposed 
to  any  measures  of  coercion,  or  any  resort  to  force  for  the 
purpose  of  overcoming  the  rebellion.  It  was  represented 
by  these  persons  that  the  civil  authorities  of  the  Confed 
eracy  were  restrained  from  abandoning  the  contest  only 
by  the  refusal  or  neglect  of  the  Government  to  give  them 
an  opportunity  of  doing  so  without  undue  humiliation 
and  dishonor ;  and  in  December,  Hon.  Fernando  Wood, 
of  New  York,  wrote  to  the  President,  informing  him  that 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  341 

he  had  reason  to  believe  the  Southern  States  would  "  send 
representatives  to  the  next  Congress,  provided  a  full  and 
general  amnesty  should  permit  them  to  do  so,"  and  ask 
ing  the  appointment  of  commissioners  to  ascertain  the 
truth  of  these  assurances. 
To  this  request  the  President  made  the  following  re- 


EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  December  12,  1862. 

Hon.  FERNANDO  WOOD  :  , 

MY  DEAR  SIE  :  —  Your  letter  of  the  8th,  with  the  accompanying  note  of 
same  date,  was  received  yesterday. 

The  most  important  paragraph  in  the  letter,  as  I  consider,  is  in  these 
words:  "On  the  25th  of  November  last  I  was  advised  by  an  authority 
which  I  deemed  likely  to  be  well  informed,  as  well  as  reliable  and  truth 
ful,  that  the  Southern  States  would  send  representatives  to  the  next  Con 
gress,  provided  that  a  full  and  general  amnesty  should  permit  them  to  do 
BO.  No  guarantee  or  terms  were  asked  for  other  than  the  amnesty  re 
ferred  to." 

I  strongly  suspect  your  information  will  prove  to  be  groundless  ;  never 
theless,  I  thank  you  for  communicating  it  to  me.  Understanding  the 
phrase  in  the  paragraph  above  quoted  —  "  the  Southern  States  would  send 
representatives  to  the  next  Congress  "  —  to  be  substantially  the  same  as 
that  "the  people  of  the  Southern  States  would  cease  resistance,  and  would 
reinaugurate,  submit  to,  and  maintain  the  national  authority  within  the 
limits  of  such  States,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  I  say 
that  in  such  case  the  war  would  cease  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  ; 
and  that  if  within  a  reasonable  time  "  a  full  and  general  amnesty"  were 
necessary  to  such  end,  it  would  not  be  withheld. 

I  do  not  think  it  would  be  proper  now  to  communicate  this,  formally 
or  informally,  to  the  people  of  the  Southern  States.  My  belief  is  that 
they  already  know  it;  and  when  they  choose,  if  ever,  they  can  commu 
nicate  with  me  unequivocally.  Nor  do  I  think  it  proper  now  to  suspend 
military  operations  to  try  any  experiment  of  negotiation. 

I  should  nevertheless  receive,  with  great  pleasure,  the  exact  informa 
tion  you  now  have,  and  also  such  other  as  you  may  in  any  way  obtain. 
Such  information  might  be  more  valuable  before  the  1st  of  January  than 
p.fterwards. 

While  there  is  nothing  in  this  letter  which  I  shall  dread  to  see  in  his 
tory,  it  is,  perhaps,  better  for  the  present  that  its  existence  should  not 
become  public.  I  therefore  have  to  request  that  you  will  regard  it  as 
confidential.  Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

The  intimation  in  this  letter  that  information  concerning 


342  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  alleged  willingness  of  the  rebels  to  resume  their  alle 
giance,  "might  be  more  valuable  before  the  1st  of  Jan 
uary  than  afterwards,"  had  reference  to  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation,  which  he  proposed  to  issue  on  that  day, 
unless  the  offer  of  his  preliminary  proclamation  should 
be  accepted.  That  proclamation  had  been  issued  on  the 
22d  of  September,  and  the  sense  of  responsibility  under 
which  this  step  was  taken,  was  clearly  indicated  in  the 
following  remarks  made  by  the  President  on  the  evening 
of  the  24th  of  that  month,  in  acknowledging  the  compli 
ment  of  a  serenade  at  the  Executive  Mansion  :— 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  appear  before  you  to  do  little  more  than  acknowl 
edge  the  courtesy  you  pay  me,  and  to  thank  you  for  it.  I  have  not  been 
distinctly  informed  why  it  is  that  on  this  occasion  you  appear  to  do  me 
this  honor,  though  I  suppose  it  is  because  of  the  proclamation.  What  I 
did,  I  did  after  a  very  full  deliberation,  and  under  a  very  heavy  and  sol 
emn  sense  of  responsibility.  I  can  only  trust  in  God  I  have  made  no  mis 
take.  I  shall  make  no  attempt  on  this  occasion  to  sustain  what  I  have 
done  or  said  by  any  comment.  It  is  now  for  the  country  and  the  world 
to  pass  judgment,  and  may  be  take  action  upon  it.  I  will  say  no  more 
upon  this  subject.  In  my  position  I  am  environed  with  difficulties.  Yet 
they  are  scarcely  so  great  as  the  difficulties  of  those  who,  upon  the  battle 
field,  are  endeavoring  to  purchase  with  their  blood  and  their  lives  the  fu 
ture  happiness  and  prosperity  of  this  country.  Let  us  never  forget  them. 
On  the  14th  and  17th  days  of  this  present  month  there  have  been  battles 
bravely,  skilfully,  and  successfully  fought.  We  do  not  yet  know  the  par 
ticulars.  Let  us  be  sure  that,  in  giving  praise  to  certain  individuals,  we 
do  no  injustice  to  others.  I  only  ask  you,  at  the  conclusion  of  these  few 
remarks,  to  give  three  hearty  cheers  to  all  good  and  brave  officers  and 
men  who  fought  those  successful  battles. 

In  November  the  President  published  the  following 
order  regarding  the  observance  of  the  day  of  rest,  and 
the  vice  of  profanity,  in  the  army  and  navy : — 

EXICTTTITB  MANSION,  "WASHINGTON,  November  16, 1862. 

The  President,  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  desires  and 
enjoins  the  orderly  observance  of  the  Sabbath  by  the  officers  and  men  in 
the  military  and  naval  service.  The  importance  for  man  and  beast  of  the 
prescribed  weekly  rest,  the  sacred  rights  of  Christian  soldiers  and  sailors, 
a  becoming  deference  to  the  best  sentiment  of  a  Christian  people,  and  a 
due  regard  for  the  Divine  will,  demand  that  Sunday  labor  in  the  army  and 
navy  be  reduced  to  the  measure  of  strict  necessity. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  343 

The  discipline  and  character  of  the  National  forces  should  not  suffer, 
nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imperilled,  by  the  profanation  of  the  day  or 
name  of  the  Most  High.  "At  this  time  of  public  distress,"  adopting  the 
words  of  Washington  in  1776,  "men  may  find  enough  to  do  in  the  service 
of  God  and  their  country,  without  abandoning  themselves  to  vice  and  im 
morality."  The  first  general  order  issued  by  the  Father  of  his  Country, 
after  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  indicates  the  spirit  in  which  our 
institutions  were  founded,  and  should  ever  be  defended.  "The  general 
hopes  and  trusts  that  every  officer  and  man  will  endeavor  to  live  and  act 
as  becomes  a  Christian  soldier  defending  the  dearest  rights  and  liberties 
of  his  country." 

A.  LINCOLN. 


344  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   CONGRESSIONAL  SESSION   OF  1862-'63.— MESSAGE  OF  THE 
PRESIDENT   AND   GENERAL  ACTION   OF   THE   SESSION. 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE. — ABE  THE  HEBEL  STATES  ALIENS? — THE  PRO 
VISION  FOE  A  DRAFT. — MESSAGE  ON  THE  FINANCES  AND  CURRENCY. — 
ADMISSION  OF  WESTERN  VIRGINIA. — CLOSE  OF  THE  SESSION. 

THE  third  session  of  the  Thirty -seventh  Congress  opened 
on  the  1st  day  of  December,  1862 — the  supporters  of  the 
Administration  having  a  large  majority  in  both  branches. 
The  general  condition  of  the  country,  and  the  progress 
made  in  quelling  the  rebellion,  are  clearly  set  forth  in  the 
following  Message  of  President  Lincoln,  which  was  sent 
in  to  Congress  at  the  beginning  of  the  session  : — 

Fellow-  Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives : — 

Since  your  last  annual  assembling,  another  year  of  health  and  bountiful 
harvests  has  passed,  and  while  it  has  not  pleased  the  Almighty  to  bless 
us  with  the  return  of  peace,  we  can  but  press  on,  guided  by  the  best  light 
He  gives  us,  trusting  that,  in  His  own  good  time  and  wise  way,  all  will 
be  well. 

The  correspondence,  touching  foreign  affairs,  which  has  taken  place 
during  the  last  year,  is  herewith  submitted,  in  virtual  compliance  with  a 
request  to  that  effect  made  by  the  House  of  Representatives  near  the  close 
of  the  last  session  of  Congress.  If  the  condition  of  our  relations  with 
other  nations  is  less  gratifying  than  it  has  usually  been  at  former  periods, 
it  is  certinly  more  satisfactory  than  a  nation  so  unhappily  distracted  as 
we  are  might  reasonably  have  apprehended.  In  the  month  of  June  last 
there  were  some  grounds  to  expect  that  the  maritime  Powers,  which,  at 
the  beginning  of  our  domestic  difficulties,  so  unwisely  and  unncessarily, 
as  we  think,  recognized  the  insurgents  as  a  belligerent,  would  soon  recede 
from  that  position,  which  has  proved  only  less  injurious  to  themselves 
than  to  our  own  country.  But  the  temporary  reverses  which  afterwards 
befell  the  National  arms,  and  which  were  exaggerated  by  our  own 
disloyal  citizens  abroad,  have  hitherto  delayed  that  act  of  simple  jus 
tice. 

The  civil  war  which  has  so  radically  changed  for  the  moment  the  occu 
pations  and  habits  of  the  American  people,  has  necessarily  disturbed  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  345 

social  condition,  and  affected  very  deeply  the  prosperity  of  the  nations 
with  which  we  have  carried  on  a  commerce  that  has  been  steadily  in 
creasing  throughout  a  period  of  half  a  century.  It  has,  at  the  same  time, 
excited  political  ambitions  and  apprehensions  which  have  produced  a  pro 
found  agitation  throughout  the  civilized  world.  In  this  unusual  agitation 
we  have  forborne  from  taking  part  in  any  controversy  between  foreign 
States,  and  between  parties  or  factions  in  such  States.  We  have  attempt 
ed  no  propagandism,  and  acknowledged  no  revolution.  But  we  have  left 
to  every  nation  the  exclusive  conduct  and  management  of  its  own  affairs. 
Our  struggle  has  been,  of  course,  contemplated  by  foreign  nations  with 
reference  less  to  its  own  merits  than  to  its  supposed  and  often  exaggerated 
effects  and  consequences  resulting  to  those  nations  themselves.  Never 
theless,  complaint  on  the  part  of  this  Government,  even  of  it  were  just, 
would  certainly  be  unwise. 

The  treaty  with  Great  Britain  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave-trade 
has  been  put  into  operation  with  a  good  prospect  of  complete  success.  It 
is  an  occasion  of  special  pleasure  to  acknowledge  that  the  execution  of  it 
on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  has  been  marked  with  a  jealous 
respect  for  the  authority  of  the  United  States  and  the  rights  of  their  moral 
and  loyal  citizens. 

The  convention  with  Hanover  for  the  abolition  of  the  stade  dues 
has  been  carried  into  full  effect,  under  the  act  of  Congress  for  that  pur 
pose. 

A  blockade  of  three  thousand  miles  of  sea-coast  could  not  be  established 
and  vigorously  enforced,  in  a  season  of  great  commercial  activity  like  the 
present,  without  committing  occasional  mistakes,  and  inflicting  uninten 
tional  injuries  upon  foreign  nations  and  their  subjects. 

A  civil  war  occurring  in  a  country  where  foreigners  reside  and  carry 
on  trade  under  treaty  stipulations  is  necessarily  fruitful  of  complaints  of 
the  violation  of  neutral  rights.  All  such  collisions  tend  to  excite  misap 
prehensions,  and  possibly  to  produce  mutual  reclamations  between  nations 
which  have  a  common  interest  in  preserving  peace  and  friendship.  In 
clear  cases  of  these  kinds  I  have,  so  far  as  possible,  heard  and  redressed 
complaints  which  have  been  presented  by  friendly  Powers.  There  is  s*,ill, 
however,  a  large  and  an  augmenting  number  of  doubtful  cases,  upon 
which  the  Government  is  unable  to  agree  with  the  Governments  whose 
protection  is  demanded  by  the  claimants.  There  are,  moreover,  many 
cases  in  which  the  United  States,  or  their  citizens,  suffer  wrongs  from  the 
naval  or  military  authorities  of  foreign  nations,  which  the  Governments 
of  these  States  are  not  at  once  prepared  to  redress.  I  have  proposed  to 
some  of  the  foreign  States  thus  interested  mutual  conventions  to  examine 
and  adjust  such  complaints.  This  proposition  has  been  made  especially 
to  Great  Britain,  to  France,  to  Spain,  and  to  Prussia.  In  each  case  it  has 
been  kindly  received,  but  has  not  yet  been  formally  adopted. 

I  deem  it  my  duty  to  recommend  an  appropriation  in  behalf  of  tho 
-  wners  of  the  Norwegian  bark  Admiral  P,  Tordenskiokl,  which  vessel 


346  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

was  in  May,  1861,  prevented  by  the  commander  of  the  blockading  force 
off  Charleston  from  leaving  that  port  with  cargo,  notwithstanding  a  sim 
ilar  privilege  had,  shortly  before,  been  granted  to  an  English  vessel.  I 
have  directed  the  Secretary  of  State  to  cause  the  papers  in  the  case  to  be 
communicated  to  the  proper  committees. 

Applications  have  been  made  to  me  by  many  free  Americans  of  African 
descent  to  favor  their  emigration,  with  a  view  to  such  colonization  as  was 
contemplated  in  recent  acts  of  Congress.  Other  parties,  at  home  and 
abroad — some  from  interested  motives,  others  upon  patriotic  considera 
tions,  and  still  others  influenced  by  philanthropic  sentiments — have  sug 
gested  similar  measures ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  several  of  the  Span 
ish-American  Kepublics  have  protested  against  the  sending  of  such  colo 
nies  to  their  respective  territories.  Under  these  circumstances,  I  have 
declined  to  move  any  such  colony  to  any  State  without  first  obtaining  the 
consent  of  its  Government,  with  an  agreement  on  its  part  to  receive  and 
protect  such  emigrants  in  all  the  rights  of  freemen ;  and  I  have  at  the 
same  time  offered  to  the  several  States  situated  within  the  tropics,  or 
having  colonies  there,  to  negotiate  with  them,  subject  to  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate,  to  favor  the  voluntary  emigration  of  persons  of  that 
class  to  their  respective  territories,  upon  conditions  which  shall  be  equal, 
just,  and  humane.  Liberia  and  Hayti  are,  as  yet,  the  only  countries  to 
which  colonists  of  African  descent  from  here  could  go  with  certainty  of 
being  received  and  adopted  u,3  citizens;  and  I  regret  to  say  such  persons, 
contemplating  colonization,  do  not  seem  so  willing  to  migrate  to  those 
countries  as  to  some  others,  nor  so  willing  as  I  think  their  interest  de 
mands.  I  believe,  however,  opinion  among  them  in  this  respect  is 
improving ;  and  that  ere  long  there  will  be  an  augmented  and  considera 
ble  migration  to  both  these  countries  from  the  United  States. 

The  new  commercial  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  the  Sultan 
of  Turkey  has  been  carried  into  execution. 

A  commercial  and  consular  treaty  has  been  negotiated,  subject  to  the 
Senate's  consent,  with  Liberia ;  and  a  similar  negotiation  is  now  pending 
with  the  Republic  of  Hayti.  A  considerable  improvement  of  the  national 
coLimerce  is  expected  to  result  from  these  measures. 

Our  relations  with  Great  Britain,  France,  Spain,  Portugal,  Russia, 
Prussia,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Austria,  the  Netherlands,  Italy,  Rome,  and 
the  other  European  States  remain  undisturbed.  Very  favorable  rela 
tions  also  continue  to  be  maintained  with  Turkey,  Morocco,  China,  and 
Japan. 

During  the  last  year  there  has  not  only  been  no  change  of  our  previous 
relations  with  the  Independent  States  of  our  own  continent,  but  more 
friendly  sentiments  than  have  heretofore  existed  are  believed  to  be  en 
tertained  by  these  neighbors,  whose  safety  and  progress  are  so  intimately 
connected  with  our  own.  This  statement  especially  applies  to  Mexico, 
Nicaragua,  Costa  Rica,  Honduras,  Peru,  and  Chili. 

The  commission  under  the  convention  with  the  Republic  of  New  Gra 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  347 

nada  closed  its  session  without  having  audited  and  parsed  upon  all  the 
claims  which  were  submitted  to  it.  A  proposition  is  pending  to  revive 
the  convention,  that  it  be  able  to  do  more  complete  justice.  The  joint 
commission  between  the  United  States  and  the  Republic  of  Costa  Eica 
has  completed  its  labors  and  submitted  its  report. 

I  have  favored  the  project  for  connecting  the  United  States  with  Eu 
rope  by  an  Atlantic  telegraph,  and  a  similar  project  to  extend  the  tele 
graph  from  San  Francisco  to  connect  by  a  Pacific  telegraph  with  the  line 
which  is  being  extended  across  the  Russian  Empire. 

The  Territories  of  the  United  States,  with  unimportant  exceptions, 
have  remained  undisturbed  by  the  civil  war;  and  they  are  exhibiting 
such  evidence  of  prosperity  as  justifies  an  expectation  that  some  of  them 
will  soon  be  in  a  condition  to  be  organized  as  States,  and  be  constitution 
ally  admitted  into  the  Federal  Union. 

The  immense  mineral  resources  of  some  of  those  Territories  ought  to 
be  developed  as  rapidly  as  possible.  Every  step  in  that  direction  would 
have  a  tendency  to  improve  the  revenues  of  the  Government  and  dimm 
ish  the  burdens  of  the  people.  It  is  worthy  of  your  serious  considera 
tion  whether  some  extraordinary  measures  to  promote  that  end  cannot 
be  adopted.  The  means  which  suggests  itself  as  most  likely  to  be  effec 
tive,  is  a  scientific  exploration  of  the  mineral  regions  in  those  Territories, 
with  a  view  to  the  publication  of  its  results  at  home  and  in  foreign  coun 
tries — results  which  cannot  fail  to  be  auspicious. 

The  condition  of  the  finances  will  claim  your  most  diligent  considera 
tion.  The  vast  expenditures  incident  to  the  military  and  naval  opera 
tions  required  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  have  been  hitherto 
met  with  a  promptitude  and  certainty  unusual  in  similar  circumstances ; 
and  the  public  credit  has  been  fully  maintained.  The  continuance  of  the 
war,  however,  and  the  increased  disbursements  made  necessary  by  the 
augmented  forces  now  in  the  field,  demand  your  best  reflections  as  to  the 
best;  modes  of  providing  the  necessary  revenue,  without  injury  to  busi 
ness,  and  with  the  least  possible  burdens  upon  labor. 

The  suspension  of  specie  payments  by  the  banks,  soon  after  the  com 
mencement  of  your  last  session,  made  large  issues  of  United  States  notes 
unavoidable.  In  no  other  way  could  the  payment  of  the  troops  and  the 
satisfaction  of  other  just  demands,  be  so  economically  or  so  well  provided 
for.  The  judicious  legislation  of  Congress,  securing  the  receivability  of 
these  notes  for  loans  and  internal  duties,  and  making  them  a  legal  tender 
for  other  debts,  has  made  them  a  universal  currency,  and  has  satisfied, 
partially  at  least,  and  for  the  time,  the  long  felt  want  of  a  uniform  circu 
lating  medium,  saving  thereby  to  the  people  immense  sums  in  discounts 
and  exchanges. 

A  return  to  specie  payments,  however,  at  the  earliest  period  compati 
ble  with  due  regard  to  all  interests  concerned,  should  ever  be  kept  in 
view.  Fluctuations  in  the  value  of  currency  are  always  injurious,  and 
to  reduce  these  fluctuations  to  the  lowest  possible  point  will  always  be  a 


348  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

leading  purpose  in  wise  legislation.  Convertibility,  prompt  and  certain 
convertibility  into  coin,  is  generally  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  and 
surest  safeguard  against  them ;  and  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  a 
circulation  of  United  States  notes,  payable  in  coin,  and  sufficiently  large 
for  the  wants  of  the  people,  can  be  permanently,  usefully,  and  safely 
maintained. 

Is  there,  then,  any  other  mode  in  which  the  necessary  provision  for 
the  public  wants  can  be  made,  and  the  great  advantages  of  a  safe  and 
uniform  currency  secured? 

I  know  of  none  which  promises  so  certain  results,  and  is,  at  the  same 
time,  so  unobjectionable  as  the  organization  of  banking  associations,  un 
der  a  general  act  of  Congress,  well  guarded  in  its  provisions.  To  such 
associations  the  Government  might  furnish  circulating  notes,  on  the 
security  of  United  States  bonds  deposited  in  the  Treasury.  These  notes, 
prepared  under  the  supervision  of  proper  officers,  being  uniform  in  ap 
pearance  and  security,  and  convertible  always  into  coin,  would  at  once 
protect  labor  against  the  evils  of  a  vicious  currency,  and  facilitate  com 
merce  by  cheap  and  safe  exchanges. 

A  moderate  reservation  from  the  interest  on  the  bonds  would  compen 
sate  the  United  States  for  the  preparation  and  distribution  of  the  notes, 
and  a  general  supervision  of  the  system,  and  would  lighten  the  burden 
of  that  part  of  the  public  debt  employed  as  securities.  The  public  credit, 
moreover,  would  be  greatly  improved,  and  the  negotiation  of  new  loans 
greatly  facilitated  by  the  steady  market  demand  for  Government  bonds 
which  the  adoption  of  the  proposed  system  would  create. 

It  is  an  additional  recommendation  of  the  measure,  of  considerable 
weight,  in  my  judgment,  that  it  would  reconcile  as  far  as  possible  all 
existing  interests,  by  the  opportunity  offered  to  existing  institutions  to 
reorganize  under  the  act,  substituting  only  the  secured  uniform  national 
circulation  for  the  local  and  various  circulation,  secured  and  unsecured, 
now  issued  by  them. 

The  receipts  into  the  Treasury,  from  all  sources,  including  loans,  and 
balance  from  the  preceding  year,  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  on  the  30th 
of  June,  1862,  were  $583,885,247.60,  of  which  sum  $49,056,397.62  were 
derived  from  customs;  $1,795.331.73  from  the  direct  tax;  from  public 
lands,  $152,203.77;  from  miscellaneous  sources,  $931,787.64;  from  loans 
in  all  forms,  $529,692,460.50.  The  remainder,  $2,257,065.80,  was  the 
balance  from  last  year. 

The  disbursements  during  the  same  period  were  for  Congressional, 
Executive,  and  Judicial  purposes,  $5,939,009.29;  for  foreign  intercourse, 
$1,339,710.35  ;  for  miscellaneous  expenses,  including  the  mints,  loans, 
post-office  deficiencies,  collection  of  revenue,  and  other  like  charges, 
$14,129,771.50;  for  expenses  under  the  Interior  Department,  $3,102,- 
985.52 ;  under  the  War  Department,  $394,368,407.36  ;  under  the  Navy 
Department,  $42,674,569.69;  for  interest  on  public  debt,  $13,190,324.45; 
and  for  payment  of  public  debt,  including  reimbursement  of  temporary 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  349 

loan,  and  redemptions,  $96,096,922.09;  making  an  aggregate  of  $570,- 
841,700.25,  and  leaving  a  balance  in  the  Treasury  on  the  1st  day  of  July, 
1862,  of  $13,043,546.81. 

It  should  be  observed  that  the  sum  of  $96,096,922.09,  expended  for 
reimbursements  and  redemption  of  public  debt,  being  included  also  in 
the  loans  made,  may  be  properly  deducted,  both  from  receipts  and  expen 
ditures,  leaving  the  actual  receipts  for  the  year  $487,788,324.97,  and  the 
expenditures,  $474,744,778.16. 

Other  information  on  the  subject  of  the  finances  will  be  found  in  the 
report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  whose  statements  and  views 
I  invite  your  most  candid  and  considerate  attention. 

The  reports  of  the  Secretaries  of  War  and  of  the  Navy  are  herewith 
transmitted.  These  reports,  though  lengthy,  are  scarcely  more  than 
brief  abstracts  of  the  very  numerous  and  extensive  transactions  and 
operations  conducted  through  those  Departments.  NOT  could  I  give  a 
summary  of  them  here,  upon  any  principle  which  would  admit  of  its 
being  much  shorter  than  the  reports  themselves.  I  therefore  content 
myself  with  laying  the  reports  before  you,  and  asking  your  attention  to 
them. 

It  gives  me  pleasure  to  report  a  decided  improvement  in  the  financial 
condition  of  the  Post-Office  Department,  as  compared  with  several  pro- 
ceding  years.  The  receipts  for  the  fiscal  year  1861  amounted  to 
$8,349,296.40,  which  embraced  the  revenue  from  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  for  three-quarters  of  that  year.  Notwithstanding  the  cessation 
of  revenue  from  the  so-called  seceded  States  during  the  last  fiscal  year, 
the  increase  of  the  correspondence  of  the  loyal  States  has  been  suffi 
cient  to  produce  a  revenue  during  the  same  year  of  $8,299,820.90, 
being  only  $50,000  less  than  was  derived  from  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  during  the  previous  year.  The  expenditures  show  a  still  more 
favorable  result.  The  amount  expended  in  1861  was  $13,606,759.11. 
For  the  last  year  the  amount  has  been  reduced  to  $11,125,364.18,  show 
ing  a  decrease  of  about  $2,481,000  in  the  expenditures  as  compared  with 
the  preceding  year,  and  about  $3,750,000  as  compared  with  the  fiscal  year 
1860.  The  deficiency  in  the  Department  for  the  previous  year  was 
$4,551,966.98.  For  the  last  fiscal  year  it  was  reduced  to  $2,112,814.57. 
These  favorable  results  are  in  part  owing  to  the  cessation  of  mail  service 
in  the  insurrectionary  States,  and  in  part  to  a  careful  review  of  all  expen 
ditures  in  that  department  in  the  interest  of  economy.  The  efficiency 
of  the  postal  service,  it  is  believed,  has  also  been  much  improved.  The 
Postmaster-General  has  also  opened  a  correspondence,  through  the  De 
partment  of  State,  with  foreign  Governments,  proposing  a  convention  of 
postal  representatives  for  the  purpose  of  simplifying  the  rates  of  foreign 
postage,  and  to  expedite  the  foreign  mails.  This  proposition,  equally  im 
portant  to  our  adopted  citizens  and  to  the  commercial  interests  of  this 
country,  has  been  favorably  entertained  and  agrees  to  by  all  the  Govern 
ments  from  whom  replies  have  been  received. 


350  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

I  ask  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  suggestions  of  the  Postmaster- 
General  in  his  report  respecting  the  further  legislation  required,  in  his 
opinion,  for  the  benefit  of  the  postal  service. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  reports  as  follows  in  regard  to  the  public 

lands : — 

The  public  lands  have  ceased  to  be  a  source  of  revenue.  From  the 
1st  July,  1861,  to  the  30th  September,  1862,  the  entire  cash  receipts  from 
the  sale  of  lands  were  $137,476.26 — a  sum  much  less  than  the  expenses 
of  our  land  system  during  the  same  period.  The  homestead  law,  which 
will  take  effect  on  the  1st  of  January  next,  offers  such  inducements  to 
settlers  that  sales  for  cash  cannot  be  expected,  to  an  extent  sufficient  to 
meet  the  expense  of  the  General  Land  Office,  and  the  cost  of  surveying 
and  bringing  the  land  into  market. 

The  discrepancy  between  the  sum  here  stated  as  arising  from  the 
sales  of  the  public  lands,  and  the  sum  derived  from  the  same  source  as 
reported  from  the  Treasury  Department,  arises,  as  I  understand,  from 
the  fact  that  the  periods  of  time,  though  apparently,  were  not  really 
coincident  at  the  beginning-point — the  Treasury  report  including  a  con 
siderable  sum  now  which  had  previously  been  reported  from  the  inte 
rior — sufficiently  large  to  greatly  overreach  the  sum  derived  from  the 
three  months  now  reported  upon  by  the  Interior,  and  not  by  the 
Treasury. 

The  Indian  tribes  upon  our  frontiers  have,  during  the  past  year,  mani 
fested  a  spirit  of  insubordination,  and,  at  several  points,  have  engaged  in 
open  hostilities  against  the  white  settlements  in  their  vicinity.  The 
tribes  occupying  the  Indian  country  south  of  Kansas  renounced  their 
allegiance  to  the  United  States,  and  entered  into  treaties  with  the  insur 
gents.  Those  who  remained  loyal  to  the  United  States  were  driven  from 
the  country.  The  chief  of  the  Cherokees  has  visited  this  city  for  the 
purpose  of  restoring  the  former  relations  of  the  tribe  with  the  United 
States.  He  alleges  that  they  were  constrained,  by  superior  force,  to  en 
ter  into  treaties  with  the  insurgents,  and  that  the  United  States  neg 
lected  to  furnish  the  protection  which  their  treaty  stipulations  required. 

In  the  month  of  August  last,  the  Sioux  Indians  in  Minnesota  attacked 
the  settlement  in  their  vicinity  with  extreme  ferocity,  killing,  indiscrimi 
nately,  men,  women,  and  children.  This  attack  was  wholly  unexpected, 
and  therefore  no  means  of  defence  had  been  provided.  It  is  estimated 
that  not  less  than  eight  hundred  persons  were  killed  by  the  Indians,  and 
a  large  amount  of  property  was  destroyed.  How  this  outbreak  was  in 
duced  is  not  definitely  known,  and  suspicions,  which  may  be  unjust,  need 
not  be  stated.  Information  was  received  by  the  Indian  Bureau,  from 
different  sources,  about  the  time  hostilities  were  commenced,  that  a  si 
multaneous  attack  was  to  be  made  upon  the  white  settlements  by  all  the 
tribes  between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
State  of  Minnesota  has  suffered  great  injury  from  this  Indian  war.  A 
large  portion  of  her  territory  has  been  depopulated,  and  a  severe  loss 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  351 

has  been  sustained  by  the  destruction  of  property.  The  people  of  that 
State  manifest  much  anxiety  for  the  removal  of  the  tribes  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  State  as  a  guarantee  against  future  hostilities.  The  Com 
missioner  of  Indian  Affairs  will  furnish  full  details.  I  submit  for  your 
especial  consideration  whether  our  Indian  system  shall  not  be  remodelled. 
Many  wise  and  good  men  have  impressed  me  with  the  belief  that  this  can 
be  profitably  done. 

I  submit  a  statement  of  the  proceedings  of  commissioners,  which  shows 
the  progress  that  has  been  made  in  the  enterprise  of  constructing  the 
Pacific  Eailroad.  And  this  suggests  the  earliest  completion  of  this  road, 
and  also  the  favorable  action  of  Congress  upon  the  projects  now  pending 
before  them  for  enlarging  the  capacities  of  the  great  canals  in  New  York 
and  Illinois,  as  being  of  vital  and  rapidly  increasing  importance  to  the 
whole  nation,  and  especially  to  the  vast  interior  region  hereinafter  to  be 
noticed  at  some  greater  length.  I  purpose  having  prepared  and  laid  be 
fore  you  at  an  early  day  some  interesting  and  valuable  statistical  informa 
tion  upon  this  subject.  The  military  and  commercial  importance  of 
enlarging  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  and  improving  the  Illinois 
River,  is  presented  in  the  report  of  Colonel  Webster  to  the  Secretary  of 
War,  and  now  transmitted  to  Congress.  I  respectfully  ask  attention  to  it. 

To  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  act  of  Congress  of  the  15th  of  May 
last,  I  have  caused  the  Department  of  Agriculture  of  the  United  States 
to  be  organized. 

The  Commissioner  informs  me  that  within  the  period  of  a  few  months 
this  department  has  established  an  extensive  system  of  correspondence 
and  exchanges,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  which  promises  to  effect  highly 
beneficial  results  in  the  development  of  a  correct  knowledge  of  recent 
improvements  in  agriculture,  in  the  introduction  of  new  products,  and  in 
the  collection  of  the  agricultural  statistics  of  the  different  States.  Also, 
that  it  will  soon  be  prepared  to  distribute  largely  seeds,  cereals,  plants, 
and  cuttings,  and  has  already  published  and  liberally  diffused  much  valu 
able  information  in  anticipation  of  a  more  elaborate  report,  which  will  in 
due  time  be  furnished,  embracing  some  valuable  tests  in  chemical  science 
now  in  progress  in  the  laboratory. 

The  creation  of  this  department  was  for  the  more  immediate  benefit 
of  a  large  class  of  our  most  valuable  fellow-citizens ;  and  I  trust  that  the 
liberal  basis  upon  which  it  has  been  organized  will  not  only  meet  your 
approbation,  but  that  it  will  realize,  at  no  distant  day,  all  the  fondest 
anticipations  of  its  most  sanguine  friends,  and  become  the  fruitful  source 
of  advantage  to  all  our  people. 

On  the  22d  day  of  September  last,  a  proclamation  was  issued  by  the 
Executive,  a  copy  of  which  is  herewith  submitted. 

In  accordance  with  the  purpose  expressed  in  the  second  paragraph  of 
that  paper,  I  now  respectfully  call  your  attention  to  what  may  be  called 
"  compensated  emancipation." 

A  nation  may  be  said  to  consist  of  its  territory,  its  people,  and  its  law  a. 


352  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  territoi^  is  the  only  part  which  is  of  certain  durability.  '•  Ono  gener 
ation  passeth  away,  and  another  generation  cometh,  but  the  earth  abideth 
forever."  It  is  of  the  first  importance  to  duly  consider  and  estimate  this 
ever-enduring  part.  That  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  which  is  owned 
and  inhabited  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  is  well  adapted  to  the 
home  of  one  national  family,  and  it  is  not  well  adapted  for  two  or  more 
Its  vast  extent,  and  its  variety  of  climate  and  productions,  are  of  advan 
tage  in  this  age  for  one  people,  whatever  they  might  have  been  in  former 
ages.  Steam,  telegraphs,  and  intelligence  have  brought  these  to  be  an 
advantageous  combination  for  one  united  people. 

In  the  Inaugural  Address  I  briefly  pointed  out  the  total  inadequacy  of 
disunion  as  a  remedy  for  the  differences  between  the  people  of  the  two 
sections.  I  did  so  in  language  which  I  cannot  improve,  and  which,  there 
fore,  I  beg  to  repeat : — 

"  One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right,  and  ought  to  be 
extended ;  while  the  other  believes  it  is  wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be 
extended.  This  is  the  only  substantial  dispute.  The  fugitive  slave  clause 
of  the  Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the  suppression  of  the  foreign  slave- 
trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced,  perhaps,  as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a 
community  where  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports  the 
law  itself.  The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by  the  dry  legal  obligation 
in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break  over  in  each.  This,  I  think,  cannot  be 
cured ;  and  it  would  be  worse,  in  both  cases,  after  the  separation  of  the 
sections  than  before.  The  foreign  slave-trade,  now  imperfectly  suppressed, 
would  be  ultimately  revived  without  restriction  in  one  section;  while 
fugitive  slaves,  now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not  be  surrendered 
at  all  by  the  other. 

"Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  TVe  cannot  remove  our 
respective  sections  from  each  other,  nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between 
them.  A  husband  and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the  presence 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other ;  but  the  different  parts  of  our  coun 
try  cannot  do  this.  They  cannot  but  remain  face  to  face ;  and  intercourse, 
either  amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  Is  it  possible, 
then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  advantageous  or  more  satisfactory 
after  separation  than  before  ?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends 
can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  enforced  between  aliens 
than  laws  can  among  friends?  Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  cannot  fight 
always ;  and  when,  after  much  loss  on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on  either, 
you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  old  questions,  as  to  terms  of  intercourse, 


There  is  no  line,  straight  or  crooked,  suitable  for  a  national  boundary, 
upon  which  to  divide.  Trace  through,  from  east  to  west,  upon  the  line 
between  the  free  and  slave  country,  and  we  shall  find  a  little  more  than 
one-third  of  its  length  are  rivers,  easy  to  be  crossed,  and  populated,  or 
soon  to  be  populated,  thickly  upon  both  sides ;  while  nearly  all  its  re 
maining  length  are  merely  surveyors'  lines,  over  which  people  may  walk 
back  and  forth  without  any  consciousness  of  their  presence.  No  part  of 
(his  line  can  be  made  any  more  difficult  to  pass  by  writing  it  down  on 
paper  or  parchment  as  a  national  boundary.  The  fact  of  separation,  if  it 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  353 

comes,  gives  up,  on  the  part  of  the  seceding  section,  the  fugitive  slave 
clause,  along  with  all  other  constitutional  obligations  upon  the  section 
seceded  from,  while  I  should  expect  no  treaty  stipulation  would  ever  be 
made  to  take  its  place. 

But  there  is  another  difficulty.  The  great  interior  region,  bounded  east 
by  the  Alleghanies,  north  by  the  British  dominions,  west  by  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  south  by  the  line  along  which  the  culture  of  corn  and 
cotton  meets,  and  which  includes  part  of  Virginia,  part  of  Tennessee,  all 
of  Kentucky,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Missouri, 
Kansas,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  and  the  Territories  of  Dakota,  Nebraska,  and 
part  of  Colorado,  already  has  above  ten  millions  of  people,  and  will  have 
fifty  millions  within  fifty  years,  if  not  prevented  by  any  political  folly  or 
mistake.  It  contains  more  than  one-third  of  the  country  owned  by  the 
United  States — certainly  more  than  one  million  of  square  miles.  Once 
half  as  populous  as  Massachusetts  already  is.  it  would  have  more  than 
seventy-five  millions  of  people.  A  glance  at  the  map  shows  that,  terri- 
"•orially  speaking,  it  is  the  great  body  of  the  Republic.  The  other  parts 
are  but  marginal  borders  to  it,  the  magnificent  region  sloping  west  from 
the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific  being  the  deepest,  and  also  the  richest 
in  undeveloped  resources.  In  the  production  of  provisions,  grains,  grasses, 
and  all  which  proceed  from  them,  this  great  interior  region  is  naturally 
one  of  the  most  important  of  the  world.  Ascertain  from  the  statistics  the 
small  propoition  of  the  region  which  has  as  yet  been  brought  into  culti 
vation,  and  also  the  large  and  rapidly  increasing  amount  of  its  products, 
and  we  shall  be  overwhelmed  with  the  magnitude  of  the  prospect  pre 
sented.  And  yet  this  region  has  no  sea-coast — touches  no  ocean  any 
where.  As  part  of  one  nation,  its  people  now  find,  and  may  forever  find, 
their  way  to  Europe  by  New  York,  to  South  America  and  Africa  by  New 
Orleans,  and  to  Asia  by  San  Francisco.  But  separate  our  common  coun 
try  into  two  nations,  as  designed  by  the  present  rebellion,  and  every  man 
of  this  great  interior  region  is  thereby  cut  off  from  some  one  or  more  of 
these  outlets,  not  perhaps  by  a  physical  barrier,  but  by  embarrassing  and 
onerous  trade  regulations. 

And  this  is  true,  wherever  a  dividing  or  boundary  line  may  be  fixed. 
Place  it  between  the  now  free  and  slave  country,  or  place  it  south  of 
Kentucky,  or  north  of  Ohio,  and  still  the  truth  remains  that  none  south 
of  it  can  trade  to  any  port  or  place  north  of  it,  and  none  north  of  it  can 
trade  to  any  port  or  place  south  of  it,  except  upon  terms  dictated  by  a 
Government  foreign  to  them.  These  outlets,  east,  west,  and  south,  are 
indispensable  to  the  well-being  of  the  people  inhabiting  and  to  inhabit 
this  vast  interior  region.  Which  of  the  three  may  be  the  best  is  no 
proper  question.  All  are  better  than  either,  and  all  of  right  belong 
to  that  people  and  to  their  successors  forever.  True  to  themsehes, 
they  will  not  ask  where  a  line  of  separation  shall  be,  but  will  vow 
rather  that  there  shall  be  no  such  line.  Nor  are  the  marginal  regions 
l«ss  interested  in  these  communications  to  and  through  them  to  the  gretu 
23 


354  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

outside  world.  They  too,  and  each  of  them,  must  have  access  to  this 
Egypt  of  the  West,  without  paying  toll  at  the  crossing  of  any  national 
boundary. 

Our  national  strife  springs  not  from  our  permanent  part ;  not  from  the 
land  we  inhabit;  not  from  our  national  homestead.  There  is  no  possible 
severing  of  this,  but  would  multiply  and  not  mitigate  evils  among  us.  In 
all  its  adaptations  and  aptitudes  it  demands  union  and  abhors  separation. 
In  fact,  it  would  ere  long,  force  reunion,  however  much  of  blood  and 
treasure  the  separation  might  have  cost. 

Our  strife  pertains  to  ourselves — to  the  passing  generations  of  men ; 
and  it  can,  without  convulsion,  be  hushed  forever  with  the  passing  of  one 
generation. 

In  this  view,  I  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following  resolution  and 
articles  amendatory  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  : — 

Resolved   l)y  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives   of  the   United 
tftat-es  of  America  in  Congress  assembled  (two-thirds  of  both  Houses  con 
curring),  That  the  following  articles  be  proposed  to  the  Legislatures  (or 
Conventions)  of  the  several  States  as  amendments  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  all  or  any  of  which  articles,  when  ratified  by  three 
fourths  of  the  said  Legislatures  (or  Conventions),  to  be  valid^  as  part  or 
parts  of  the  said  Constitution,  viz. : — 

AKTICLE. — Every  State,  wherein  slavery  now  exists,  which  shall  abolish 
the  same  therein  at  any  time  or  times  before  the  first  day  of  January,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  and  nine  hundred,  shall  receive  com 
pensation  from  the  United  States  as  follows,  to  wit : 

The  President  of  the  United  States  shall  deliver  to  every  such  State 

bonds  of  the  United  States,  bearing  interest  at  the  rate  of per  cent. 

per  annum,  to  an  amount  equal  to  the  aggregate  sum  of for  each 

slave  shown  to  have  been  therein  by  the  eighth  census  of  the  United 
States,  said  bonds  to  be  delivered  to  such  State  by  instalments,  or  in  one 
parcel,  at  the  completion  of  the  abolishment,  accordingly  as  the  same 
shall  hare  been  gradual,  or  at  one  time,  within  such  State ;  and  interest 
shall  begin  to  run  upon  any  such  bond  only  from  the  proper  time  of  its 
delivery  as  aforesaid.  Any  State  having  received  bonds  as  aforesaid,  and 
afterwards  reintroducing  or  tolerating  slavery  therein,  shall  refund  to  the 
United  States  the  bonds  so  received,  or  the  value  thereof,  and  all  interest 
oaid  thereon. 

ARTICLE. — All  slaves  who  shall  have  enjoyed  actual  treedom  by  the 
chances  of  the  war,  at  any  time  before  the  end  of  the  rebellion,  shall  bo 
forever  free ;  but  all  owners  of  such,  who  shall  not  have  been  disloyal, 
shall  be  compensated  for  them  at  the  same  rates  as  is  provided  for  States 
adopting  abolishment  of  slavery,  but  in  such  way  that  no  slave  shall  be 
twice  accounted  for. 

ARTICLE. — Congress  may  appropriate  money,  and  otherwise  provide 
for  colonizing  free  colored  persons,  with  their  own  consent,  at  any  place 
or  places  without  the  United  States. 

I  beg  indulgence  to  discuss  these  proposed  articles  at  some  length. 
Without  slavery  the  rebellion  could  never  have  existed ;  without  slavery 
it  could  not  continue. 

Among  the  friends  of  the  Union  there  is  great  diversity  of  sentivciii 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  355 

and  of  policy  in  regard  to  slavery  and  the  African  race  amongst  us 
Some  would  perpetuate  slavery;  some  would  abolish  it  suddenly,  and 
without  compensation ;  some  would  abolish  it  gradually,  and  with  com 
pensation;  some  would  remove  the  freed  people  from  us,  and  some 
would  retain  them  with  us:  and  there  are  yet  other  minor  diversities. 
Because  of  these  diversities  we  waste  much  strength  among  ourselves. 
By  mutual  concession  Ave  should  harmonize  and  act  together.  This 
would  be  compromise ;  but  it  would  be  compromise  among  the  friends, 
and  not  with  the  enemies  of  the  Union.  These  articles  are  intended  to 
embody  a  plan  of  such  mutual  concessions.  If  the  plan  shall  be  adopted, 
it  is  assumed  that  emancipation  will  follow  in  at  least  several  of  the 
States. 

As  to  the  first  article,  the  main  points  are :  first,  the  emancipation ; 
secondly,  the  length  of  time  for  consummating  it — thirty-seven  years ; 
and,  thirdly,  the  compensation. 

The  emancipation  will  be  unsatisfactory  to  the  advocates  of  perpetual 
slavery  ;  but  the  length  of  time  should  greatly  mitigate  their  dissatisfac 
tion.  The  time  spares  both  races  from  the  evils  of  sudden  derangement 
— in  fact,  from  the  necessity  of  any  derangement ;  while  most  of  those 
whose  habitual  course  of  thought  will  be  disturbed  by  the  measure  will 
have  passed  away  before  its  consummation.  They  will  never  see  it. 
Another  class  will  hail  the  prospect  of  emancipation,  but  will  deprecate 
the  length  of  time.  They  will  feel  that  it  gives  too  little  to  the  now  liv: 
ing  slaves.  But  it  really  gives  them  much.  It  saves  them  from  the  vagraDt 
destitution  which  must  largely  attend  immediate  emancipation  in  localities 
where  their  numbers  are  very  great;  and  it  gives  the  inspiring  assurance 
that  their  posterity  shall  be  free  forever.  The  plan  leaves  to  each  State 
choosing  to  act  under  it,  to  abolish  slavery  now,  or  at  the  end  of  the  cen 
tury,  or  at  any  intermediate  time,  or  by  degrees,  extending  over  the  whole 
or  any  part  of  the  period ;  and  it  obliges  no  two  States  to  proceed  alike. 
It  also  provides  for  compensation,  and  generally  the  mode  of  making  it. 
This,  it  would  seem,  must  further  mitigate  the  dissatisfaction  of  those  who 
favor  perpetual  slavery,  and  especially  of  those  who  are  to  receive  the 
compensation.  Doubtless  some  of  those  who  are  to  pay  and  not  receive 
will  object.  Yet  the  measure  is  both  just  and  economical.  In  a  certain 
sense  the  liberation  of  slaves  is  the  destruction  of  property — property 
acquired  by  descent  or  by  purchase,  the  same  as  any  other  property.  It 
is  no  less  true  for  having  been  often  said,  that  the  people  of  the  South  are 
not  more  responsible  for  the  original  introduction  of  this  property  than 
are  the  people  of  the  North ;  and  when  it  is  remembered  how  unhesitat 
ingly  we  all  use  cotton  and  sugar,  and  share  the  profits  of  dealing  in  them, 
it  may  not  be  quite  safe  to  say  that  the  South  has  been  more  re.-pon- 
sible  than  the  North  for  its  continuance.  If,  then,  for  a  common  object 
this  property  is  to  be  sacrificed  is  it  not  just  that  it  be  done  at  a  common 
charge  ? 

And  if  with  less  money,  01   money  more  easily  paid,  we  can  preserve 


356  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  benefits  of  the  Union  by  this  means  than  we  can  by  the  war  alone,  is 
it  not  also  economical  to  do  it  ?  Let  us  consider  it,  then.  Let  us  ascer 
tain  the  sum  we  have  expended  in  the  war  since  compensated  emancipation 
was  proposed  last  March,  and  consider  whether,  if  that  measure  had  been 
promptly  accepted  by  even  some  of  the  slave  States,  the  same  sum  would 
not  have  done  more  to  close  the  war  than  has  been  otherwise  done.  If 
so,  the  measure  would  save  money,  and,  in  that  view,  would  be  a  prudent 
and  economical  measure.  Certainly  it  is  not  so  easy  to  pay  something  as 
ifc  is  pay  nothing ;  but  it  is  easier  to  pay  a  large  sum  than  it  is  to  pay  a 
larger  one.  And  it  is  easier  to  pay  any  sum  when  we  are  able,  than  it  is 
to  pay  it  before  we  are  able.  The  war  requires  large  sums,  and  requires 
them  at  once.  The  aggregate  sum  necessary  for  compensated  emancipa 
tion  of  course  would  be  large.  But  it  would  require  no  ready  cash,  nor 
the  bonds  even,  any  faster  than  the  emancipation  progresses.  This  might 
not,  and  probably  would  not,  close  before  the  end  of  the  thirty-seven 
years.  At  that  time  we  shall  probably  have  a  hundred  millions  of  people 
to  share  the  burden,  instead  of  thirty-one  millions,  as  now.  And  not  only 
so,  but  the  increase  of  our  population  may  be  expected  to  continue  for  a 
long  time  after  that  period  as  rapidly  as  before  ;  because  our  territory  will 
not  have  become  full.  I  do  no  state  this  inconsiderately. 

At  the  same  ratio  of  increase  which  we  have  maintained,  or>  an  average 
from  our  first  national  census,  in  1790,  until  that  of  1860,  we  should,  in 
1900,  have  a  population  of  one  hundred  and  three  million  two  hundred 
and  eight  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifteen.  And  why  may  we  not  con 
tinue  that  ratio — far  beyond  that  period  ?  Our  abundant  room — our  broad 
national  homestead — is  our  ample  resource.  Were  our  territory  as  limited 
as  are  the  British  Isles,  very  certainly  our  population  could  not  expand  as 
stated.  Instead  of  receiving  tho  foreign  born  as  now,  we  should  be  com 
pelled  to  send  part  of  the  native  born  away.  But  such  is  not  our  condi 
tion.  We  have  two  million  nine  hundred  and  sixty-three  thousand 
square  miles.  Europe  has  three  million  and  eight  hundred  thousand, 
with  a  population  averaging  seventy-three  and  one-third  persons  to  the 
square  mile.  Why  may  not  our  country  at  some  time  average  as  many  ? 
Is  it  less  fertile  ?  Has  it  more  waste  surface,  by  mountains,  rivers,  lakes, 
deserts,  or  other  causes  ?  Is  it  inferior  to  Europe  in  any  natural  advan 
tage?  If  then  we  are,  at  some  time,  to  be  as  populous  as  Europe,  how 
soon  ?  As  to  when  this  maybe,  we  can  judge  by  the  past  and  the  present ; 
as  to  when  it  will  be,  if  ever,  depends  much  on  whether  we  maintain  the 
Union.  Several  of  our  States  are  already  above  the  average  of  Europe — 
seventy-three  and  a  third  to  the  square  mile.  Massachusetts  one  hundred 
and  fifty-seven  ;  Rhode  Island  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  ;  Connecticut 
ninety-nine ;  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  each  eighty.  Also  two  other 
great  States,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  are  not  far  below,  the  former  having 
sixty-tliree  and  the  latter  fifty-nine.  The  States  already  above  the 
European  average,  except  New  York,  have  increased  in  as  rapid  a  ratio, 
sin  se  passing  that  point,  as  ever  before  ;  while  no  one  of  them  is  equal  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  357 

some  other  parts  of  our  country  in  natural  capacity  for  sustaining  a  dense 
population. 

Taking  the  nation  in  the  aggregate,  and  we  find  its  population  and  rati"» 
of  increase,  for  the  several  decennial  periods,  to  be  as  followo  — 

1799 3,929,827 

1800 5,305,937  35.02  per  cent,  ratio  of  increase. 

1810 7,239,814  36.45  "  "  " 

1820 9,638,131  33.13  "  "  " 

1830 12,866,020  33.49  "  "  " 

1840.. 17,069,453  32.67  "  "  " 

1850 23,191,876  35.87  "  "  " 

1860 31,443,790  35.58  "  " 

This  shows  an  average  decennial  increase  of  34,60  per  cent,  in  popula 
tion  through  the  seventy  years,  from  our  first  to  our  last  census  yet  taker 
It  is  seen  that  the  ratio  of  increase,  at  no  one  of  these  two  periods,  is 
either  two  per  cent,  below  or  two  per  cent,  above  the  average ;  thus  show 
ing  how  inflexible,  and  consequently  how  reliable,  the  law  of  increase  in 
our  case  is.  Assuming  that  it  will  continue,  it  gives  the  following  re 
sults  : — 

1870 42,323,341 

1880 56,967,216 

1890 76,677,872 

1900 103,208,415 

1910 138,918,526 

1920 186,984,335 

1930 251,680,914 

These  figures  show  that  our  country  maybe  as  populous  as  Europe  now 
is  at  some  point  between  1920  and  1930 — say  about  1925 — our  territory, 
at  seventy -three  and  a  third  persons  to  the  square  mile,  being  of  capacity 
to  contain  two  hundred  and  seventeen  million  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
six  thousand. 

And  we  will  reach  this,  too,  if  we  do  not  ourselves  relinquish  the  chance, 
by  the  folly  and  evils  of  disunion,  or  by  long  and  exhausting  wars  spring 
ing  from  the  only  great  element  of  national  discord  among  us.  While  it 
cannot  be  foreseen  exactly  how  much  one  huge  example  of  secession, 
breeding  lesser  ones  indefinitely,  would  retard  population,  civilization,  and 
prosperity,  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  extent  of  it  would  be  very  great  and 
injurious. 

The  proposed  emancipation  would  shorten  the  war,  perpetuate  peace, 
insure  this  increase  of  population,  and  proportionately  the  wealth  of  the 
country.  With  these  we  should  pay  all  the  emancipation  would  cost, 
together  with  our  other  debt,  easier  than  we  should  pay  our  other  debt  with 
out  it.  If  we  had  allowed  our  old  national  debt  to  run  at  six  per  cent,  per 
&nnum,  simple  interest,  from  the  end  of  our  Revolutionary  struggle  until 
to-day,  without  paying  anything  on  either  principal  or  interest,  each  man 
of  us  would  owe  less  upon  that  debt  now  than  each  man  owed  upon  it 


358  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

then;  and  this  because  our  increase  of  men,  through  the  whole  ]  eriod, 
has  been  greater  than  six  per  cent.;  has  run  faster  than  the  interest  upon 
the  debt.  Thus,  time  alone  relieves  a  debtor  nation,  so  long  as  its  popu 
lation  increases  faster  than  unpaid  interest  accumulates  on  its  debt. 

This  fact  would  be  no  excuse  for  delaying  payment  of  what  is  justly 
due ;  but  it  shows  the  great  importance  of  time  in  this  connection — the 
great  advantage  of  a  policy  by  which  we  shall  not  have  to  pay  until  we 
number  a  hundred  millions,  what,  by  a  different  policy,  we  would  have  to 
now,  when  we  number  but  thirty-one  millions.  In  a  word,  k  shows  that 
a  dollar  will  be  much  harder  to  pay  for  the  war  than  will  be  a  dollar  for  the 
emancipation  on  the  proposed  plan.  And  then  the  latter  will  cost  no 
blood,  no  precious  life.  It  will  be  a  saving  of  both. 

As  to  the  second  article,  I  think  it  would  be  impracticable  to  return  to 
bondage  the  class  of  persons  therein  contemplated.  Some  of  them,  doubt 
less,  in  the  property  sense,  belong  to  loyal  owners ;  and  hence  provision 
is  made  in  this  article  for  compensating  such. 

The  third  article  relates  to  the  future  of  the  freed  people.  It  does  not 
oblige,  but  merely  authorizes  Congress  to  aid  in  colonizing  such  as  may 
consent.  This  ought  not  to  be  regarded  as  objectionable  on  the  one  hand  or 
on  the  other,  insomuch  as  it  comes  to  nothing  unless  by  the  mutual  con 
sent  of  the  people  to  be  deported,  and  the  American  voters,  through  their 
representatives  in  Congress. 

I  cannot  make  it  better  known  than  it  already  is,  that  I  strongly  favor 
colonization.  And  yet  I  wish  to  say  there  is  an  objection  urged  against 
free  colored  persons  remaining  in  the  country  which  is  largely  imaginary, 
if  not  sometimes  malicious. 

It  is  insisted  that  their  presence  would  injure  and  displace  white  labor 
and  white  laborers.  If  there  ever  could  be  a  proper  time  for  mere  catch 
arguments,  that  time  surely  is  not  now.  In  times  like  the  present  men 
should  utter  nothing  for  which  they  would  not  willingly  be  responsible 
through  time  and  in  eternity.  Is  it  true,  then,  that  colored  people  can 
displace  anymore  white  labor  by  being  free  than  by  remaining  slaves? 
If  they  stay  in  their  old  places,  they  jostle  no  white  laborers  ;  if  they  leave 
their  old  places,  they  leave  them  open  to  white  laborers.  Logically,  there 
is  neither  more  nor  less  of  it.  Emancipation,  even  without  deportation, 
would  probably  enhance  the  wages  of  white  labor,  and,  very  surely,  would 
not  reduce  them.  Thus  the  customary  amount  of  labor  would  still  have 
to  be  performed — the  freed  people  would  surely  not  do  more  than  their 
old  proportion  of  it,  and  very  probably  for  a  time  would  do  less,  leaving 
an  increased  part  to  white  laborers,  bringing  their  labor  into  greater 
demand,  and  consequently  enhancing  the  wages  of  it.  With  deportation, 
even  to  a  limited  extent,  enhanced  wages  to  white  labor  is  mathematically 
certain.  Labor  is  like  any  other  commodity  in  the  market — increase  the 
demand  for  it  and  you  increase  the  price  of  it.  Reduce  the  supply  of 
black  labor,  by  colonizing  the  black  laborer  out  of  the  country,  and  by 
precisely  so  much  you  increase  the  demand  for  and  wages  of  white  labor, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  359 

But  it  ib  dreaded  that  the  freed  people  will  swarin  forth  and  coxet  the 
whole  land!  Are  they  not  already  in  the  land?  Will  liberation  make 
them  any  more  numerous  f  Equally  distributed  among  the  whites  of  the 
whole  country,  and  there  would  be  but  one  colored  to  seven  whites. 
Could  the  one,  in  any  way,  greatly  disturb  the  seven  ?  There  are  many 
communities  now  having  more  than  one  free  colored  person  to  seven 
whites ;  and  this,  without  any  apparent  consciousness  of  evil  from  it. 
The  District  of  Columbia  and  the  States  of  Maryland  and  Delaware  are 
all  in  this  condition.  The  District  has  more  than  one  free  colored  to  six 
whites ;  and  yet,  in  its  frequent  petitions  to  Congress,  I  believe  it  has 
never  presented  the  presence  of  free  colored  persons  as  one  of  its  griev 
ances.  But  why  should  emancipation  South  send  the  freed  people  North? 
People  of  any  color  seldom  run  unless  there  be  something  to  i  an  from 
Heretofore  colored  people  to  some  extent  have  fled  North  from  bondage ; 
and  now,  perhaps,  from  bondage  and  destitution.  But  if  gradual  eman 
cipation  and  deportation  be  adopted,  they  will  have  neither  to  flee  from. 
Their  old  masters  will  give  them  wages  at  least  until  new  laborers  can  be 
procured,  and  the  freedmen  in  turn  will  gladly  give  their  labor  for  the 
wages  till  new  homes  can  bo  found  for  them  in  congenial  climes  and  with 
people  of  their  own  blood  and  race.  This  proposition  can  be  trusted  on 
the  mutual  interests  involved.  And  in  any  event,  cannot  the  North  de 
cide  for  itself  whether  to  receive  them  ? 

Again,  as  practice  proves  more  than  theory,  in  any  case,  has  there  been 
any  irruption  of  colored  people  northward  because  of  the  abolishment 
of  slavery  in  this  District  last  spring  ? 

What  I  have  said  of  the  proportion  of  free  colored  persons  to  the 
whites  in  the  District  is  from  the  census  of  1860,  having  no  reference  to 
persons  called  contrabands,  nor  to  those  made  free  by  the  act  of  Congress 
abolishing  slavery  here. 

The  plan  consisting  of  these  articles  is  recommended,  not  but  that  a 
restoration  of  national  authority  would  be  accepted  without  its  adoption. 

Nor  will  the  war,  nor  proceedings  under  the  proclamation  of  Septem 
ber  22,  1862,  be  stayed  because  of  the  recommendation  of  this  plan.  Its 
timely  adoption,  I  doubt  not,  would  bring  restoration,  and  thereby  stay 
both. 

And,  notwithstanding  this  plan,  the  recommendation  that  Congress 
provide  by  law  for  compensating  any  State  which  may  adopt  emancipa 
tion  before  this  plan  shall  have  been  acted  upon,  is  hereby  earnestly  re 
newed.  Such  would  be  only  an  advanced  part  of  the  plan,  and  the  same 
arguments  apply  to  both. 

This  plan  is  recommended  as  a  means,  not  in  exclusion  of,  but  addi 
tional  to,  all  others  for  restoring  and  preserving  the  national  authority 
throughout  the  Union.  The  subject  is  presented  exclusively  in  its  eco 
nomical  aspect.  The  plan  would,  I  am  confident,  secure  peace  more 
speedily,  and  maintain  it  more  permanently,  than  can  be  done  by  forco 
alone;  while  all  it  would  cost,  considering  amounts,  and  manner  of  pay 


360  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ment,  and  times  of  payment,  would  be  easier  paid  than  will  be  the  addi 
tional  cost  of  the  war,  if  we  solely  rely  upon  force.  It  is  much — very 
much — that  it  would  cost  no  blood  at  all. 

The  plan  is  proposed  as  permanent  constitutional  law.  It  cannot  be 
come  such,  without  the  concurrence  of,  first,  two-thirds  of  Congress,  and 
afterwards  three-fourths  of  the  States.  The  requisite  three-fourths  of  the 
States  will  necessarily  include  seven  of  the  slave  States.  Their  concur 
rence,  if  obtained,  will  give  assurance  of  their  severally  adopting  eman 
cipation,  at  no  very  distant  day,  upon  the  new  constitutional  terms.  This 
assurance  would  end  the  struggle  now,  and  save  the  Union  forever. 

I  do  not  forget  the  gravity  which  should  characterize  a  paper  addressed 
to  the  Congress  of  the  nation  by  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation.  Nor 
do  I  forget  that  some  of  you  are  my  seniors ;  nor  that  many  of  you  have 
more  experience  than  I  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  Yet  I  trust  that, 
in  view  of  the  great  responsibility  resting  upon  me,  you  will  perceive  no 
want  of  respect  to  yourselves  in  any  undue  earnestness  I  may  seem  to 
display. 

i-  Is  it  doubted,  then,  that  the  plan  I  propose,  if  adopted,  would  shorten 
the  war,  and  thus  lessen  its  expenditure  of  money  and  of  blood?  Is  it 
doubted  that  it  would  restore  the  national  authority  and  national  pros 
perity,  and  perpetuate  both  indefinitely  ?  Is  it  doubted  that  we  here — 
Congress  and  Executive — can  secure  its  adoption  ?  Will  not  the  good 
people  respond  to  a  united  and  earnest  appeal  from  us  ?  Can  we,  can 
they;  by  any  other  means,  so  certainly  or  so  speedily  assure  these  vital 
objects?  We  can  succeed  only  by  concert.  It  is  not  u  Can  any  of  us  ima 
gine  better?"  but  u  Can  we  all  do  better?"  Object  whatsoever  is  possible, 
still  the  question  recurs,  "  Can  we  do  better?"  The  dogmas  of  the  quiet 
past  are  inadequate  to  the  stormy  present.  The  occasion  is  piled  high 
with  difficulty,  and  we  must  rise  with  the  occasion.  As  our  case  is  new, 
so  we  must  think  anew,  and  act  anew.  We  must  disinthrall  ourselves, 
and  then  we  shall  save  our  country. 

Fellow-citizens,  we  cannot  escape  history.  We  of  this  Congress  and 
this  Administration  will  be  remembered  in  spite  of  ourselves.  No  per 
sonal  significance  or  insignificance  can  spare  one  or  another  of  us.  The 
fiery  trial  through  which  we  pass  will  light  us  down  in  honor  or  dishonor 
to  the  latest 'generation.  We  say  that  we  are  for  the  Union.  The  world 
will  not  forget  that  we  say  this.  We  know  how  to  save  the  Union.  The 
world  knoAvs  we  do  know  how  to  save  it.  We — even  we  here — hold  the 
power  and  bear  the  responsibility.  In  giving  freedom  to  the  slave  we  as 
sure  freedom  to  the  free — honorable  alike  in  what  we  give  and  what  we 
fi reserve.  We  shall  nobly  save  or  meanly  lose  the  last  best  hope  of  earth. 
Other  means  may  succeed  ;  this  could  not,  cannot  fail.  The  way  is  plain, 
peaceful,  generous,  just — a  way  which,  if  followed,  the  world  will  forever 
applaud,  and  God  must  forever  bless.  ABKAHAM  LINCOLN. 

I,  1862. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  361 

At  the  very  outset  of  the  session,  resolutions  were  in 
troduced  by  the  opponents  of  the  Administration,  censur 
ing,  in  strong  terms,  its  arrest  of  individuals  in  the  loyal 
States,  suspected  of  giving,  or  intending  to  give,  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  rebellion.  These  arrests  were  denounced 
as  utterly  unwarranted  by  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  United  States,  and  as  involving  the  subversion  of  j:he 
public  liberties.  In  the  Senate,  the  general  subject  was 
discussed  in  a  debate,  commencing  on  the  8th  of  Decem 
ber,  the  opponents  of  the  Administration  setting  forth 
very  fully  and  very  strongly  their  opinion  of  the  unjusti 
fiable  nature  of  this  action,  and  its  friends  vindicating  it, 
as  made  absolutely  necessary  by  the  emergencies  of  the 
case.  Every  department  of  the  Government,  and  every 
section  of  the  country,  were  filled  at  the  outset  of  the  war 
with  men  actively  engaged  in  doing  the  work  of  spies 
and  informers  for  the  rebel  authorities  ;  and  it  was  known 
that,  in  repeated  instances,  the  plans  and  purposes  of  the 
Government  had  been  betrayed  and  defeated  by  these 
aiders  and  abettors  of  treason.  It  became  absolutely 
necessary,  not  for  piir poses  of  punishment,  but  of  preven 
tion,  to  arrest  these  men  in  the  injurious  and  perhaps 
fatal  action  they  were  preparing  to  take  ;  and  on  this 
ground  the  action  of  the  Government  was  vindicated  and 
justified  by  the  Senate.  On  the  8th  of  December,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  a  bill  was  introduced,  declaring 
the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  Jiabeas  corpus  to  have  been 
required  by  the  public  safety  ;  confirming  and  declaring 
valid  all  arrests  and  imprisonments,  by  whomsoever 
made  or  caused  to  be  made,  under  the  authority  of  the 
President ;  and  indemnifying  the  President,  secretaries, 
heads  of  departments,  and  all  persons  who  have  been 
concerned  in  making  such  arrests,  or  in  doing  or  advising 
any  such  acts,  and  making  void  all  prosecutions  and  pro 
ceedings  whatever  against  them  in  relation  to  the  matters 
in  question.  It  also  authorized  the  President,  during  the 
existence  of  the  war,  to  declare  the  suspension  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus,  i  i  at  such  times,  and  in  such  places, 
and  with  regard  to  such  persons,  as  in  his  judgment  the 


362  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

public  safety  may  require."  This  bill  was  passed,  receiv 
ing  ninety  votes  in  its  favor,  and  forty-live  against  it.  It 
was  taken  up  in  the  Senate  on  the  22d  of  December,  and 
after  a  discussion  of  several  days,  a  new  bill  was  substi 
tuted  and  passed  ;  ayes  33,  noes  7.  This  was  taken  up 
in  the  House  on  the  18th  of  February,  and  the  substitute 
of  the  Senate  was  rejected.  This  led  to  the  appointment 
of  a  committee  of  conference,  which  recommended  that 
the  Senate  recede  from  its  amendments,  and  that  the  bill, 
substantially  as  it  came  from  the  House,  be  passed.  This 
report  was  agreed  to  after  long  debate,  and  the  bill  thus 
became  a  law. 

The  relations  in  which  the  rebel  States  were  placed  by 
their  acts  of  secession  towards  the  General  Government 
became  a  topic  of  discusion  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  in  a  debate  which  arose  on  the  8th  of  January,  upon 
an  item  in  the  Appropriation  Bill,  limiting  the  amount  to 
be  paid  to  certain  commissioners  to  the  amount  that  might 
be  collected  from  taxes  in  the  insurrectionary  States.  Mr. 
Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  pronounced  the  opinion  that 
the  Constitution  did  not  embrace  a  State  that  was  in  arms 
against  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  He  maintain 
ed  that  those  States  held  towards  us  the  position  of  alien 
enemies — that  every  obligation  existing  between  them  and 
us  had  been  annulled,  and  that  with  regard  to  all  the 
Southern  States  in  rebellion,  the  Constitution  has  no  bind 
ing  force  and  no  application.  This  position  was  very 
strongly  controverted  by  men  of  both  parties.  Those  who 
were  not  in  full  sympathy  with  the  Administration  opposed 
it,  because  it  denied  to  the  Southern  people  the  protection 
of  the  Constitution  ;  while  many  Republicans  regarded  it 
as  a  virtual  acknowledgment  of  the  validity  and  actual 
force  of  the  ordinances  of  secession  passed  by  the  Rebel 
States.  Mr.  Thomas,  of  Massachusetts,  expressed  the 
sentiment  of  the  latter  class  very  clearly  when  he  said 
that  one  object  of  the  bill  under  discussion  was  to  impose 
a  tax  upon  States  in  rebellion — that  our  only  authority 
tor  so  doing  was  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States— 
and  that  we  could  only  do  it  on  the  ground  that  the  author- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  363 

ity  of  the  Government  over  those  States  is  just  as  valid 
now  as  it  was  before  the  acts  of  secession  were  passed, 
and  that  every  one  of  those  acts  is  utterly  null  and  void. 
No  vote  was  taken  which  declared  directly  the  opinion 
of  the  House  on  the  theoretical  question  thus  involved. 

The  employment  of  negroes  as  soldiers  was  subjected  to 
a  vigorous  discussion,  started  on  the  27th  of  January,  by 
an  amendment  offered  to  a  pending  bill  by  Mr.  Stevens, 
directing  the  President  to  raise,  arm,  and  equip  as  many 
volunteers  of  African  descent  as  he  might  deem  useful, 
for  such  term  of  service  as  he  might  think  proper,  not 
exceeding  five  years — to  be  officered  by  white  or  black 
persons,  in  the  President' s  discretion — slaves  to  be  accept 
ed  as  well  as  freemen.  The  members  from  the  Border 
States  opposed  this  proposition  with  great  earnestness,  as 
certain  to  do  great  harm  to  the  Union  cause  among  their  con 
stituents,  by  arousing  prejudices  which,  whether  reason 
able  or  not,  were  very  strong,  and  against  which  argument 
would  be  found  utterly  unavailing.  Mr.  Crittenden,  of 
Kentucky,  objected  to  it  mainly  because  it  would  convert 
the  war  against  the  rebellion  into  a  servile  war,  and  es 
tablish  abolition  as  the  main  end  for  which  the  war  was 
carried  on.  Mr.  Sedgwick,  of  New  York,  vindicated  the 
policy  suggested,  as  having  been  dictated  rather  by  neces 
sity  than  choice.  He  pointed  out  the  various  steps  by 
which  the  President,  as  the  responsible  head  of  the  Gov  - 
ernment,  had  endeavored  to  prosecute  the  war  success 
fully  without  interfering  with  slavery,  and  showed  also 
how  the  refusal  of  the  Rebel  States  to  return  to  their 
allegiance  had  compelled  him  to  advance,  step  by  step, 
to  the  more  rigorous  and  effective  policy  which  had  now 
become  inevitable.  After  considerable  further  discussion, 
the  bill,  embodying  substantially  the  amendment  of  Mr. 
Stevens,  was  passed  ;  ayes  83,  noes  54.  On  reaching  the 
Senate  it  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs, 
which,  on  the  12th  of  February,  reported  against  its  pas 
sage,  on  the  ground  that  the  autherity  which  it  was  in 
tended  to  confer  upon  the  President  was  already  sufficient 
ly  granted  in  the  act  of  the  previous  session,  approved 


364  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES, 

July  17,  1862,  which  authorized  the  President  to  employ, 
in  any  military  or  naval  service  for  which  they  might  be 
found  competent,  persons  of  African  descent. 

One  of  the  most  important  acts  of  the  session  was  that 
which  provided  for  the  creation  of  a  national  force  by 
enrolling  and  drafting  the  militia  of  the  whole  country — 
each  State  being  required  to  contribute  its  quota  in  the 
ratio  of  its  population,  and  the  whole  force,  when  raised, 
to  be  under  the  control  of  the  President.  Some  measure 
of  the  kind  seemed  to  have  been  rendered  absolutely  ne 
cessary  by  the  revival  of  party  spirit  throughout  the  loyal 
States,  and  by  the  active  and  effective  efforts  made  by 
the  Democratic  party,  emboldened  by  the  results  of  the 
fall  elections  of  1862,  to  discourage  and  prevent  volunteer 
ing.  So  successful  had  they  been  in  this  work,  that  the 
Government  seemed  likely  to  fail  in  its  efforts  to  raise 
men  for  another  campaign  ;  and  it  was  to  avert  this  threat 
ening  evil  that  the  bill  in  question  was  brought  forward 
for  the  action  of  Congress.  It  encountered  a  violent  resist 
ance  from  the  opposition  party,  and  especially  from  those 
members  whose  sympathies  with  the  secessionists  were 
the  most  distinctly  marked.  But  after  the  rejection  of 
numerous  amendments,  more  or  less  affecting  its  character 
and  force,  it  was  passed  in  the  Senate,  and  taken  up  on 
the  23d  of  February  in  the  House,  where  it  encountered 
a  similar  ordeal.  It  contained  various  provisions  for 
exempting  from  service  persons  upon  whom  others  were 
most  directly  and  entirely  dependent  for  support — such  as 
the  only  son  of  a  widow,  the  only  son  of  aged  and  infirm 
parents  who  relied  upon  him  for  a  maintenance,  &c.  It 
allowed  drafted  persons  to  procure  substitutes ;  and,  to 
cover  the  cases  in  which  the  prices  of  substitutes  might 
become  exorbitant,  it  also  provided  that  upon  payment 
of  three  hundred  dollars  the  Government  itself  would 
procure  a  substitute,  and  release  the  person  drafted  from 
service.  The  bill  was  passed  in  the  House,  with  some 
amendments,  by  a  vote  of  115  to  49  ;  and  the  amendments 
being  concurred  in  by  the  Senate,  the  bill  became  a  law. 

One  section  of  this  act  required  the  President  to  issue 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  365 

a  proclamation  offering  an  amnesty  to  deserters,  and  he 
accordingly  issued  it,  in  the  following  words : — 

A  PROCLAMATION". 
By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

EXKCCTIVK  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  March  10,  1863. 

In  pursuance  of  the  twenty-sixth  section  of  the  act  of  Congress  entitled 
"  An  Act  for  enrolling  and  calling  out  the  National  Forces,  and  for  other 
purposes,"  approved  on  the  third  of  March,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-three,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President,  and  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States,  do  hereby  order  and 
command  that  all  soldiers  enlisted  or  drafted  into  the  service  of  the  United 
States,  now  absent  from  their  regiments  without  leave,  shall  forthwith 
return  to  their  respective  regiments ;  and  I  do  hereby  declare  and  pro 
claim  that  all  soldiers  now  absent  from  their  respective  regiments  without 
leave,  who  shall,  on  or  before  the  first  day  of  April,  1863,  report  them 
selves  at  any  rendezvous  designated  by  the  General  Orders  of  the  War 
Department,  No.  58,  hereto  annexed,  may  be  restored  to  their  respective 
regiments  without  punishment,  except  the  forfeiture  of  pay  and  allow 
ances  daring  their  absence ;  and  all  who  do  not  return  within  the  time 
above  specified  shall  be  arrested  as  deserters,  and  punished  as  the  law 
provides. 

And  whereas  evil-disposed  and  disloyal  persons,  at  sundry  places,  have 
enticed  and  procured  soldiers  to  desert  and  absent  themselves  from  their 
regiments,  thereby  weakening  the  strength  of  the  armies,  and  prolonging 
the  war,  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,  and  cruelly  exposing  the 
gallant  and  faithful  soldiers  remaining  in  the  ranks  to  increased  hardships 
and  dangers : 

I  do  therefore  call  upon  all  patriotic  and  faithful  citizens  to  oppose  and 
resist  the  aforementioned  dangerous  and  treasonable  crimes,  and  aid  in 
restoring  to  their  regiments  all  soldiers  absent  without  leave,  and  assist 
in  the  execution  of  the  act  of  Congress  for  "  Enrolling  and  calling  out  the 
National  Forces,  and  for  other  purposes,"  and  to  support  the  proper 
authorities  in  the  prosecution  and  punishment  of  offenders  against  said 
act,  and  aid  in  suppressing  the  insurrection  and  the  rebellion. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  tenth  day  of  March,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of 
the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-seventh. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President : 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

The  finances  of  the  country  enlisted  a  good  deal  of 
attention  during  this  session.  It  was  necessary  to  pro- 


366  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

vide  in  some  way  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  and  also 
fora  currency  ;  and  two  bills  were  accordingly  introduced 
at  an  early  stage  of  the  session  relating  to  these  two  sub 
jects.  The  Financial  Bill,  as  finally  passed  by  both 
Houses,  authorized  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
borrow  and  issue  bonds  for  nine  hundred  millions  of 
dollars,  at  not  more  than  six  per  cent,  interest,  and 
payable  at  a  time  not  less  than  ten  nor  more  than  forty 
years.  It  also  authorized  the  Secretary  to  issue  treasury 
notes  to  the  amount  of  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars, 
bearing  interest,  and  also  notes  not  bearing  interest  to  the 
amount  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars. 
While  this  bill  was  pending,  a  joint  resolution  was 
passed  by  both  Houses,  authorizing  the  issuing  of  treas 
ury  notes  to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  millions  of 
dollars,  to  meet  the  immediate  wants  of  the  soldiers  and 
sailors  in  the  service. 

The  President  announced  that  he  had  signed  this  reso 
lution,  in  the  following 

MESSAGE. 

To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives : — 

I  have  signed  the  joint  resolution  to  provide  for  the  immediate  pay 
ment  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States,  passed  by  the  House 
of  Eepresentatives  on  the  14th,  and  by  the  Senate  on  the  15th  inst. 
The  joint  resolution  is  a  simple  authority,  amounting,  however,  under  the 
existing  circumstances,  to  a  direction  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
make  an  additional  issue  of  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  United 
States  notes,  if  so  much  money  is  needed,  for  the  payment  of  the  army 
and  navy.  My  approval  is  given  in  order  that  every  possible  facility  may 
be  afforded  for  the  prompt  discharge  of  all  arrears  of  pay  due  to  our  sol 
diers  and  our  sailors. 

While  giving  this  approval,  however,  I  think  it  my  duty  to  express  my 
sincere  regret  that  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  authorize  so  large  an 
additional  issue  of  United  States  notes,  when  this  circulation,  and  that  of 
the  suspended  banks  together,  have  become  already  so  redundant  as  to 
increase  prices  beyond  real  values,  thereby  augmenting  the  cost  of  living, 
to  the  injury  of  labor,  and  the  cost  of  supplies — to  the  injury  of  the  whole 
country.  It  seems  very  plain  that  continued  issues  of  United  States  notes, 
without  any  check  to  the  issues  of  suspended  banks,  and  without  adequate 
provision  for  the  raising  of  money  by  loans,  and  for  funding  the  issues,  so 
arf  to  keep  them  within  due  limits,  must  soon  produce  disastrous  conse- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  367 

quences ;  and  this  matter  appears  to  me  so  important  that  I  feel  bound  to 
avail  myself  of  this  occasion  to  ask  the  special  attention  of  Congress  to  it 

That  Congress  has  power  to  regulate  the  currency  of  the  country  can 
hardly  admit  of  doubt,  and  that  a  judicious  measure  to  prevent  the  dete 
rioration  of  this  currency,  by  a  reasonable  taxation  of  bank  circulation 
or  otherwise,  is  needed,  seems  equally  clear.  Independently  of  this  gen 
eral  consideration,  it  would  be  unjust  to  the  people  at  large  to  exempt 
banks  enjoying  the  special  privilege  of  circulation,  from  their  just  propor 
tion  of  the  public  burdens. 

In  order  to  raise  money  by  way  of  loans  most  easily  and  cheaply,  it  is 
clearly  necessary  to  give  every  possible  support  to  the  public  credit.  To 
that  end,  a  uniform  currency,  in  which  taxes,  subscriptions,  loans,  and  all 
other  ordinary  public  dues  may  be  paid,  is  almost  if  not  quite  indispensa 
ble.  Such  a  currency  can  be  furnished  by  banking  associations  authorized 
under  a  general  act  of  Congress,  as  suggested  in  my  message  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  present  session.  The  securing  of  this  circulation  by  the  pledge 
of  the  United  States  bonds,  as  herein  suggested,  would  still  further  facili 
tate  loans,  by  increasing  the  present  and  causing  a  future  demand  for 
such  bonds. 

In  view  of  the  actual  financial  embarrassments  of  the  Government,  and 
of  the  greater  embarrassment  sure  to  come  if  the  necessary  means  of  re 
lief  be  not  afforded,  I  feel  that  I  should  not  perform  my  duty  by  a  simple 
announcement  of  my  approval  of  the  joint  resolution,  which  proposes 
relief  only  by  increasing  the  circulation,  without  expressing  my  earnest 
desire  that  measures,  such  in  substance  as  that  I  have  just  referred  to,  may 
receive  the  early  sanction  of  Congress.  By  such  measures,  in  my  opinion, 
\vill  payment  be  most  certainly  secured,  not  only  to  the  army  and  navy, 
but  to  all  honest  creditors  of  the  Government,  and  satisfactory  provision 
made  for  future  demands  on  the  Treasury. 

ABKAIIAM  LINCOLN. 

The  second  bill — that  to  provide  a  national  currency, 
secured  by  a  pledge  of  United  States  stocks,  and  to  provide 
for  the  circulation  and  redemption  thereof,  was  passed  in 
the  Senate — ayes  twenty -three,  noes  twenty -one  ;  and  in 
the  House,  ayes  seventy-eight,  noes  sixty-four — under 
the  twofold  conviction  that  so  long  as  the  war  continued 
the  country  must  have  a  large  supply  of  paper  money, 
and  that  it  was  also  highly  desirable  that  this  money 
should  be  national  in  its  character,  and  rest  on  the  faith 
of  the  Government  as  its  security. 

Another  act  of  importance,  passed  by  Congress  at  this 
session,  was  the  admission  of  West  Virginia  into  the 
Union.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  declares 


368  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

that  no  new  State  shall  be  formed  within  the  jurisdictioij 
of  any  State  without  the  consent  of  the  legislature  of  the 
State  concerned,  as  well  as  of  the  Congress.  The  main 
question  on  which  the  admission  of  the  new  State  turned, 
therefore,  was  whether  that  State  had  been  formed  with 
the  consent  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia.  The  facts  of 
the  case  were  these  :  In  the  winter  of  1860-61,  the  Legis 
lature  of  Virginia,  convened  in  extra  session,  had  called 
a  convention,  to  be  held  on  the  14th  of  February,  1861, 
at  Richmond,  to  decide  on  the  question  of  secession.  A 
vote  was  also  to  be  taken,  when  the  delegates  to  this  con 
vention  should  be  elected,  to  decide  whether  an  ordinance 
of  secession,  if  passed  by  the  convention,  should  be  re 
ferred  back  to  the  people  ;  and  this  was  decided  in  the 
affirmative,  by  a  majority  of  nearly  sixty  thousand.  The 
convention  met,  and  an  ordinance  of  secession  was  passed, 
and  referred  to  the  people,  at  an  election  to  be  held  on  the 
fourth  Tuesday  of  May.  Without  waiting  for  this  vote, 
the  authorities  of  the  State  levied  war  against  the  United 
States,  joined  the  Rebel  Confederacy,  and  invited  the 
Confederate  armies  to  occupy  portions  of  their  territory. 
A  convention  of  nearly  live  hundred  delegates,  chosen  in 
Western  Virginia  under  a  popular  call,  met  early  in  May, 
declared  the  ordinance  of  secession  null  and  void,  and 
called  another  convention  of  delegates  from  all  the  coun 
ties  of  Virginia,  to  be  held  at  Wheeling,  on  the  llth 
of  June,  in  case  the  secession  ordinance  should  be  rati 
fied  by  the  popular  vote.  It  was  so  ratified,  and  the 
convention  met.  It  proceeded  on  the  assumption  that 
the  officers  of  the  old  Government  of  the  State  had  va 
cated  their  offices  by  joining  the  rebellion  ;  and  it  ac 
cordingly  proceeded  to  fill  them,  and  to  reorganize  the 
Government  of  the  whole  State.  On  the  20th  of  August 
the  convention  passed  an  ordinance  to  "provide  for  the 
formation  of  a  new  State  out  of  a  portion  of  the  territory 
of  this  State."  Under  that  ordinance,  delegates  were 
elected  to  a  convention  which  met  at  Wheeling,  November 
26th,  and  proceeded  to  draft  a  Constitution  for  the  State 
of  West  Virginia,  as  the  new  State  was  named,  which 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  06 9 

was  submitted  to  the  people  of  West  Virginia  in  April, 
1862,  and  by  them  ratified  —  eighteen  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-two  voting  in  favor  of  it,  and  five  hun 
dred  and  fourteen  against  it.  The  Legislature  of  Virginia, 
the  members  of  which  were  elected  by  authority  of  the 
Wheeling  Convention  of  June  llth,  met,  in  extra  session, 
called  by  the  Governor  appointed  by  that  convention,  on 
the  6th  of  May,  1862,  and  passed  an  act  giving  its  consent 
to  the  formation  of  the  new  State,  and  making  application 
to  Congress  for  its  admission  into  the  Union.  The  ques 
tion  to  be  decided  by  Congress,  therefore,  was  whether 
the  legislature  which  met  at  Wheeling  on  the  llth  of  June 
was  "the  Legislature  of  Virginia,"  and  thus  competent 
to  give  its  consent  to  the  formation  of  a  new  State  within 
the  State  of  Virginia.  The  bill  for  admitting  it,  notwith 
standing  the  opposition  of  several  leading  and  influential 
Republicans,  was  passed  in  the  House— ayes  ninety-six, 
noes  fifty -five.  It  passed  in  the  Senate  without  debate, 
and  was  approved  by  the  President  on  the  31st  of  Decem 
ber,  1862,  and  on  the  20th  of  April,  1863,  the  President 
issued  the  following  proclamation  for  the  admission  of  the 
new  State : — 

Whereas,  by  the  act  of  Congress  approved  the  31st  day  of  December  last, 
the  State  of  West  Virginia  was  declared  to  be  one  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  was  admitted  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  States  in  all  respects  whatever,  upon  the  condition  that  certain 
changes  should  be  duly  made  in  the  proposed  Constitution  for  that  State. 
And  whereas,  proof  of  a  compliance  with  that  condition,  as  required  by 
the  second  section  of  the  act  aforesaid,  has  been  submitted  to  me  : 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  kno\\  n  that  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  hereby,  in  pursuance  of  the  act  of  Congress  aforesaid, 
declare  and  proclaim  that  the  said  act  shall  take  eifect  and  be  in  force 
from  and  after  sixty  days  from  the  date  hereof. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twentieth  day  of  April, 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty  - 
[L.  s.]        three,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the 
eighty-seventh.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President  • 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 
24 


370  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

A  "bill  was  brought  forward  in  the  Senate  for  discussion 
on  the  29th  of  January,  proposing  a  grant  of  money  to  aid 
in  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  State  of  Missouri.  It 
gave  rise  to  a  good  deal  of  debate,  some  Senators  doubt 
ing  whether  Congress  had  any  constitutional  right  to  make 
such  an  appropriation,  and  a  marked  difference  of  opinion, 
moreover,  growing  up  as  to  the  propriety  of  gradual  or 
immediate  emancipation  in  that  State.  Mr.  Sumner,  Mr. 
Wilson,  and  several  others,  insisted  that  the  aid  proposed 
should  be  granted  only  on  condition  that  emancipation 
should  be  immediate  ;  while  the  Senators  from  Missouri 
thought  that  the  State  would  be  much  more  certain  to 
provide  for  getting  rid  of  slatery  if  the  time  were  ex 
tended  to  twenty-three  years,  as  the  bill  proposed,  than 
if  she  were  required  to  set  free  all  her  slaves  at  once. 
The  Senators  from  the  slave  States  generally  opposed  the 
measure,  on  the  ground  that  Congress  had  no  authority 
under  the  Constitution  to  appropriate  any  portion  of  the 
public  money  for  such  a  purpose.  The  bill  was  finally 
passed  in  the  Senate,  but  it  failed  to  pass  the  House. 

Two  members  of  Congress  from  the  State  of  Louisiana 
were  admitted  to  seats  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
under  circumstances  which  made  that  action  of  consider 
able  importance.  Immediately  after  the  occupation  of 
New  Orleans  by  the  National  forces  under  General  But 
ler,  the  President  had  appointed  General  Shepley  military 
governor  of  the  State  of  Louisiana.  The  rebel  forces 
were  driven  out  from  the  City  of  New  Orleans,  and  some 
of  the  adjoining  parishes  ;  and  when,  during  the  ensuing 
summer,  the  people  were  invited  to  resume  their  allegiance 
to  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  over  sixty  thou 
sand  came  forward,  took  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  were 
admitted  to  their  rights  as  citizens.  On  the  3d  of  Decem 
ber,  General  Shepley,  acting  as  military  governor  of  the 
State,  ordered  an  election  for  members  of  Congress  in  the 
two  districts  into  which  the  City  of  New  Orleans  is  divi 
ded — each  district  embracing  also  some  of  the  adjoining 
parishes.  In  one  of  these  districts,  B.  F.  Flanders  was 
elected,  receiving  two  thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  371 

votes,  and  all  others  two  hundred  and  seventy-three  ;  and 
in  the  other,  Michael  Hahn  was  elected,  receiving  two 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  ninety-nine  votes  out  of  five 
thousand  one  hundred  and  seventeen,  the  whole  number 
cast.  A  committee  of  the  House,  to  which  the  applica 
tion  of  these  gentlemen  for  admission  to  their  seats  had 
"been  referred,  reported,  on  the  9th  of  February,  in  favor 
of  their  claim.  It  was  represented  in  this  report  that  the 
requirements  of  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Louisiana 
had  in  all  respects  been  complied  with,  the  only  question 
being  whether  a  military  governor,  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  could  properly  and  right 
fully  perform  the  functions  of  the  civil  governor  of  the 
State.  The  committee  held  that  he  could,  and  cited  a  de 
cision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  not  only 
recognizing  the  power  of  the  President  to  appoint  a  mili 
tary  governor,  but  also  recognizing  both  his  civil  and 
military  functions  as  of  full  validity  and  binding  obliga 
tion.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  maintained  that  repre 
sentatives  can  be  elected  to  the  Federal  Legislature  only 
in  pursuance  of  an  act  of  the  State  Legislature,  or  of  an 
act  of  the  Federal  Congress.  In  this  case  neither  of  these 
requirements  had  been  fulfilled.  The  House,  however, 
admitted  both  these  gentlemen  ,to  their  seats,  by  a  vote  of 
ninety-two  to  forty-four. 

Before  adjourning,  Congress  passed  an  act,  approved 
on  the  3d  of  March,  authorizing  the  President,  "in  all 
domestic  and  foreign  wars,"  to  issue  to  private  armed 
vessels  of  the  United  States  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal 
— said  authority  to  terminate  at  the  end  of  three  years 
from  the  date  of  the  act.  Resolutions  were  also  adopted 
in  both  Houses,  protesting  against  every  proposition  of 
foreign  interference,  by  proffers  of  mediation  or  other 
wise,  as  "  unreasonable  and  inadmissible,"  and  declaring 
the  "unalterable  purpose  of  the  United  States  to  prose 
cute  the  war  until  the  rebellion  shall  be  overcome." 
These  resolutions,  offered  by  Mr.  Sumner,  received  in  the 
Senate  thirty-one  votes  in  their  favor,  while  but  five 
were  cast  against  them,  and  in  the  House  one  hundred 


372  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

and  three  were  given  for  their  passage,  and  twenty-eight 
against  it. 

The  session  closed  on  the  4th  of  March,  1863.  Its  pro 
ceedings  had  been  marked  by  the  same  thorough  and 
fixed  determination  to  carry  on  the  war,  by  the  use  of 
the  most  vigorous  and  effective  measures  for  the  suppres 
sion  of  the  rebellion,  and  by  the  same  full  and  prompt 
support  of  the  President,  which  had  characterized  the 
preceding  Congress. 

While  some  members  of  the  Administration  party, 
becoming  impatient  of  the  delays  which  seemed  to  mark 
the  progress  of  the  war,  were  inclined  to  censure  the 
caution  of  the  President,  and  to  insist  upon  bolder  and 
more  sweeping  assaults  upon  the  persons  and  property 
of  the  people  of  the  Rebel  States,  and  especially  upon 
the  institution  of  slavery — and  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
its  more  open  opj.>oneuts  denounced  every  thing  like 
severity,  as  calculated  to  exasperate  the  South  and  pro 
long  the  war,  the  great  body  of  the  members,  like  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  manifested  a  steady  and  firm 
reliance  on  the  patriotic  purpose  and  the  calm  sagacity 
evinced  by  the  President  in  his  conduct  of  public  affairs. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  373 


CHAPTER  XII. 

ARBITRARY    ARRESTS.— THE     SUSPENSION"      OF     THE     WRIT     OF 
HABEAS  CORPUS.— THE  DRAFT. 

AEBITRARY  ARRESTS. — FIRST  SUSPENSION  OF  THE  HABEAS  CORPUS. — AID 
AND  COMFORT  TO  THE  EEBELS. — EXECUTIVE  ORDER  ABOUT  ARRESTS. 
—APPOINTMENT  OF  A  COMMISSIONER  ON  ARRESTS. — OPPOSITION  TO  THE 
GOVERNMENT. — THE  CASE  OF  VALLANDIGHAM. — GOVERNOR  SEYMOUR 
ON  VALLANDIGHAM. — PRESIDENT  LINCOLN  ON  ARRESTS. — PRESIDENT 
LINCOLN  ON  MILITARY  ARRESTS. — THE  PRESIDENT'S  LETTER  TO  MR. 
CORNIN^.— THE  PRESIDENT  TO  TIIE  Onio  COMMITTEE.— THE  PRESIDENT 
ON  VALLANDIGHAM'S  CASE.— THE  HABEAS  CORPUS  SUSPENDED.— 
PROCLAMATION  CONCERNING  ALIENS.— THE  DRAFT.— THE  NEW  YORK 
RIOTS.— LETTER  TO  GOVERNOR  SEYMOUR. — THE  DRAFT  EESUMED  AND 
COMPLETED. 

AT  the  very  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  the  Administra 
tion  was  compelled  to  face  one  of  the  most  formidable 
of  the  many  difficulties  which  haye  embarrassed  its 
iction.  Long  before  the  issue  had  been  distinctly  made 
by  the  rebels  in  the  Southern  States,  while,  under  the 
protecting  toleration  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Administration, 
the  conspirators  were  making  preparations  for  armed 
resistance  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  evi 
dences  were  not  wanting  that  they  relied  upon  the  active 
co-operation  of  men  and  parties  in  the  Northern  States, 
whose  political  sympathies  had  always  been  in  harmony 
with  their  principles  and  their  action.  As  early  as  in 
January,  1861,  while  the  rebels  were  diligently  and 
actively  collecting  arms  and  other  munitions  of  war,  by 
purchase  in  the  Northern  States,  for  the  contest  on  which 
they  had  resolved,  Fernando  Wood,  then  Mayor  of  New 
York,  had  apologized  to  Senator  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  for 
the  seizure  by  the  police  of  New  York  of  "  arms  intended 
for  and  consigned  to  the  State  of  Georgia,"  and  had 
assured  him  that  "if  he  had  the  power,  he  should  sum 
marily  punish  the  authors  of  this  illegal  and  unjustifiable 


374  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

seizure  of  private  property."  The  departments  at  Wash 
ington,  the  army  and  the  navy,  all  places  of  responsi 
bility  and  trust  under  the  Government,  and  all  depart 
ments  of  civil  and  political  activity  in  the  Northern 
States,  were  found  to  be  largely  filled  by  persons  in 
active  sympathy  with  the  secession  movement,  and  ready 
at  all  times  to  give  it  all  the  aid  and  comfort  in  their 
power.  Upon  the  advent  of  the  new  Administration, 
and  when  active  measures  began  to  be  taken  for  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion,  the  Government  found  its  plans 
betrayed  and  its  movements  thwarted  at  every  turn. 
Prominent  presses  and  politicians,  moreover,  throughout 
the  country,  began,  by  active  hostility,  to  indicate  their 
sympathy  with  those  who  sought,  under  cover  of  oppo 
sition  to  the  Administration,  to  overthrow  the  Govern 
ment,  and  it  became  speedily  manifest  that  there  was  suf 
ficient  of  treasonable  sentiment  throughout  the  North  to 
paralyze  the  authorities  in  their  efforts,  aided  only  by  the 
ordinary  machinery  of  the  law,  to  crush  the  secession 
movement. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  was  deemed  necessary  to 
resort  to  the  exercise  of  the  extraordinary  powers  with 
which,  in  extraordinary  emergencies,  the  Constitution 
had  clothed  the  Government.  That  instrument  had  pro 
vided  that  ' '  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  liabeas  corpus 
should  not  be  suspended,  unless  when,  in  cases  of  rebel 
lion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  might  require  it."  By 
necessary  implication,  whenever,  in  such  cases  either  of 
rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  did  require  it,  the 
privilege  of  that  writ  might  be  suspended  ;  and,  from 
the  very  necessity  of  the  case,  the  Government  which 
was  charged  with  the  care  of  the  public  safety,  was  em 
powered  to  judge  when  the  contingency  should  occur. 
The  only  question  that  remained  was,  wJiicJi  department 
of  the  Government  was  to  meet  this  responsibility.  If 
the  act  was  one  of  legislation,  it  could  only  be  performed 
by  Congress  and  the  President ;  if  it  was  in  its  nature 
executive,  then  it  might  be  performed,  the  emergency  re 
quiring  it,  by  the  President  alone.  The  pressing  emer- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  375 

gency  of  the  case,  moreover,  went  far  towards  dictating  the 
decision.  Congress  had  adjourned  on  the  4th  of  March, 
and  could  not  be  again  assembled  for  some  months ; 
and  infinite  and,  perhaps  fatal  mischief  might  be  done 
during  the  interval,  if  the  Northern  allies  of  the  rebellion 
were  allowed  with  impunity  to  prosecute  their  plans. 

Under  the  influence  of  these  considerations,  the  Presi 
dent,  in  his  proclamation  of  the  .3d  of  May,  1861,  direct 
ing  the  commander  of  the  forces  of  the  United  States  on 
the  Florida  coast  to  permit  no  person  to  exercise  any 
authority  upon  the  islands  of  Key  West,  the  Tortugas, 
and  Santa  Rosa,  which  might  be  inconsistent  with  the 
authority  of  the.  United  States,  also  authorized  him,  "if 
he  should  find  it  necessary,  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  and  to  remove  from  the  vicinity  of  the  United 
States  fortresses  all  dangerous  or  suspected  persons." 
This  was  the  first  act  of  the  Administration  in  that 
direction  ;  but  it  was  very  soon  found  necessary  to  resort 
to  the  exercise  of  the  same  powers  in  other  sections  of  the 
country.  On  the  25th  of  May,  John  Merryman,  a  resi 
dent  of  Hayfield,  in  Baltimore  County,  Maryland,  known 
by  the  Government  to  be  in  communication  with  the 
rebels,  and  to  be  giving  them  aid  and  comfort,  was 
arrested  and  imprisoned  in  Fort  McHenry,  then  com 
manded  by  General  Cadwallader.  On  the  same  day  he 
forwarded  a  petition  to  Roger  B.  Taney,  Chief- Justice  of 
the  United  States,  reciting  the  circumstances  of  his  arrest, 
and  praying  for  the  issue  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 
The  writ  was  forthwith  issued,  and  General  Cadwallader 
was  ordered  to  bring  the  body  of  Merryman  before  the 
Chief-Justice  on  the  27th.  On  that  day  Colonel  Lee  pre 
sented  a  written  communication  from  General  Cadwalla 
der,  stating  that  Merryman  had  been  arrested  and  com 
mitted  to  his  custody  by  officers  acting  under  the  author 
ity  of  the  United  States,  charged  with  various  acts  of 
treason:  with  holding  a  commission  as  lieutenant  in  a 
company  avowing  its  purpose  of  armed  hostility  against 
the  Government,  and  with  having  made  often  and  unre 
served  declarations  of  his  association  with  this  arme*. 


376  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

force,  and  of  his  readiness  to  co-operate  with  those  en 
gaged  in  the  present  rebellion  against  the  Government 
of  the  United  States.  The  General  added,  that  he  was 
"  duly  authorized  by  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  for  the  public 
safety  ;*'  and  that,  while  he  fully  appreciated  the  deli 
cacy  of  the  trust,  he  was  also  instructed  "that,  in  times 
of  civil  strife,  errors,  if  any,  should  be  on  the  side  of 
safety  to  the  country."  The  commanding  General  ac 
cordingly  declined  to  obey  the  writ,  whereupon  an 
attachment  was  forthwith  issued  against  him  for  con 
tempt  of  court,  made  returnable  at  noon  on  the  next  day. 
On  that  day,  the  marshal  charged  with  serving  the  at 
tachment  made  return  that  he  was  not  admitted  within 
the  fortress,  and  had  consequently  been  unable  to  serve 
the  writ.  The  Chief- Justice,  thereupon,  read  an  opinion 
that  the  President  could  not  suspend  the  writ  of  Jiabeas 
corpus,  nor  authorize  any  military  officer  to  do  so,  and 
that  a  military  officer  had  no  right  to  arrest  any  person, 
not  subject  to  the  rules  and  articles  of  war,  for  an  oifence 
against  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  except  in  aid  of 
the  judicial  authority,  and  subject  to  its  control.  The 
Chief- Justice  stated  further,  that  the  marshal  had  the 
power  to  summon  out  the  posse  comitatus  to  enforce  the 
service  of  the  writ,  but  as  it  was  apparent  that  it  would 
be  resisted  by  a  force  notoriously  superior,  the  Court 
could  do  nothing  further  in  the  premises. 

On  the  12th  of  May,  another  writ  was  issued  by  Judge 
Giles,  of  Baltimore,  to  Major  Morris,  of  the  United  States 
Artillery,  at  Fort  McHenry,  who,  in  a  letter  dated  the 
14th,  refused  to  obey  the  writ,  because,  at  the  time  it  was 
issued,  and  for  two  weeks  previous,  the  City  of  Balti 
more  had  been  completely  under  the  control  of  the  rebel 
authorities,  United  States  soldiers  had  been  murdered  in 
the  streets,  the  intention  to  capture  that  fort  had  been 
openly  proclaimed,  and  the  legislature  of  the  State  was 
at  that  moment  debating  the  question  of  making  war 
upon  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  All  this,  in 
his  judgment,  constituted  a  case  of  rebellion,  and  afford- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  377 

ed  sufficient  legal  cause  for  suspending  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus.  Similar  cases  arose,  and  were  disposed  of  in  a 
similar  manner,  in  other  sections  of  the  country. 

The  Governor  of  Virginia  had  proposed  to  Mr.  G. 
Heincken,  of  New  York,  the  agent  of  the  New  York  and 
Virginia  Steamship  Company,  payment  for  two  steamers 
of  that  line,  the  Yorktown  and  Jamestown,  which  he  had 
seized  for  the  rebel  service,  an  acceptance  of  which  proffer, 
Mr.  Heincken  was  informed,  would  be  treated  as  an  act 
of  treason  to  the  Government ;  and  on  his  application, 
Mr.  Seward,  the  Secretary  of  State,  gave  him  the  follow 
ing  reasons  for  this  decision  : — 

An  insurrection  has  broken  out  in  several  of  the  States  of  this  Union, 
including  Virginia,  designed  to  overthrow  the  Government  of  the  United 
States.  The  executive  authorities  of  that  State  are  parties  to  that  insur 
rection,  and  so  are  public  enemies.  Their  action  in  seizing  or  buying 
vessels  to  be  employed  in  executing  that  design,  is  not  merely  without 
authority  of  law,  but  is  treason.  It  is  treason  for  any  person  to  givo 
aid  and  comfort  to  public  enemies.  To  sell  vessels  to  them  which  it  is 
their  purpose  to  use  as  ships  of  war,  is  to  give  them  aid  and  comfort.  To 
receive  money  from  them  in  payment  for  vessels  which  they  have  seized 
for  those  purposes,  would  be  to  attempt  to  convert  the  unlawful  seizure 
into  a  sale,  and  would  subject  the  party  so  offending  to  the  pains  arid 
penalties  of  treason,  and  the  Government  would  not  hesitate  to  bring  the 
offender  to  punishment. 

These  acts  and  decisions  of  the  Government  were  vehe 
mently  assailed  by  the  party  opponents  of  the  Adminis 
tration,  and  led  to  the  most  violent  and  intemperate 
assaults  upon  the  Government  in  many  of  the  public 
prints.  Some  of  these  journals  were  refused  the  privi 
lege  of  the  public  mails,  the  Government  not  holding 
itself  under  any  obligation  to  aid  in  circulating  assaults 
upon  its  own  authority,  and  stringent  restrictions  were 
placed  upon  the  transmission  of  intelligence  by  telegraph. 
On  the  5th  of  July,  1862,  Attorney -General  Bates  trans 
mitted  to  the  President  an  elaborate  opinion,  prepared  at 
his  request,  upon  his  power  to  make  arrests  of  persons 
known  to  have  criminal  complicity  with  the  insurgents, 
or  against  whom  there  is  probable  cause  for  suspicion 
of  such  criminal  complicity,  and  also  upon  his  right  to 


378  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

refuse  to  obey  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  case  of  such 
arrests.  The  Attorney- General  discussed  the  subject  at 
considerable  length,  and  reached  a  conclusion  favorable 
to  the  action  of  the  Government.  From  that  time  for 
ward  the  Government  exerted,  with  vigor  and  energy,  all 
the  power  thus  placed  in  its  hands  to  prevent  the  rebel 
lion  from  receiving  aid  from  those  in  sympathy  with  its 
objects  in  the  Northern  States.  A  large  number  of 
persons,  believed  to  be  in  complicity  with  the  insurgents, 
were  placed  in  arrest,  but  were  released  upon  taking  an 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States  Baltimore  con 
tinued  for  some  time  to  be  the  head-quarteis  of  conspira 
cies  and  movements  of  various  kinds  in  aid  of  the  rebel 
lion,  and  the  arrests  were  consequently  more  numerous 
there  than  elsewher*  Indeed,  very  strenuous  efforts 
were  made  throughout  the  summer  to  induce  some  action 
on  the  part  of  the  legislature  which  wuiild  place  the  State 
in  alliance  with  the  Rebel  Confederacy,  and  it  was  confi 
dently  believed  that  an  ordinance  looking  to  this  end 
would  be  passed  at  the  extra  session  which  was  convened 
for  the  17th  of  September ;  but  on  the  16th,  nine  secession 
members  of  the  House  of  Delegates,  with  the  officers  of 
both  houses,  were  arrested  by  General  McClellan,  then 
in  command  of  the  army,  who  expressed  his  full  appro 
bation  of  the  proceedings,  and  the  session  was  not  held. 

The  President  at  the  time  gave  the  following  statement 
of  his  views  in  regard  to  these  arrests  : — 

The  public  safety  renders  it  necessary  that  the  grounds  of  these  arrests 
should  at  present  be  withheld,  but  at  the  proper  time  they  will  be  made 
public.  Of  one  thing  the  people  of  Maryland  may  rest  assured,  that  no 
arrest  has  been  made,  or  will  be  made,  not  based  on  substantial  and  un 
mistakable  complicity  with  those  in  armed  rebellion  against  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States.  In  no  case  has  an  arrest  been  made  on  mero 
suspicion,  or  through  personal  or  partisan  animosities ;  but  in  all  cases 
the  Government  is  in  possession  of  tangible  and  unmistakable  evidence, 
which  will,  when  made  public,  be  satisfactory  to  every  loyal  citizen. 

Arrests  continued  to  be  made  under  authority  of  the 
State  Department,  not  without  complaint,  certainly,  from 
large  numbers  of  the  people,  but  with  the  general  acqui- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  379 

escence  of  the  whole  community,  and  beyond  all  question 
greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  Government  and  the  coun 
try.  On  the  14th  of  February,  1862,  an  order  was  issued 
on  the  subject,  which  transferred  control  of  the  whole 
matter  to  the  War  Department.  The  circumstances  which 
had  made  these  arrests  necessary  are  stated  with  so  much 
clearness  and  force  in  that  order,  that  we  insert  it  at 
length,  as  follows  : — 


EXECUTIVE    ORDERS    IN   RELATION    TO    STATE    PRISONERS. 

WAB  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  February  14. 

The  breaking  out  of  a  formidable  insurrection,  based  on  a  conflict  of 
political  ideas,  being  an  event  without  precedent  in  the  United  States, 
was  necessarily  attended  by  great  confusion  and  perplexity  of  the  public 
mind.  Disloyalty,  before  unsuspected,  suddenly  became  bold,  and  treason 
astonished  the  world  by  bringing  at  once  into  the  field  military  forces 
superior  in  numbers  to  the  standing  army  of  the  United  States. 

Every  department  of  the  Government  was  paralyzed  by  treason.  De 
fection  appeared  in  the  Senate,  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  the 
Cabinet,  in  the  Federal  Courts;  ministers  and  consuls  returned  from 
foreign  countries  to  enter  the  insurrectionary  councils,  or  land  or  naval 
forces;  commanding  and  other  officers  of  the  army  and  in  the  navy  be 
trayed  the  councils  or  deserted  their  posts  for  commands  in  the  insurgent 
forces.  Treason  was  flagrant  in  the  revenue  and  in  the  post-oflftce  service, 
as  well  as  in  the  Territorial  governments  and  in  the  Indian  reserves. 

Not  only  governors,  judges,  legislators,  and  ministerial  officers  in  the 
States,  but  even  whole  States,  rushed,  one  after  another,  with  apparent 
unanimity,  into  rebellion.  The  Capital  was  besieged,  and  its  connection 
with  all  the  States  cut  off. 

Even  in  the  portions  of  the  country  which  were  most  loyal,  political 
combinations  and  secret  societies  were  formed,  furthering  the  work  ot 
disunion,  while,  from  motives  of  disloyalty  or  cupidity,  or  from  excited 
passions  or  perverted  sympathies,  individuals  were  found  furnishing  men, 
money,  and  materials  of  war  and  supplies  to  the  insurgents'  military  and 
naval  forces.  Armies,  ships,  fortifications,  navy  yards,  arsenals,  military 
posts  and  garrisons,  one  after  another,  were  betrayed  or  abandoned  to  the 
insurgents. 

Congress  had  not  anticipated  and  so  had  not  provided  for  the  emergency. 
The  municipal  authorities  were  powerless  and  inactive.  The  judicial  ma 
chinery  seemed  as  if  it  had  been  designed  not  to  sustain  the  Government, 
but  to  embarrass  and  betray  it. 

Foreign  intervention,  openly  invited  and  industriously  instigated  by  the 
abettors  of  the  insurrection,  became  imminent,  and  has  only  been  pre- 


380  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

vented  by  the  practice  of  strict  and  impartial  justice,  with  the  most  perfect 
moderation  in  our  intercourse  with  nations. 

The  public  mind  was  alarmed  and  apprehensive,  though  fortunately 
not  distracted  or  disheartened.  It  seemed  to  be  doubtful  whether  the 
Federal  Government,  which  one  year  before  had  been  thought  a  model 
worthy  of  universal  acceptance,  had  indeed  the  ability  to  defend  and 
maintain  itself. 

Some  reverses,  which  perhaps  were  unavoidable,  suffered  by  newly 
levied  and  inefficient  forces,  discouraged  the  loyal,  and  gave  new  hopes 
to  the  insurgents.  Voluntary  enlistments  seemed  about  to  cease,  and 
desertions  commenced.  Parties  speculated  upon  the  question  whether 
conscription  had  not  become  necessary  to  fill  up  the  armies  of  the  United 
States. 

In  this  emergency  the  President  felt  it  his  duty  to  employ  with  energy 
the  extraordinary  powers  which  the  Constitution  confides  to  him  in  cases. 
of  insurrection.  He  called  into  the  field  such  military  and  naval  forces, 
unauthorized  by  the  existing  laws,  as  seemed  necessary.  He  directed 
measures  to  prevent  the  use  of  the  post-office  for  treasonable  correspond 
ence.  He  subjected  passengers  to  and  from  foreign  countries  to  new 
passport  regulations,  and  he  instituted  a  blockade,  suspended  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  in  various  places,  and  caused  persons  who  were  represented 
to  him  as  being  or  about  to  engage  in  disloyal  or  treasonable  practices  to 
be  arrested  by  special  civil  as  well  as  military  agencies,  and  detained  in 
military  custody,  when  necessary,  to  prevent  them  and  deter  others  from 
such  practices.  Examinations  of  such  cases  were  instituted,  and  some  of 
the  persons  so  arrested  have  been  discharged  from  time  to  time,  under 
circumstances  or  upon  conditions  compatible,  as  was  thought,  with  the 
public  safety. 

Meantime  a  favorable  change  of  public  opinion  has  occurred.  The  line 
between  loyalty  and  disloyalty  is  plainly  defined ;  the  whole  structure  of 
the  Government  is  firm  and  stable ;  apprehensions  of  public  danger  and 
facilities  for  treasonable  practices  have  diminished  with  the  passions  which 
prompted  heedless  persons  to  adopt  them.  The  insurrection  is  believed 
to  have  culminated  and  to  be  declining. 

The  President,  in  view  of  these  facts,  and  anxious  to  favor  a  return  io 
the  normal  course  of  the  Administration,  as  far  as  regard  for  the  public 
welfare  will  allow,  directs  that  all  political  prisoners  or  state  prisoners 
now  held  in  military  custody,  be  released  on  their  subscribing  to  a  parole 
engaging  them  to  render  no  aid  or  comfort  to  the  enemies  in  hostility  to 
the  United  States. 

The  Secretary  of  War  will,  however,  at  his  discretion,  except  from  the 
effect  of  this  order  any  persons  detained  as  spies  in  the  service  of  the  in 
surgents,  or  others  whose  release  at  the  present  moment  may  be  deemed 
Incompatible  with  the  public  safety. 

To  all  persons  who  shall  be  so  released,  and  who  shall  keep  their  parole. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  381 

the  President  grants  an  amnesty  for  any  past  offences  of  treason  or  dis 
loyalty  which  they  may  have  committed. 

Extraordinary  arrests  will  hereafter  be  made  under  the  direction  of  the 
military  authorities  alone. 

By  order  of  the  President : 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

On  the  27th  of  the  same  month,  a  commission  was  ap 
pointed  by  the  War  Department,  consisting  of  Major- 
General  Dix  and  Hon.  Edwards  Pierrepont,  of  New 
York,  to  examine  into  the  cases  of  the  state  prisoners 
then  remaining  in  custody,  and  to  determine  whether,  in 
view  of  the  public  safety  and  the  existing  rebellion,  they 
should  be  discharged,  or  remain  in  arrest,  or  be  remitted 
to  the  civil  tribunals  for  trial.  These  gentlemen  entered 
at  once  upon  the  discharge  of  their  duties,  and  a  large 
number  of  prisoners  were  released  from  custody  on  taking 
the  oath  of  allegiance.  Wherever  the  public  safety 
seemed  to  require  it,  however,  arrests  continued  to  be 
made — the  President,  in  every  instance,  assuming  all  the 
responsibility  of  these  acts,  and  throwing  himself  upon 
the  courts  and  the  judgment  of  the  country  for  his  vindi 
cation.  But  the  President  himself  had  not  up  to  this  time 
directed  any  general  suspension*  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  or  given  any  public  notice  of  the  rules  by  which 
the  Government  would  be  guided  in  its  action  upon  cases 
that  might  arise.  It  was  left  to  the  Secretary  of  War  to 
decide  in  what  instances  and  for  what  causes  arrests  should 
be  made,  and  the  privilege  of  the  writ  should  be  sus 
pended.  In  some  of  the  courts  into  which  these  cases 
were  brought,  the  ground  was  accordingly  taken  that, 
although  the  President  might  have  authority  under  the 
Constitution,  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the 
public  safety  should  require  it,  to  suspend  the  writ,  he 
could  not  delegate  that  authority  to  any  subordinate.  To 
meet  this  view,  therefore,  the  President,  on  the  24th  of 
September,  1862,  issued  the  following 

PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  it  has  been  necessary  to  call  into  service,  not  only  volunteers, 
v>ut  also  portions  of  the, militia  of  the  States  by  draft,  in  order  to  suppress 


382  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  insurrection  existing  in  the  United  States,  and  disloyal  persons  are 
not  adequately  restrained  by  the  ordinary  processes  of  law  from  hindering 
this  measure,  and  from  giving  aid  and  comfort  in  various  ways  to  the  in 
surrection  : 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  ordered — 

First.  That  during  the  existing  insurrection,  and  as  a  necessary  measure 
for  suppressing  the  same,  all  rebels  and  insurgents,  their  aiders  and  abettors, 
within  the  United  States,  and  all  persons  discouraging  volunteer  enlist 
ments,  resisting  military  drafts,  or  guilty  of  any  disloyal  practice  affording 
aid  and  comfort  to  the  rebels  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States, 
shall  be  subject  to  martial  law,  and  liable  to  trial  and  punishment  by 
courts-martial  or  military  commission. 

Second.  That  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  suspended  in  respect  to  all 
persons  arrested,  or  who  are  now,  or  hereafter  during  the  rebellion  shall 
be,  imprisoned  in  any  fort,  camp,  arsenal,  military  prison,  or  other  place 
of  confinement,  by  any  military  authority,  or  by  the  sentence  of  any 
court-martial  or  military  commission. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  seal,  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twenty-fourth  day  of 
September,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hun- 
LL.  s.]         dred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United 
States  the  eighty-seventh. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President : 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWAKB,  Secretary  of  State. 

This  proclamation  was  accompanied  "by  orders  from  the 
War  Department  appointing  a  Provost-Marshal-General, 
whose  head-quarters  were  to  be  at  Washington,  with 
special  provost-marshals,  one  or  more  in  each  State, 
charged  with  the  duty  of  arresting  deserters  and  disloyal 
persons,  and  of  inquiring  into  treasonable  practices 
throughout  the  country.  They  were  authorized  to  call 
upon  either  the  civil  or  military  authority  for  aid  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duties,  and  were  required  to  report  to 
the  department  at  Washington.  The  creation  of  this  new 
department  had  been  made  necessary  by  the  increased 
activity  of  the  enemies  of  the  Government  throughout  the 
North,  and  by  the  degree  of  success  which  had  attended 
their  efforts.  Prompted  partly  by  merely  political  and 
partisan  motives,  but  in  many  instances  by  thorough  sym 
pathy  with  the  secession  movement,  active  political  lead- 


\ 

STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  38 b 

ers  had  set  in  vigorous  motion  very  extensive  machinery 
for  the  advancement  of  their  designs.  ' '  Peace-meetings ' ' 
were  held  in  every  section  of  the  Northern  States,  at  whicli 
the  action  of  the  Government  was  most  vehemently  as 
sailed,  the  objects  of  the  war  were  misrepresented,  and  its 
prosecution  denounced,  and  special  efforts  made  to  prevent 
enlistments,  to  promote  desertions,  and  in  every  way  to 
cripple  the  Government  in  its  efforts  to  subdue  the  rebel 
lion  by  force  of  arms.  The  vigorous  action  of  the  Gov 
ernment,  however,  in  arresting  men  conspicuous  in  these 
disloyal  practices,  had  created  a  salutary  reaction  in  the 
public  mind,  and  had  so  far  relieved  the  Administration 
from  apprehension  as  to  warrant  the  promulgation  of  thf 
following  order  :— 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  November  22,  1S62. 

Ordered — 1.  That  all  persons  now  in  military  custody,  who  have  been 
arrested  for  discouraging  volunteer  enlistments,  opposing  the  draft,  or  for 
otherwise  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy,  in  States  where  the  draft 
has  been  made,  or  the  quota  of  volunteers  and  militia  has  been  furnished, 
shall  be  discharged  from  further  military  restraint. 

2.  The  persons  who,  by  the  authority  of  the  military  commander  or 
governor  in  rebel  States,  have  been  arrested  and  sent  from  such  State  foi 
disloyalty  or  hostility  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  are 
now  in  military  custody,  may  also  be  discharged  upon  giving  their  parole 
to  do  no  act  of  hostility  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  nor 
render  aid  to  its  enemies.  But  all  such  persons  shall  remain  subject  to 
military  surveillance  and  liable  to  arrest  on  breach  of  their  parole.  And 
if  any  such  persons  shall  prefer  to  leave  the  loyal  States  on  condition  of 
their  not  returning  again  during  the  war,  or  until  special  leave  for  that 
purpose  be  obtained  from  the  President,  then  such  persons  shall,  at  his 
option,  be  released  and  depart  from  the  United  States,  or  be  conveyed 
beyond  the  military  lines  of  the  United  States  forces. 

8.  This  order  shall  not  operate  to  discharge  any  person  who  has  been  in 
arms  against  the  Government,  or  by  force  and  arms  has  resisted  or  at 
tempted  to  resist  the  draft,  nor  relieve  any  person  from  liability  to  trial 
s,nd  punishment  by  civil  tribunals,  or  by  court-martial  or  military  commis 
sion,  who  may  be  amenable  to  such  tribunals  for  offences  committed. 

By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War : 

E.  D.  TOWXSEND,  Assistant  Adjutant- General. 

During  the  succeeding  winter,  while  Congress  was  in 
session,  public  sentiment  was  comparatively  at  rest  on  this 


384  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

subject.  Congress  had  enacted  a  law,  sanctioning  the 
action  of  the  President  in  suspending  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  and  clothing  him  with  full  authority  to  check  and 
punish  all  attempts  to  defeat  the  efforts  of  the  Government 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  After  the  adjournment, 
however,  when  the  political  activity  of  the  country  was 
transferred  from  the  Capital  to  the  people  in  their  respec 
tive  localities,  the  party  agitation  was  revived,  and  public 
meetings  were  again  held  to  denounce  the  conduct  of  the 
Government,  and  to  protest  against  the  further  prosecu 
tion  of  the  war.  One  of  the  most  active  of  these  advo 
cates  of  peace  with  the  Rebel  Confederacy  was  Hon.  C.  L. 
Vallandigham,  a  member  of  Congress  from  Ohio,  who  had 
steadily  opposed  all  measures  for  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  throughout  the  session.  After  the  adjournment  he 
made  a  political  canvass  of  his  district,  and  in  a  speech  at 
Mount  Yernon,  on  the  1st  of  May,  he  denounced  the  Gov 
ernment  at  Washington  as  aiming,  in  the  conduct  of  the 
war,  not  to  restore  the  Union,  but  to  crush  out  liberty  and 
establish  a  despotism.  He  declared  that  the  war  was 
waged  for  the  freedom  of  the  blacks  and  the  enslaving  of 
the  whites — that  the  Government  could  have  had  peace 
long  before  if  it  had  desired  it — that  the  mediation  of 
France  ought  to  have  been  accepted,  and  that  the  Govern 
ment  had  deliberately  rejected  propositions  by  which  the 
Southern  States  could  have  been  brought  back  to  the 
Union.  He  also  denounced  an  order,  No.  38,  issued  by 
General  Burnside,  in  command  of  the  department,  forbid 
ding  certain  disloyal  practices,  and  giving  notice  that  per 
sons  declaring  sympathy  for  the  enemy  would  be  arrested 
for  trial,  proclaimed  his  intention  to  disobey  it,  and  called 
on  the  people  who  heard  him  to  resist  and  defeat  its  exe 
cution. 

For  this  speech  Mr.  Vallandigham  was  arrested,  by  order 
of  General  Burnside,  on  the  4th  of  May,  and  ordered  for 
trial  before  a  court-martial  at  Cincinnati.  On  the  5th,  he 
applied,  through  his  counsel,  Senator  Pugh,  to  the  Circuit 
Court  of  the  United  States  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
In  reply  to  this  application,  a  letter  was  read  from  Gen- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  385 

eral  Burnside,  setting  forth  the  considerations  which  had 
led  him  to  make  the  arrest,  and  Vallandigham's  counsel 
was  then  heard  in  a  very  long  argument  on  the  case. 
Judge  Stewart  pronounced  his  decision,  refusing  the  writ, 
on  the  ground  that  the  action  of  General  Burnside  was 
necessary  for  the  public  safety.  "  The  legality  of  the  ar- 
vest,"  said  the  judge,  "  depends  upon  the  extent  of  the 
necessity  for  making  it,  and  that  was  to  be  determined  by 
the  military  commander."  And  he  adds— 

Men  should  know  and  lay  the  truth  to  heart,  that  there  is  a  course  of 
conduct  not  involving  overt  treason,  and  not  therefore  subject  to  punish 
ment  as  such,  which,  nevertheless,  implies  moral  guilt,  and  a  gross  offence 
against  the  country.  Those  who  live  under  the  protection  and  enjoy  the 
blessings  of  our  benignant  Government,  must  learn  that  they  cannot  stab 
its  vitals  with  impunity.  If  they  cherish  hatred  and  hostility  to  it,  and 
desire  its  subversion,  let  them  withdraw  from  its  jurisdiction,  and  seek  the 
fellowship  and  protection  of  those  with  whom  they  are  in  sympathy.  If 
they  remain  with  us,  while  they  are  not  of  us,  they  must  be  subject  to 
such  a  course  of  dealing  as  the  great  law  of  self-preservation  prescribes 
and  will  enforce.  And  let  them  not  complain  if  the  stringent  doctrine  of 
military  necessity  should  find  them  to  be  the  legitimate  subjects  of  its 
action.  I  have  no  fear  that  the  recognition  of  this  doctrine  will  lead  to 
an  arbitrary  invasion  of  the  personal  security,  or  personal  liberty,  of  the 
citizen.  It  is  rare  indeed  that  a  charge  of  disloyalty  will  be  made  on 
insufficient  grounds.  But  if  there  should  be  an  occasional  mistake,  such 
an  occurrence  is  not  to  be  put  in  competition  with  the  preservation  of  the 
nation ;  and  I  confess  I  am  but  little  moved  by  the  eloquent  appeals  of 
those  who,  while  they  indignantly  denounce  violation  of  personal  liberty, 
look  with  no  horror  upon  a  despotism  as  unmitigated  as  the  world  has 
ever  witnessed. 

The  military  commission,  before  which  Vallandigham 
was  ordered  for  trial,  met  on  the  6th,  found  him  guilty  of 
the  principal  offences  charged,  and  sentenced  him  to  be 
placed  in  close  confinement  in  some  fortress  of  the  United 
States,  to  be  designated  by  the  commanding  officer  of  that 
department.  Maj or- General  Burnside  approved  the  sen 
tence,  and  designated  Fort  Warren,  in  Boston  Harbor,  as 
the  place  of  confinement.  The  President  modified  this 
sentence  by  directing  that,  instead  of  being  imprisoned, 
Mr.  Vallandigham  should  be  sent  within  the  rebel  lines, 
and  should  not  return  to  the  United  States  until  after  the 


386  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

termination  of  the  war.    This  sentence  was  at  once  carried 
into  execution. 

The  arrest,  trial,  and  sentence  of  Mr.  Yallandigha.™ 
created  a  good  deal  of  excitement  throughout  the  country. 
The  opponents  of  the  Administration  treated  it  as  a  case 
of  martyrdom,  and  held  public  meetings  for  the  purpose 
of  denouncing  the  action  of  the  Government  as  tyrannical 
and  highly  dangerous  to  the  public  liberties.  One  of  the 
earliest  of  these  demonstrations  was  held  at  Albany,  N.  Y., 
on  the  16th  of  May,  at  which  Hon.  Erastus  Corning  pre 
sided,  and  to  which  Governor  Seymour  addressed  a  letter, 
expressing  in  the  strongest  terms  his  condemnation  of  the 
course  pursued  by  the  Government.  "If  this  proceed 
ing,"  said  he,  speaking  of  the  arrest  of  Yallandigham,  "is 
approved  by  the  Government,  and  sanctioned  by  the 
people,  it  is  not  merely  a  step  towards  revolution — it  is 
revolution.  It  will  not  only  lead  to  military  despotism- 
it  establishes  military  despotism.  In  this  aspect  it  must 
be  accepted,  or  in  this  aspect  rejected.  *  *  *  The 
people  of  this  country  now  wait  with  the  deepest  anxiety 
the  decision  of  the  Administration  upon  these  acts.  Hav 
ing  given  it  a  generous  support  in  the  conduct  of  the  war, 
we  pause  to  see  what  kind  of  a  government  it  is  for  which 
we  are  asked  to  pour  out  our  blood  and  our  treasure. 
The  action  of  the  Administration  will  determine,  in  the 
minds  of  more  than  one-half  of  the  people  of  the  loyal 
States,  whether  this  war  is  waged  to  put  down  rebellion 
at  the  South,  or  destroy  free  institutions  at  the  North." 
The  resolutions  which  were  adopted  at  this  meeting 
pledged  the  Democratic  party  of  the  State  to  the  preser 
vation  of  the  Union,  but  condemned  in  strong  terms  the 
whole  system  of  arbitrary  arrests,  and  the  suspension  of 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 

A  copy  of  these  resolutions  was  forwarded  by  the  pre 
siding  officer  to  President  Lincoln,  who  sent  the  follow 
ing  letter  in  reply  :— 

EXEOUTIYE  MANSIOX,  "WASHINGTON,  Jltne  13, 1863. 

Hon.  EBASTTS  CORNING  AND  OTHEKS: 

Gentlemen: — Your  letter  of  May  19?  enclosing  the  resolutions  of  u  pub 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  387 

lie  meeting  held  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  on  the  16th  of  the  same  month,  was 
received  several  days  ago. 

The  resolutions,  as  I  understand  them,  are  resolvable  into  two  proposi 
tions  :  first,  the  expression  of  a  purpose  to  sustain  the  cause  of  the  Union, 
to  secure  peace  through  victory,  and  to  support  the  Administration  in 
every  constitutional  and  lawful  measure  to  suppress  the  rebellion ;  and, 
secondly,  a  declaration  of  censure  upon  the  Administration  for  supposed 
unconstitutional  action,  such  as  the  making  of  military  arrests.  And  from 
the  two  propositions  a  third  is  deduced,  which  is,  that  the  gentlemen 
composing  the  meeting  are  resolved  on  doing  their  part  to  maintain  our 
common  Government  and  country,  despite  the  folly  or  wickedness,  as 
they  may  conceive,  of  any  Administration.  This  position  is  eminently 
patriotic,  and  as  such  I  thank  the  meeting  and  congratulate  the  nation  for 
it.  My  own  purpose  is  the  same,  so  that  the  meeting  and  myself  have  a 
common  object,  and  can  have  no  ditference,  except  in  the  choice  of  means 
or  measures  for  effecting  that  object. 

And  here  I  ought  to  close  this  paper,  and  would  close  it,  if  there  were 
no  apprehension  that  more  injurious  consequences  than  any  merely  per 
sonal  to  myself  might  follow  the  censures  systematically  cast  upon  me  for 
doing  what,  in  my  view  of  duty,  I  could  not  forbear.  The  resolutions 
promise  to  support  me  in  every  constitutional  and  lawful  measure  to  sup 
press  the  rebellion,  and  I  have  not  knowingly  employed,  nor  shall  know 
ingly  employ  any  other.  But  the  meeting,  by  their  resolutions,  assert 
and  argue  that  certain  military  arrests,  and  proceedings  following  them, 
for  which  I  am  ultimately  responsible,  are  unconstitutional.  I  think  they 
are  not.  The  resolutions  quote  from  the  Constitution  the  definition  of 
treason,  and  also  the  limiting  safeguards  and  guarantees  therein  provided 
for  the  citizen  on  trial  for  treason,  and  on  his  being  held  to  answer  for 
capital,  or  otherwise  infamous  crimes,  and,  in  criminal  prosecutions,  his 
right  to  a  speedy  and  public  trial  by  an  impartial  jury.  They  proceed  to 
resolve  "that  these  safeguards  of  the  rights  of  the  citizen  against  the 
pretensions  of  arbitrary  power  were  intended  more  especially  for  his  pro 
tection  in  times  of  civil  commotion." 

And,  apparently  to  demonstrate  the  proposition,  the  resolutions  pro 
ceed  :  "  They  were  secured  substantially  to  the  English  people  after  years 
of  protracted  civil  war,  and  were  adopted  into  our  Constitution  at  the 
close  of  the  Revolution."  Would  not  the  demonstration  have  been  better 
if  it  could  have  been  truly  said  that  these  safeguards  had  been  adopted 
and  applied  during  the  civil  wars  and  during  our  Revolution,  instead  of 
after  the  one  and  at  the  close  of  the  other?  I,  too,  am  devotedly  for  them 
after  civil  war,  and  before  civil  war,  and  at  all  times,  "  except  when,  in 
cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may  require  "  their  sus 
pension.  The  resolutions  proceed  to  tell  us  that  these  safeguards  "  have 
stood  the  test  of  seventy-six  years  of  trial,  under  our  republican  system, 
under  circumstances  which  show  that,  while  they  constitute  the  foundn- 


388  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

tion  of  all  free  government,  they  are  the  elements  of  the  enduring  sta 
bility  of  the  Republic."  No  one  denies  that  they  have  so  stood  the  test 
np  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  rebellion,  if  we  except  a  certain  occur 
rence  at  New  Orleans ;  nor  does  any  one  question  that  they  will  stand 
the  same  test  much  longer  after  the  rebellion  closes.  But  these  provisions 
of  the  Constitution  have  no  application  to  the  case  we  have  in  hand,  be 
cause  the  arrests  complained  of  were  not  made  for  treason — that  is,  not 
for  the  treason  denned  in  the  Constitution,  and  upon  conviction  of  which 
the  punishment  is  death — nor  yet  were  they  made  to  hold  persons 
to  answer  for  any  capital  or  otherwise  infamous  crimes ;  nor  were  the 
proceedings  following,  in  any  constitutional  or  legal  sense,  "  criminal 
prosecutions."  The  arrests  were  made  on  totally  different  grounds,  and 
the  proceedings  following  accorded  with  the  grounds  of  the  arrest.  Let 
us  consider  the  real  case  with  which  we  are  dealing,  and  apply  to  it  the 
parts  of  the  Constitution  plainly  made  for  such  cases. 

Prior  to  my  installation  here,  it  had  been  inculcated  that  any  State  had 
a  lawful  right  to  secede  from  the  National  Union,  and  that  it  would  be 
expedient  to  exercise  the  right  whenever  the  devotees  of  the  doctrine 
should  fail  to  elect  a  President  to  their  own  liking.  I  was  elected  con 
trary  to  their  liking,  and  accordingly,  so  far  as  it  was  legally  possible, 
they  had  taken  seven  States  out  of  the  Union,  had  seized  many  of  the 
United  States  forts,  and  had  fired  upon  the  United  States  flag,  all  before 
I  was  inaugurated,  and,  of  course,  before  I  had  done  any  official  act  what 
ever.  The  rebellion  thus  began  soon  ran  into  the  present  civil  war ; 
and,  in  certain  respects,  it  began  on  very  unequal  terms  between  the  par 
ties.  The  insurgents  had  been  preparing  for  it  more  than  thirty  years, 
while  the  Government  had  taken  no  steps  to  resist  them.  The  former 
had  carefully  considered  all  the  means  which  could  be  turned  to  their 
account.  It  undoubtedly  was  a  well-pondered  reliance  with  them  that, 
in  their  own  unrestricted  efforts  to  destroy  Union,  Constitution,  and  law 
altogether,  the  Government  would,  in  great  degree,  be  restrained  by  the 
same  Constitution  and  law  from  arresting  their  progress.  Their  sympa 
thizers  pervaded  all  departments  of  the  Government,  and  nearly  all  com 
munities  of  the  people.  From  this  material,  under  cover  of  "  liberty  of 
speech,1'  "liberty  of  the  press,"  and  "habeas  corpus,"  they  hoped  to 
keep  on  foot  among  us  a  most  efficient  corps  of  spies,  informers,  suppliers, 
and  aiders  and  abettors  of  their  cause  in  a  thousand  ways.  They  knew 
that  in  times  such  as  they  were  inaugurating,  by  the  Constitution  itself 
the  "habeas  corpus"  might  be  suspended;  but  they  also  knew  they  had 
friends  who  would  make  a  question  as  to  who  was  to  suspend  it :  mean 
while,  their  spies  and  others  might  remain  at  large  to  help  on  their  cause. 
Or  if,  as  has  happened,  the  Executive  should  suspend  the  writ,  without 
ruinous  waste  of  time,  instances  of  arresting  innocent  persons  might  occur, 
as  are  always  likely  to  occur  in  such  cases,  and  then  a  clamor  could  be 
raised  in  regard  to  this  which  might  be,  at  least,  of  some  service  to  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  389 

insurgent  cause.  It  needed  no  very  keen  perception  to  discover  this  part 
of  the  enemy's  programme,  so  soon  as,  by  opening  hostilities,  their  ma 
chinery  was  put  fairly  in  motion.  Yet,  thoroughly  imbued  with  a  rev 
erence  for  the  guaranteed  rights  of  individuals,  I  was  slow  to  adopt  the 
strong  measures  which  by  degrees  I  have  been  forced  to  regard  as  being 
within  the  exceptions  of  the  Constitution,  and  as  indispensable  to  the 
public  safety.  Nothing  is  better  known  to  history  than  that  courts  of 
justice  are  utterly  incompetent  to  such  cases.  Civil  courts  are  organized 
chiefly  for  trials  of  individuals,  or,  at  most,  a  few  individuals  acting  in 
concert,  and  this  in  quiet  times,  and  on  charges  of  crimes  well  defined  in 
the  law.  Even  in  times  of  peace,  bands  of  horse-thieves  and  robbers  fre 
quently  grow  too  numerous  and  powerful  for  the  ordinary  courts  of  jus 
tice.  But  what  comparison,  in  numbers,  have  such  bands  ever  borne  to 
the  insurgent  sympathizers  even  in  many  of  the  loyal  States?  Again,  a 
jury  too  frequently  has  at  least  one  member  more  ready  to  hang  the 
panel  than  to  hang  the  traitor.  And  yet,  again,  he  who  dissuades  one 
man  from  volunteering,  or  induces  one  soldier  to  desert,  weakens  the 
Union  cause  as  much  as  he  who  kills  a  Union  soldier  in  battle.  Yet  this 
dissuasion  or  inducement  may  be  so  conducted  as  to  be  no  defined  crime 
of  which  any  civil  court  would  take  cognizance. 

Ours  is  a  case  of  rebellion — so  called  by  the  resolution  before  me — in 
fact,  a  clear,  flagrant,  and  gigantic  case  of  rebellion ;  and  the  provision 
of  the  Constitution  that  "  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall 
not  be  suspended  unless  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  pub 
lic  safety  may  require  it,"  is  the  provision  which  specially  applies  to  our 
present  case.  This  provision  plainly  attests  the  understanding  of  those 
who  made  the  Constitution,  that  ordinary  courts  of  justice  are  inadequate 
to  "cases  of  rebellion" — attests  their  purpose  that,  in  such  cases,  men 
may  be  held  in  custody  whom  the  courts,  acting  on  ordinary  rules,  would 
discharge.  Habeas  corpus  does  not  discharge  men  who  are  proved  to  be 
guilty  of  defined  crime ;  and  its  suspension  is  allowed  by  the  Constitu 
tion  on  purpose  that  men  maybe  arrested  and  held  who  cannot  be  proved 
to  be  guilty  of  defined  crime,  "  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion, 
the  public  safety  may  require  it."  This  is  precisely  our  present  case — a 
case  of  rebellion,  wherein  the  public  safety  does  require  the  suspension. 
Indeed,  arrests  by  process  of  courts,  and  arrests  in  cases  of  rebellion,  do 
not  proceed  altogether  upon  the  same  basis.  The  former  is  directed  at 
the  small  percentage  of  ordinary  and  continuous  perpetration  of  crime ; 
while  the  latter  is  directed  at  sudden  and  extensive  uprisings  against  the 
Government,  which  at  most  will  succeed  or  fail  in  no  great  length  of 
time.  In  the  latter  case  arrests  are  made,  not  so  much  for  what  has 
been  done  as  for  what  probably  would  be  done.  The  latter  is  more  for 
the  preventive  and  less  for  the  vindictive  than  the  former.  In  such  cases 
the  purposes  of  men  are  much  more  easily  understood  than  in  cases  of 
ordinary  orime.  The  man  who  stands  by  and  says  nothing,  when  the 


390  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

peril  of  his  Government  is  discussed,  cannot  be  misunderstood.  If  not 
hindered,  he  is  sure  to  help  the  enemy;  much  more,  if  he  talks  ambigu 
ously — talks  for  his  country  with  "buts,"  and  "ifs,"  and  "ands."  Of 
how  little  value  the  constitutional  provisions  I  have  quoted  will  be  ^en- 
dered,  if  arrests  shall  never  be  made  until  defined  crimes  shall  have  been 
committed,  may  be  illustrated  by  a  few  notable  examples.  General  John 
C.  Breckinridge,  General  Robert  E.  Eee,  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston, 
General  John  B.  Magruder,  General  William  B.  Preston,  General  Simon 
B.  Buckner,  and  Commodore  Franklin  Buchanan,  now  occupying  the  very 
highest  places  in  the  rebel  war  service,  were  all  within  the  power  of  the 
Government  since  the  rebellion  began,  and  were  nearly  as  well  known  to 
be  traitors  then  as  now.  Unquestionably,  if  we  had  seized  and  held 
them,  the  insurgent  cause  would  be  much  weaker.  But  no  one  of  them 
had  then  committed  any  crime  defined  in  the  law.  Every  one  of  them, 
if  arrested,  would  have  been  discharged  on  habeas  corpus,  were  the  writ 
allowed  to  operate.  In  view  of  these  and  similar  cases,  I  think  the  time 
not  unlikely  to  come  when  I  shall  be  blamed  for  having  made  too  few 
arrests  rather  than  too  many. 

By  the  third  resolution,  the  meeting  indicate  their  opinion  that  military 
arrests  may  be  constitutional  in  localities  where  rebellion  actually  exists, 
but  that  such  arrests  are  unconstitutional  in  localities  where  rebellion  01 
insurrection  does  not  actually  exist.  They  insist  that  such  arrests  shall 
not  be  made  "  outside  of  the  lines  of  necessary  military  occupation  and 
the  scenes  of  insurrection."  Inasmuch,  however,  as  the  Constitution  itself 
makes  no  such  distinction,  I  am  unable  to  believe  that  there  is  any  such 
constitutional  distinction.  I  concede  that  the  class  of  arrests  complained 
of  can  be  constitutional  only  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the 
public  safety  may  require  them ;  and  I  insist  that  in  such  cases  they  are 
constitutional  wherever  the  public  safety  does  require  them ;  as  well  in 
places  to  which  they  may  prevent  the  rebellion  extending  as  in  those 
where  it  may  be  already  prevailing ;  as  well  where  they  may  restrain  mis 
chievous  interference  with  the  raising  and  supplying  of  armies  to  sup 
press  the  rebellion,  as  where  the  rebellion  may  actually  be ;  as  well 
where  they  may  restrain  the  enticing  men  out  of  the  army,  as  where 
they  would  prevent  mutiny  in  the  army;  equally  constitutional  at  all 
places  where  they  will  conduce  to  the  public  safety,  as  against  the  dan 
gers  of  rebellion  or  invasion.  Take  the  particular  case  mentioned  by  the 
meeting.  It  is  asserted,  in  substance,  that  Mr.  Vallandigham  was,  by  a 
military  commander,  seized  and  tried  "  for  no  other  reason  than  words 
addressed  to  a  public  meeting,  in  criticism  of  the  course  of  the  Admin 
istration,  and  in  condemnation  of  the  military  orders  of  the  general." 
Row,  if  there  be  no  mistake  about  this ;  if  this  assertion  is  the  truth  and 
the  whole  truth ;  if  there  was  no  other  reason  for  the  arrest,  then  I  con 
cede  that  the  arrest  was  wrong.  But  the  arrest,  as  I  understand,  was 
in ude  for  a  very  different  reason,  Mr.  Vallandigham  avows  his  hostility  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  391 

the  war  on  the  part  of  the  Union ;  and  his  arrest  was  made  because  he 
was  laboring,  with  some  effect,  to  prevent  the  raising  of  troops;  to  en 
courage  desertions  from  the  army ;  and  to  leave  the  rebellion  without 
an  adequate  ^military  force  to  suppress  it.  He  was  not  arrested  because 
he  was  damaging  the  political  prospects  of  the  Administration,  or  the  per 
sonal  interests  of  the  commanding  general,  but  because  he  was  damaging 
the  army,  upon  the  existence  and  vigor  of  which  the  life  of  the  nation 
depends.  He  was  warring  upon  the  military,  and  this  gave  the  military 
constitutional  jurisdiction  to  lay  hands  upon  him.  If  Mr.  Vallandigham 
was  not  damaging  the  military  power  of  the  country,  then  this  arrest 
was  made  on  mistake  of  fact,  which  I  would  be  glad  to  correct  on  rea 
sonable  satisfactory  evidence. 

I  understand  the  meeting,  whose  resolutions  I  am  considering,  to  be  in 
favor  of  suppressing  the  rebellion  by  military  force — by  armies.  Long 
experience  has  shown  that  armies  cannot  be  maintained  unless  desertions 
shall  be  punished  by  the  severe  penalty  of  death.  The  case  requires,  and 
the  law  and  the  Constitution  sanction,  this  punishment.  Must  I  shoot  a 
simple-minded  soldier  boy  who  deserts,  while  I  must  not  touch  a  hair  of 
a  wily  agitator  who  induces  him  to  desert?  This  is  none  the  less  injuri 
ous  when  effected  by  getting  a  father,  or  brother,  or  friend,  into  a  public 
meeting,  and  there  working  upon  his  feelings  till  he  is  persuaded  to 
write  the  soldier  boy  that  he  is  fighting  in  a  bad  cause,  for  a  wicked 
Administration  of  a  contemptible  Government,  too  weak  to  arrest  and 
punish  him  if  he  shall  desert.  I  think  that  in  such  a  case  to  silence  the 
agitator  and  save  the  boy  is  not  only  constitutional,  but  withal  a  great 
mercy. 

If  I  be  wrong  on  this  question  of  constitutional  power,  my  error  lies 
in  believing  that  certain  proceedings  are  constitutional  when,  in  cases  of 
i*ebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  requires  them,  which  would  not 
be  constitutional  when,  in  the  absence  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  pub 
lic  safety  does  not  require  them ;  in  other  words,  that  the  Constitution  is 
not,  in  its  application,  in  all  respects  the  same,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or 
invasion  involving  the  public  safety,  as  it  is  in  time  of  profound  peace 
and  public  security.  The  Constitution  itself  makes  the  distinction ;  and 
I  can  no  more  be  persuaded  that  the  Government  can  constitutionally 
take  no  strong  measures  in  time  of  rebellion,  because  it  can  be  shown 
that  the  same  could  not  be  lawfully  taken  in  time  of  peace,  than  I  can 
be  persuaded  that  a  particular  drug  is  not  good  medicine  for  a  sick  man, 
because  it  can  be  shown  not  to  be  good  food  for  a  well  one.  Nor  am  I  able 
to  appreciate  the  danger  apprehended  by  the  meeting  that  the  Amer 
ican  people  will,  by  means  of  military  arrests  during  the  rebellion,  lose 
the  right  of  public  discussion,  the  liberty  of  speech  and  the  press,  the 
law  of  evidence,  trial  by  jury,  and  habeas  corpus,  throughout  the  indefi 
nite  peaceful  future,  which  I  trust  lies  before  them,  any  more  than  I  am 
able  to  believe  that  a  man  could  contract  so  strong  an  appetite  for  emetics 


392  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

during  temporary  illness  as  to  persist  in  feeding  upon  them  during  the 
remainder  of  his  healthful  life. 

In  giving  the  resolutions  that  earnest  consideration  which  you  request 
of  me,  I  cannot  overlook  the  fact  that  the  meeting  spealj  as  "Demo 
crats."  Nor  can  I,  with  full  respect  for  their  known  intelligence,  and 
the  fairly  presumed  deliberation  with  which  they  prepared  their  reso 
lutions,  be  permitted  to  suppose  that  this  occurred  by  accident,  or  in 
any  way  other  than  that  they  preferred  to  designate  themselves  "  Dem 
ocrats"  rather  than  "American  citizens."  In  this  time  of  national 
peril,  I  would  have  preferred  to  meet  you  on  a  level  one  step  higher  than 
any  party  platform ;  because  I  am  sure  that,  from  such  more  elevated 
position,  we  could  do  better  battle  for  the  country  we  all  love  than  we 
possibly  can  from  those  lower  ones  where,  from  the  force  of  habit,  the 
prejudices  of  the  past,  and  selfish  hopes  of  the  future,  we  are  sure  to  ex 
pend  much  of  our  ingenuity  and  strength  in  finding  fault  with  and  aiming 
blows  at  each  other.  But,  since  you  have  denied  me  this,  I  will  yet  be 
thankful,  for  the  country's  sake,  that  not  all  Democrats  have  done  so. 
He  on  whose  discretionary  judgment  Mr.  Vallandigharn  was  arrested  and 
tried  is  a  Democrat,  having  no  old  party  affinity  with  me ;  and  the  judge 
who  rejected  the  constitutional  view  expressed  in  these  resolutions,  by 
refusing  to  discharge  Mr.  Vallandigham  on  habeas  corpus,  is  a  Democrat 
rf  better  days  than  these,  having  received  his  judicial  mantle  at  the  hands 
of  President  Jackson.  And  still  more,  of  all  those  Democrats  who  are 
nobly  exposing  their  lives  and  shedding  their  blood  on  the  battle-field,  I 
have  learned  that  many  approve  the  course  taken  with  Mr.  Vallandig 
ham,  while  I  have  not  heard  of  a  single  one  condemning  it.  I  cannot 
assert  that  there  are  none  such.  And  the  name  of  Jackson  recalls  an 
incident  of  pertinent  history :  After  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  and  while 
the  fact  that  the  treaty  of  peace  had  been  concluded  was  well  known  in 
the  city,  but  before  official  knowledge  of  it  had  arrived,  General  Jackson 
still  maintained  martial  or  military  law.  Now  that  it  could  be  said  the 
war  was  over,  the  clamor  against  martial  law,  which  had  existed  from 
the  first,  grew  more  furious.  Among  other  things,  a  Mr.  Louiallier  pub 
lished  a  denunciatory  newspaper  article.  General  Jackson  arrested  him. 
A  lawyer  by  the  name  of  Morrel  procured  the  United  States  Judge  Hall 
to  issue  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  relive  Mr.  I '  jiallier.  General  Jack 
son  arrested  both  the  lawyer  and  the  judge.  A  Mr.  Hollander  ventured 
to  say  of  some  part  of  the  matter  that  "it  was  a  dirty  trick."  General 
Jackson  arrested  him.  When  the  officer  undertook  to  serve  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  General  Jackson  took  it  from  him,  and  sent  him  away 
with  a  copy.  Holding  the  judge  in  custody  a  few  days,  the  General 
sent  him  beyond  the  limits  of  his  encampment,  and  set  him  at  liberty, 
with  an  order  to  remain  till  the  ratification  of  peace  should  be  regularly 
announced,  or  until  the  British  should  have  left  the  Southern  coast.  A 
day  or  two  more  elapsed,  the  ratification  of  a  treaty  of  peace  was  regu 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  393 

larly  announced,  and  the  judge  and  others  were  fully  liberated.  A  few 
days  more,  and  the  judge  called  General  Jackson  into  court  and  fined  him 
$1,000  for  having  arrested  him  and  the  others  named.  The  General  paid 
the  fine,  and  there  the  matter  rested  for  nearly  thirty  years,  when  Con 
gress  refunded  principal  and  interest.  The  late  Senator  Douglas,  then  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  took  a  leading  part  in  the  debates,  in 
which  the  constitutional  question  was  much  discussed.  I  am  not  pre 
pared  to  say  whom  the  journals  would  show  to  have  voted  for  the  measure. 

It  may  be  remarked:  First,  that  we  had  the  same  Constitution  then  as 
now ;  secondly,  that  we  then  had  a  case  of  invasion,  arid  now  we  have  a 
case  of  rebellion ;  and,  thirdly,  that  the  permanent  right  of  the  people  to 
public  discussion,  the  liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  the  trial  by  jury, 
the  law  of  evidence,  and  the  habeas  corpus,  suffered  no  detriment  what 
ever  by  that  conduct  of  General  Jackson,  or  its  subsequent  approval  by 
the  American  Congress. 

And  yet,  let  me  say  that,  in  my  own  discretion,  I  do  not  know  whethei 
I  would  have  ordered  the  arrest  of  Mr.  Vallandigham.  "While  I  cannot 
shift  the  responsibility  from  myself,  I  hold  that,  as  a  general  rule,  the 
commander  in  the  field  is  the  better  judge  of  the  necessity  in  any  partic 
ular  case.  Of  course,  I  must  practise  a  general  directory  and  revisory 
power  in  the  matter. 

One  of  the  resolutions  expresses  the  opinion  of  the  meeting  that  arbi 
trary  arrests  will  have  the  effect  to  divide  and  distract  those  who  should 
be  united  in  suppressing  the  rebellion,  and  I  am  specifically  called  on  to 
discharge  Mr.  Vallandigham.  I  regard  this  as,  at  least,  a  fair  appeal  to 
me  on  the  expediency  of  exercising  a  constitutional  power  which  I  think 
exists.  In  response  to  such  appeal,  I  have  to  say,  it  gave  me  pain  when 
I  learned  that  Mr.  Vallandigham  had  been  arrested — that  is,  I  was  pained 
that  there  should  have  seemed  to  be  a  necessity  for  arresting  him — and 
that  it  will  afford  me  great  pleasure  to  discharge  him  so  soon  as  I  can,  by 
any  means,  believe  the  public  safety  will  not  suffer  by  it.  I  further  say 
that,  as  the  war  progresses,  it  appears  to  me,  opinion  and  action,  which 
were  in  great  confusion  at  first,  take  shape  and  fall  into  more  regular 
channels,  so  that  the  necessity  for  strong  dealing  with  them  gradually 
decreases.  I  have  every  reason  to  desire  that  it  should  cease  altogether ; 
and  far  from  the  least  is  my  regard  for  the  opinions  and  wishes  of  those 
who,  like  the  meeting  at  Albany,  declare  their  purpose  to  sustain  the 
Government  in  every  constitutional  and  lawful  measure  to  suppress  the 
rebellion.  Still,  I  must  continue  to  do  so  much  as  may  seem  to  be  re 
quired  by  the  public  safety.  A.  LINCOLN. 

Similar  meetings  were  held  in  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  other  cities  and  towns  of  the  North,  and,  on  the  llth 
of  June,  a  State  Convention  of  the  Democratic  party  was 
held  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  for  the  nomination  of  State  offi- 


394  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

cers.  Mr.  Vallandigham  was,  at  that  convention,  made 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  Governor,  receiving,  on  the 
first  ballot,  four  hundred  and  forty-eight  votes  out  of  four 
hundred  and  sixty- one,  the  whole  number  cast.  Senator 
Pugh  was  nominated  for  Lieutenant- Governor,  and  reso 
lutions  were  adopted  protesting  against  President  Lin 
coln'  s  emancipation  proclamation ;  condemning  martial 
law  in  loyal'  States,  where  war  does  not  exist ;  denoun 
cing  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  Jiabeas  corpus  ;  protest 
ing  very  strongly  against  the  banishment  of  Yallandig 
ham,  and  calling  on  the  President  to  restore  him  to  his 
rights ;  declaring  that  they  would  hail  with  delight  the 
desire  of  the  seceded  States  to  return  to  their  allegiance, 
and  that  they  would  co-operate  with  the  citizens  of  those 
States  in  measures  for  the  restoration  of  peace. 

A  committee  of  the  convention  visited  Washington, 
and  on  the  26th  of  June  presented  to  the  President  the 
resolutions  adopted  by  the  convention,  and  urged  the 
immediate  recall  and  restoration  of  Mr.  Vallandigham, 
their  candidate  for  Governor.  To  this,  President  Lincoln 
made  the  following  reply  :— 

"WASHINGTON,  June  29, 1868. 

GENTLEMEN  : — The  resolutions  of  the  Ohio  Democratic  State  Conven 
tion,  which  you  present  me,  together  with  your  introductory  and  closing 
remarks,  being  in  position  and  argument  mainly  the  same  as  the  resolu 
tions  of  the  Democratic  meeting  at  Albany,  New  York,  I  refer,  you  to  my 
response  to  the  latter  as  meeting  most  of  the  points  in  the  former. 

This  response  you  evidently  used  in  preparing  your  remarks,  and  I  de 
sire  no  more  than  that  it  be  used  with  accuracy.  In  a  single  reading  of  your 
remarks,  I  only  discovered  one  inaccuracy  in  matter  which  I  suppose  you 
took  from  that  paper.  It  is  where  you  say,  "  The  undersigned  are  unable 
to  agree  with  you  in  the  opinion  you  have  expressed  that  the  Constitu 
tion  is  different  in  time  of  insurrection  or  invasion  from  what  it  is  in  time ' 
of  peace  and  public  security." 

A  recurrence  to  the  paper  will  show  you  that  I  have  not  expressed 
the  opinion  you  suppose.  I  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Constitution 
is  different  in  its  application  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  involving 
the  public  safety,  from  what  it  is  in  times  of  profound  peace  and  public 
security ;  and  this  opinion  I  adhere  to,  simply  because  by  the  Constitu 
tion  itself  things  may  be  done  in  the  one  case  which  may  not  be  done  in 
the  other. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  395 

I  dislike  to  waste  a  word  on  a  merely  personal  point,  but  I  must  re 
spectfully  assure  you  that  you  will  find  yourselves  at  fault  should  you 
ever  seek  for  evidence  to  prove  your  assumption  that  I  "opposed  m 
discussions  before  the  people  the  policy  of  the  Mexican  war." 

You  say:  "Expunge  from  the  Constitution  this  limitation  upon  the 
power  of  Congress  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  'and  yet  the 
other  guarantees  of  personal  liberty  would  remain  unchanged."  Doubt 
less,  if  this  clause  of  the  Constitution,  improperly  called,  as  I  think,  a 
limitation  upon  the  power  of  Congress,  were  expunged,  the  other  guar 
antees  would  remain  the  same ;  but  the  question  is,  not  how  those  guar 
antees  would  stand  with  that  clause  out  of  the  Constitution,  but  how  they 
stand  with  that  clause  remaining  in  it,  in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion, 
involving  the  public  safety.  If  the  liberty  could  be  indulged  in  expun 
ging  that  clause,  letter  and  spirit,  Ireally  think  the  constitutional  argu 
ment  would  be  with  you. 

My  general  view  on  this  question  was  stated  in  the  Albany  response, 
and  hence  I  do  not  state  it  now.  I  only  add  that,  as  seems  to  me,  the 
benefit  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  the  great  means  through  which 
the  guarantees  of  personal  liberty  are  conserved  and  made  available  in 
the  last  resort;  and  corroborative  of  this  view  is  the  fact  that  Mr.  Val- 
landigham,  in  the  very  case  in  question,  under  the  advice  of  able  law 
yers,  saw  not  where  else  to  go  but  to  the  habeas  corpus.  But  by  the 
Constitution  the  benefit  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corr*"*  itself  may  be  sus 
pended,  when,  in  case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may 
require  it. 

You  ask,  in  substance,  whether  I  really  claim  that  I  may  override  all 
the  guaranteed  rights  of  individuals,  on  the  plea  of  conserving  the  public 
safety — when  I  may  choose  to  say  the  public  safety  requires  it.  This 
question,  divested  of  the  phraseology  calculated  to  represent  mo  as 
struggling  for  an  arbitrary  personal  prerogative,  is  either  simply  a 
question  who  shall  decide,  or  an  afiirmation  that  nobody  shall  decide, 
what  the  public  safety  does  require  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion. 
The  Constitution  contemplates  the  question  as  likely  to  occur  for  de 
cision,  but  it  does  not  expressly  declare  who  is  to  decide  it.  By  neces 
sary  implication,  when  rebellion  or  invasion  comes,  the  decision  is  to  be 
made  from  time  to  time ;  and  I  think  the  man  whom,  for  the  time,  the 
people  have,  under  the  Constitution,  made  the  commander -in-chief  of 
their  army  and  navy,  is  the  man  who  holds  the  power  and  bears  the 
responsibility  of  making  it.  If  he  uses  the  power  justly,  the  same 
people  will  probably  justify  him ;  if  he  abuses  it,  he  is  in  their  hands  to 
be  dealt  with  by  all  the  modes  they  have  reserved  to  themselves  in  tho 
Constitution. 

The  earnestness  with  which  you  insist  that  persons  can  only,  in  times 
of  rebellion,  be  lawfully  dealt  with  in  accordance  with  the  rules  for 
criminal  trials  and  punishments  in  times  of  peace,  induces  me  to  add  a 


396  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

word  to  what  I  said  on  that  point  in  the  Albany  response.  You  claim 
that  men  may,  if  they  choose,  embarrass  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  com 
bat  a  giant  rebellion,  and  then  be  dealt  with  only  in  turn  as  if  there 
were  no  rebellion.  The  Constitution  itself  rejects  this  view.  The  mili 
tary  arrests  and  detentions  which  have  been  made,  including  those  of 
Mr.  Vallandigharn,  which  are  not  different  in  principle  from  the  other, 
have  been  for  prevention,  and  not  for  punishment — as  injunctions  to  stay 
injury,  as  proceedings  to  keep  the  peace — and  hence,  like  proceedings  in 
such  cases  and  for  like  reasons,  they  have  not  been  accompanied  with 
indictments,  or  trial  by  juries,  nor  in  a  single  case  by  any  punishment 
whatever  beyond  what  is  purely  incidental  to  the  prevention.  The 
original  sentence  of  imprisonment  in  Mr.  Vallandigham's  case  was  to 
prevent  injury  to  the  military  service  only,  and  the  modification  of  it 
was  made  as  a  less  disagreeable  mode  to  him  of  securing  the  same  pre 
vention. 

I  am  unable  to  perceive  an  insult  to  Ohio  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Vallau- 
digham.  Quite  surely  nothing  of  this  sort  was  or  is  intended.  I  was 
wholly  unaware  that  Mr.  Vallandigham  was,  at  the  time  of  his  arrest,  a 
candidate  for  the  Democratic  nomination  of  Governor,  until  so  informed 
by  your  reading  to  me  the  resolutions  of  the  convention.  I  am  grateful 
to  the  State  of  Ohio  for  many  things,  especially  for  the  brave  soldiers 
and  officers  she  has  given  in  the  present  national  trial  to  the  armies  of 
the  Union. 

You  claim,  as  I  understand,  that  according  to  my  own  position  in  the 
Albany  response,  Mr.  Vallandigham  should  be  released;  and  this  be 
cause,  as  you  claim,  he  has  not  damaged  the  military  service  by  discour 
aging  enlistments,  encouraging  desertions,  or  otherwise;  and  that  if  ho 
had;  he  should  have  been  turned  over  to  the  civil  authorities  under  the 
recent  acts  of  Congress.  I  certainly  do  not  know  that  Mr.  Vallandigham 
has  specifically  and  by  direct  language  advised  against  enlistments  and 
in  favor  of  desertions  and  resistance  to  drafting.  We  all  know  tha 
combinations,  armed  in  some  instances,  to  resist  the  arrest  of  deserters, 
began  several  months  ago ;  that  more  recently  the  like  has  appeared  in 
resistance  to  the  enrolment  preparatory  to  a  draft;  and  that  quite  a 
number  of  assassinations  have  occurred  from  the  same  animus.  These 
had  to  be  met  by  military  force,  and  this  again  has  led  to  bloodshed  and 
death.  And  now,  under  a  sense  of  responsibility  more  weighty  and 
enduring  than  any  which  is  merely  official,  I  solemnly  declare  my  belief 
that  this  hindrance  of  the  military,  including  maiming  and  murder,  is  due 
to  the  cause  in  which  Mr.  Vallandigham  has  been  engaged,  in  a  greater 
degree  than  to  any  other  cause;  and  it  is  due  to  him  personally  in  a 
greater  degree  than  to  any  other  man. 

These  things  have  been  notorious,  known  to  all,  and  of  course  known 
to  Mr.  Vallandigham.  Perhaps  I  would  not  bo  wrong  to  say  they 
originated  with  his  especial  friends  and  adherents.  With  perfect  knowl- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  397 

edge  of  them,  he  has  frequently,  if  not  constantly,  made  speeches  in 
Congress  and  before  popular  assemblies ;  and  if  it  can  be  shown  that, 
with  these  things  staring  him  in  the  face,  he  has  ever  uttered  a  word  of 
rebuke  or  counsel  against  them,  it  will  be  a  fact  greatly  in  his  favo- 
with  me,  and  of  which,  as  yet,  I  am  totally  ignorant.  When  it  is  known 
that  the  whole  burden  of  his  speeches  has  been  to  stir  up  men  against  the 
prosecution  of  the  war,  and  that  in  the  midst  of  resistance  to  it  he  has 
not  been  known  in  any  instance  to  counsel  against  such  resistance,  it  is 
next  to  impossible  to  repel  the  inference  that  he  has  counselled  directly 
in  favor  of  it. 

With  all  this  before  their  eyes,  the  convention  you  represent  have 
nominated  Mr.  Vallandigham  for  Governor  of  Ohio,  and  both  they  and 
you  have  declared  the  purpose  to  sustain  the  National  Union  by  all  con 
stitutional  means;  but,  of  course,  they  and  you,  in  common,  reserve  to 
yourselves  to  decide  what  are  constitutional  means,  and,  unlike  the 
Albany  meeting,  you  omit  to  state  or  intimate  that,  in  your  opinion,  an 
army  is  a  constitutional  means  of  saving  the  Union  against  a  rebellion, 
or  even  to  intimate  that  you  are  conscious  of  an  existing  rebellion  being 
in  progress  with  the  avowed  object  of  destroying  that  very  Union.  At 
the  same  time,  your  nominee  for  Governor,  in  whose  behalf  you  appeal, 
is  known  to  you,  and  to  the  world,  to  declare  against  the  use  of  an  army 
to  suppress  the  rebellion.  Your  own  attitude,  therefore,  encourages 
desertion,  resistance  to  the  draft,  and  the  like,  because  it  teaches  those 
who  incline  to  desert  and  to  escape  the  draft  to  believe  it  is  your  pur 
pose  to  protect  them,  and  to  hope  that  you  will  become  strong  enough  to 
do  so. 

After  a  short  personal  intercourse  with  you,  gentlemen  of  the  com 
mittee,  I  cannot  say  I  think  you  desire  this  effect  to  follow  your  attitude ; 
but  I  assure  you  that  both  friends  and  enemies  of  the  Union  look  upon  it 
in  this  light.  It  is  a  substantial  hope,  and,  by  consequence,  a  real 
strength  to  the  enemy.  If  it  is  a  false  hope,  and  one  which  you  would 
willingly  dispel,  I  will  make  the  way  exceedingly  easy.  I  send  you 
duplicates  of  this  letter,  in  order  that  you,  or  a  majority,  may,  if  you 
choose,  indorse  your  names  upon  one  of  them,  and  return  it  thus  indorsed 
to  me,  with  the  understanding  that  those  signing  are  thereby  committed 
to  the  following  propositions,  and  to  nothing  else  : — 

1.  That  there  is  now  rebellion  in  the  United  States,  the  object  and 
tendency  of  which  is  to  destroy  the  National  Union ;  and  that,  in  youi 
opinion,  an  army  and  navy  are  constitutional  means  for  suppressing  that 
rebellion. 

2.  That  no  one  of  you  will  do  any  thing  which,  in  his  own  judgment, 
will  tend  to  hinder  the  increase,  or  favor  the  decrease,  or  lessen  the 
efficiency  of  the  army  and  navy,  while  engaged  in  the  effort  to  suppress 
<hat  rebellion ;  and, — 

3.  That  each  of  you  will,  in  his  sphere,  do  all  he  can  to  have  t?ui 


398  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  A.KD 

officers,  soldiers,  and  seamen  of  the  army  and  navy,  while  engaged  in  the 
effort  to  suppress  the  rehellion,  paid,  fed,  clad,  and  otherwise  well  pro 
vided  for  and  supported. 

And  with  the  further  understanding  that  upon  receiving  the  letter 
and  names  thus  indorsed,  I  will  cause  them  to  be  published,  which 
publication  shall  be,  within  itself,  a  revocation  of  the  order  in  relation  to 
Mr.  Vallandigham. 

It  will  not  escape  observation  that  I  consent  to  the  release  of  Mr. 
Vallandigham  upon  terms  not  embracing  any  pledge  from  him  or  from 
others  as  to  what  he  will  or  will  not  do.  I  do  this  because  he  is  not 
present  to  speak  for  himself,  or  to  authorize  others  to  speak  for  him ; 
and  hence  I  shall  expect  that  on  returning  he  would  not  put  himself 
practically  in  antagonism  with  the  position  of  his  friends.  But  I  do  it 
chiefly  because  I  thereby  prevail  on  other  influential  gentlemen  of  Ohio 
to  so  define  their  position  as  to  be  of  immense  value  to  the  army — thus 
more  than  compensating  for  the  consequences  of  any  mistake  in  allowing 
Mr.  Vallandigham  to  return,  so  that,  on  the  whole,  the  public  safety  will 
not  have  suffered  by  it.  Still,  in  regard  to  Mr.  Vallandigham  and  all 
others,  I  must  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  do  so  much  as  the  public  service 
may  seem  to  require. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be  respectfully  yours,  &c., 

A.  LINCOLN. 

The  canvass  throughout  the  summer  was  very  animated. 
As  a  matter  of  course,  the  opponents  of  the  Administration 
in  Ohio,  as  elsewhere  throughout  the  country,  made  this 
matter  of  arbitrary  arrests  a  very  prominent  point  of  attack. 
Special  stress  was  laid  upon  the  fact  that,  instead  of  acting 
directly  and  upon  his  own  responsibility  in  these  cases, 
the  President  left  them  to  the  discretion  of  military  com 
manders  in  the  several  departments.  This  was  held  to  be 
in  violation  of  the  law  of  Congress  which  authorized  the 
President  to  suspend  the  writ  of  Jiabeas  corpus,  but  not 
to  delegate  that  high  prerogative.  To  meet  this  objection, 
therefore,  and  also  in  order  to  establish  a  uniform  mode 
of  action  on  the  subject,  the  President  issued  the  following 

PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  has  ordained  that  "  Tho 
privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended,  unless, 
when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may  roquire  it ; 
and,  whereas,  a  rebellion  was  existing  on  the  3d  day  of  March,  1863,  which 
rebellion  is  still  exiting;  and,  whereas,  by  a  statute  which  was  approved 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  399 

on  that  lay,  it  was  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled,  that  during  the  present  in- 
eurrection  the  President  of  the  United  States,  whenever,  in  his  judgment, 
the  public  safety  may  require,  is  authorized  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  t 
writ  of  luibeas  corpus  in  any  case  throughout  the  United  States,  or  any 
part  thereof;  and,  whereas,  in  the  judgment  of  the  President  the  public 
safety  does  require  that  the  privilege  of  the  said  writ  shall  now  be  sus 
pended  throughout  the  United  States  in  cases  where,  by  the  authority  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  military,  naval,  and  civil  officers  of  the 
United  States,  or  any  of  them,  hold  persons  under  their  command  or  in 
their  custody,  either  as  prisoners  of  war,  spies,  or  aiders  or  abettors  of  the 
enemy,  or  officers,  soldiers,  or  seamen  enrolled,  drafted,  or  mustered,  or 
enlisted  in,  or  belonging  to  the  land  or  naval  forces  of  the  United  States, 
or  as  deserters  therefrom,  or  otherwise  amenable  to  military  law,  or  to 
the  rules  and  articles  of  war,  or  the  rules  and  regulations  prescribed  for  the 
military  or  naval  services  by  the  authority  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  or  for  resisting  the  draft,  or  for  any  other  offence  against  the  military 
or  naval  service :  Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  make  known  to  all  whom  it  may  con 
cern,  that  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  suspended  throughout 
the  United  States  in  the  several  cases  before  mentioned,  and  that  this  sus 
pension  will  continue  throughout  the  duration  of  the  said  rebellion,  or 
until  this  Proclamation  shall,  by  a  subsequent  one,  to  be  issued  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  be  modified  and  revoked.  And  I  do  here 
by  require  all  magistrates,  attorneys,  and  other  civil  officers  within 
the  United  States,  and  all  officers  and  others  in  the  military  and  naval 
services  of  the  United  States,  to  take  distinct  notice  of  this  suspension  and 
give  it  full  effect,  and  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  conduct  and 
govern  themselves  accordingly,  and  in  conformity  with  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  and  the  laws  of  Congress  in  such  cases  made  and 
provided. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed,  this  fifteenth  day  of  September,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty -three,  and  of  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty- eighth. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President : 

WM.  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

The  act  passed  by  Congress  "  for  enrolling  and  calling 
out  the  national  forces,"  commonly  called  the  Conscrip 
tion  Act,  provided  that  all  able-bodied  male  citizens,  and 
persons  of  foreign  birth  who  had  declared  their  intention 
to  become  citizens,  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  forty- 
five,  were  liable  to  be  called  into  service.  The  strenuous 


400  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

efforts  made  by  the  enemies  of  the  Administration  to  arouse 
the  hostility  of  the  people  against  its  general  policy,  had 
proved  so  far  successful  as  greatly  to  discourage  volun 
teer  enlistments  ;  and  the  Government  was  thus  compelled 
to  resort  to  the  extraordinary  powers  conferred  upon  it 
by  this  act.  Questions  had  been  raised  as  to  the  liability 
of  foreigners  to  be  drafted  under  this  law  ;  and  in  order 
to  settle  this  point,  the  President,  on  the  8th  of  May,  issued 
the  following  proclamation. 

WASHINGTON,  May  8,  1SG3. 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America.  \ 

PROCLAMATION". 

Whereas,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  at  its  last  session,  enacted 
a  law,  entitled  "  An  Act  for  enrolling  and  calling  out  the  national  forces, 
and  for  other  purposes,"  which  was  approved  on  the  3d  day  of  March 
last;  and 

Whereas,  it  is  recited  in  the  said  act  that  there  now  exists  in  the  United 
States  an  insurrection  and  rebellion  against  the  authority  thereof,  and  it 
is,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  duty  of  the  Govern 
ment  to  suppress  insubordination  and  rebellion,  to  guarantee  to  each  State 
a  republican  form  of  government,  and  to  preserve  the  public  tranquillity ; 
and 

Whereas,  for  these  high  purposes,  a  military  force  is  indispensable,  to 
raise  and  support  which  all  persons  ought  willingly  to  contribute ;  and 

Whereas,  no  service  can  be  more  praiseworthy  and  honorable  than 
that  which  is  rendered  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union,  and  the  consequent  preservation  of  free  government ;  and 

Whereas,  for  the  reasons  thus  recited  it  was  enacted  by  the  said  stat 
ute  that  all  able-bodied  male  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  persons 
of  foreign  birth  who  shall  have  declared  on  oath  their  intentions  to  become 
citizens  under  and  in  pursuance  of  the  laws  thereof,  between  the  ages  of 
twenty  and  forty-five  years,  with  certain  exemptions  not  necessary  to  be 
here  mentioned,  are  declared  to  constitute  the  National  forces,  and  shall 
be  liable  to  perform  military  duty  in  the  service  of  the  United  States, 
when  called  out  by  the  President  for  that  purpose ;  and 

Whereas,  it  is  claimed,  on  and  in  behalf  of  persons  of  foreign  birth,  with 
in  the  ages  specified  in  said  act,  who  have  heretofore  declared  on  oath  their 
intentions  to  become  citizens  under  and  in  pursuance  to  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  and  who  have  not  exercised  the  right  of  suffrage,  or  any 
other  political  franchise  under  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any  of 
the  States  thereof,  that  they  are  not  absolutely  precluded  by  their  afore 
said  declaration  of  intention  from  renouncing  their  purpose  to  become 
citizens;  fird  that,  on  the  contrary,  such  persons,  under  treaties  and  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  401 

1,-iAv  of  nations,  retain  a  right  to  renounce  that  purpose,  and  to  forego 
tho  privilege  of  citizenship  and  residence  within  the  United  States,  under 
the  obligations  imposed  by  the  aforesaid  act  of  Congress  : 

Now,  therefore,  to  avoid  all  misapprehensions  concerning  the  liability  of 
persons  concerned  to  perform  the  service  required  by  such  enactment,  and 
to  give  it  full  effect,  I  do  hereby  order  and  proclaim  that  no  plea  of  alien- 
ago  will  be  received,  or  allowed  to  exempt  from  the  obligations  imposed 
by  the  aforesaid  act  of  Congress  any  person  of  foreign  birth  who  shall 
have  declared  on  oath  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  under  the  laws  thereof,  and  who  shall  be  found  within  the  United 
States  at  any  time  during  the  continuance  of  the  present  insurrection  and 
rebellion,  at  or  after  the  expiration  of  the  period  of  sixty-five  days  from  the 
date  of  this  proclamation ;  nor  shall  any  such  plea  of  alienage  be  allowed 
in  favor  of  any  such  person  who  has  so,  as  aforesaid,  declared  his  inten 
tion  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and  shall  have  exercised  at 
any  time  the  right  of  suffrage,  or  any  other  political  franchise  within  the 
United  States,  under  the  laws  thereof,  or  under  the  laws  of  any  of  the 
several  States. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand,  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  8th  day  of  May,  in  the  year  of  our 
I  L  s  1  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  the  in 
dependence  of  tho  United  States  the  eighty-seventn. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President  : 

WILLIAM  II.  SEWAKD,  Secretary  of  Slate. 

it  was  subsequently  ordered  that  the  draft  should  take 
place  in  July,  and  public  proclamation  was  made  of  the 
number  which  each  State  would  be  required  to  furnish. 
Enrolling  officers  had  been  appointed  for  the  several  dis 
tricts  of  all  the  States,  and,  all  the  names  being  placed  in 
a  wheel,  the  number  required  were  to  be  publicly  drawn, 
under  such  regulations  a£  were  considered  necessary  to 
insure  equal  and  exact  justice.  Very  great  pains  had 
been  taken  by  the  opponents  of  the  Admini  stration  to  excite 
odium  against  that  clause  of  the  law  which  fixed  the  price 
of  exemption  from  service  under  the  draft  at  three  hundred 
dollars.  It  was  represented  that  this  clause  was  for  the 
special  benefit  of  the  rich,  who  could  easily  pay  the  sum 
required  ;  while  poor  men  who  could  not  pay  it  would  be 
compelled,  at  whatever  hardships  to  themselves  and  their 
families,  to  enter  the  army.  The  draft  was  commenced  in 
26 


402  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  City  of  New  York  on  Saturday,  July  llth,  and  was 
conducted  quietly  and  successfully  during  that  day.  On 
Sunday  plots  were  formed  and  combinations  entered  into 
to  resist  it ;  and  no  sooner  was  it  resumed  on  Monday 
morning,  July  13,  than  a  sudden  and  formidable  attack 
was  made  by  an  armed  mob  upon  the  office  in  one  of  the 
districts ;  the  wheel  was  destroyed,  the  lists  scattered,  and 
the  building  set  on  fire.  The  excitement  spread  through 
the  city.  Crowds  gathered  everywhere,  with  no  apparent 
common  object ;  but  during  the  day  the  movement  seem 
ed  to  be  controlled  by  leaders  in  two  general  directions. 
The  first  was  an  attack  upon  the  negroes  ;  the  second  an 
assault  upon  every  one  who  was  supposed  to  be  in  any 
way  concerned  in  the  draft,  or  prominently  identified, 
officially  or  otherwise,  with  the  Administration  or  the  Re 
publican  party.  Unfortunately,  the  militia  regiments  of 
the  city  had  been  sent  to  Pennsylvania  to  withstand  the 
rebel  invasion  ;  and  the  only  guardians  left  for  the  public 
peace  were  the  regular  police  and  a  few  hundred  soldiers 
who  garrisoned  the  forts.  Both  behaved  with  the  greatest 
vigor  and  fidelity,  but  they  were  too  few  to  protect  the 
dozen  miles  between  the  extremities  pf  the  city.  The  mob, 
dispersed  in  one  quarter,  would  reassemble  at  another, 
and  for  four  days  the  city  seemed  given  up  to  their  control. 
The  outrages  committed  during  this  time  were  numerous 
and  aggravated.  Negroes  were  assaulted,  beaten  to  death, 
mutilated,  and  hung  ;  building  after  building  was  sacked 
and  burned ;  gangs  of  desperadoes  patrolled  the  streets, 
levying  contributions,  and  ordering  places  of  business  to 
be  closed.  A  Colored  Orphan  Asylum,  sheltering  some 
hundreds  of  children,  was  sacked  and  burned.  After 
the  first  day,  the  riot,  which  was  at  first  directed  against 
the  draft,  took  a  new  turn.  The  entire  mass  of  scoundrel- 
ism  in  the  city  seemed  to  have  been  let  loose  for  indis 
criminate  plunder.  Women,  half-grown  boys,  and  chil 
dren,  were  foremost  in  the  work  of  robbery,  and  no  man 
felt  safe  from  attack.  The  police  force  did  their  duty 
manfully,  aided  at  first  by  the  few  troops  at  the  disposal 
of  the  authorities,  and  subsequently  by  the  regiments  who 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          403 

began  to  return  from  Pennsylvania.  In  the  street-fights 
which  occurred,  many  of  the  defenders  of  law  and  order 
lost  their  lives,  while  a  far  larger  number  of  the  rioters 
were  killed.  The  bands  of  rioters  were  finally  dispersed, 
and  the  peace  of  the  city  was  restored. 

During  these  occurrences  the  draft  was  necessarily  sus 
pended;  and  on  the  3d  of  August,  Governor  Seymour 
addressed  a  long  letter  to  the  President,  asking  that  fur 
ther  proceedings  under  the  draft  might  be  postponed  until 
it  should  be  seen  whether  the  number  required  from  the 
State  of  New  York  could  not  be  raised  by  volunteering, 
and  also  until  the  constitutionality  of  the  law  could  be 
tested  in  the  judicial  tribunals  of  the  country.  The 
Governor  pointed  out  an  alleged  injustice  in  the  applica 
tion  of  the  law,  by  which,  in  four  districts  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  a  far  higher  quota  in  proportion  to  the  popu 
lation  was  required  than  in  the  other  districts  of  the  State  ; 
and  this  was  urged  as  an  additional  reason  for  postponing 
the  further  execution  of  the  law. 

To  this  appeal  the  President,  on  the  7th  of  August, 
made  the  following  reply : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  August  T,  18C8. 

His  Excellency  HORATIO  SEYMOUR, 

Governor  of  New  York,  Albany,  N.  Y. : 

Your  communication  of  the  3d  inst.  has  been  received  and  attentively 
considered.  I  cannot  consent  to  suspend  the  draft  in  New  York,  as  you 
request,  because,  among  other  reasons,  TIME  is  too  important.  By  the 
figures  you  send,  which  I  presume  are  correct,  the  twelve  districts  repre 
sented  fall  in  two  classes  of  eight  and  four  respectively. 

The  disparity  of  the  quotas  for  the  draft  in  these  two  classes  is  certainly 
very  striking,  being  the  difference  between  an  average  of  2,200  in  one 
class,  and  4,864  in  the  other.  Assuming  that  the  districts  are  equal,  one 
to  another,  in  entire  population,  as  required  by  the  plan  on  which  they 
were  made,  this  disparity  is  such  as  to  require  attention.  Much  of  it, 
however,  I  suppose  will  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  so  many  more 
persons  fit  for  soldiers  are  in  the  city  than  are  in  the  country,  who  have 
too  recently  arrived  from  other  parts  of  the  United  States  and  from  Europe 
to  be  either  included  in  the  census  of  1860,  or  to  have  voted  in  1862. 
Still,  making  due  allowance  for  this,  I  am  yet  unwilling  to  stand  upon  it 
as  an  entirely  sufficient  explanation  of  the  great  disparity.  I  shall  direct, 


404  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  draft  to  proceed  in  all  the  districts,  drawing,  however,  at  first  from 
each  of  the  four  districts — to  wit,  the  Second,  Fourth,  Sixth,  and  Eighth — 
only,  2,200  being  the  average  quota  of  the  other  class.  After  this  drawing, 
these  four  districts,  and  also  the  Seventeenth  and  Twenty-ninth,  shall  be 
carefully  re-enrolled;  and,  if  you  please,  agents  of  yours  may  witness 
every  step  of  the  process.  Any  deficiency  which  may  appear  by  the  new 
enrolment  will  be  supplied  by  a  special  draft  for  that  object,  allowing  due 
credit  for  volunteers  who  may  be  obtained  from  these  districts  respectively 
during  the  interval ;  and  at  all  points,  so  far  as  consistent  with  practical 
convenience,  due  credits  shall  be  given  for  volunteers,  and  your  Excel 
lency  shall  be  notified  of  the  time  fixed  for  commencing  a  draft  in  each 
district. 

I  do  not  object  to  abide  a  decision  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
or  of  the  Judges  thereof,  on  the  constitutionality  of  the  draft  law.  In 
fact,  I  should  be  willing  to  facilitate  the  obtaining  of  it.  But  I  cannot 
consent  to  lose  the  time  while  it  is  being  obtained.  We  are  contending 
with  an  enemy  who,  as  I  understand,  drives  every  able-bodied  man  he 
can  reach  into  his  ranks,  very  much  as  a  butcher  drives  bullocks  into  a 
slaughter-pen.  No  time  is  wasted,  no  argument  is  used.  This  produces 
an  army  which  will  soon  turn  upon  our  now  victorious  soldiers  already  in 
the  field,  if  they  shall  not  be  sustained  by  recruits  as  they  should  be.  It 
produces  an  army  with  a  rapidity  not  to  be  matched  on  our  side,  if  we  first 
waste  time  to  re-experiment  with  the  volunteer  system,  already  deemed 
by  Congress,  and  palpably,  in  fact,  so  far  exhausted  as  to  be  inadequate; 
and  then  more  time  to  obtain  a  Court  decision  as  to  whether  a  law  is  con 
stitutional  which  requires  a  part  of  those  not  now  in  the  service  to  go  to 
the  aid  of  those  who  are  already  in  it ;  and  still  more  time  to  determine 
with  absolute  certainty  that  we  get  those  who  are  to  go  in  the  precisely 
legal  proportion  to  those  who  are  not  to  go.  My  purpose  is  to  be  in  my 
action  just  and  constitutional,  and  yet  practical,  in  performing  the  impor 
tant  duty  with  Avhich  I  am  charged,  of  maintaining  the  unity  and  the  free 
principles  of  our  common  country. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

On  the  8th  Governor  Seymour  replied,  reasserting  the 
unfairness  and  injustice  of  the  enrolments,  and  expressing 
his  regret  at  the  President' s  refusal  to  postpone  the  draft. 
He  also  sent  a  voluminous  statement,  prepared  by  Judge- 
Advocate  Waterbury,  designed  to  sustain  the  position  he 
had  previously  assumed.  To  this  the  President  thus  re 
plied  : — 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  405 


EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  'WASHINGTON  ,  August  11.  18G3. 

His  Excellency  HOKA.TIO  SEYMOTJE, 

Governor  of  New  York : 

Yours  of  the  8th,  with  Judge-Advocate  General  Waterbury's  report, 
was  received  to-day. 

Asking  you  to  remember  that  I  consider  time  as  being  very  important, 
botli  to  the  general  cause  of  the  country  and  to  the  soldiers  in  the  field,  I 
beg  to  remind  you  that  I  waited,  at  your  request,  from  the  1st  until  the 
6th  inst.,  to  receive  your  communication  dated  the  3d.  In  view  of  its 
great  length,  and  the  known  time  and  apparent  care  taken  in  its  prepara 
tion,  I  did  not  doubt  that  it  contained  your  full  case  as  you  desired  to 
present  it.  It  contained  the  figures  for  twelve  districts,  omitting  the 
other  nineteen,  as  I  suppose,  because  you  found  nothing  to  complain  of  as 
to  them.  I  answered  accordingly.  In  doing  so  I  laid  down  the  principle 
to  which  I  purpose  adhering,  which  is  to  proceed  with  the  draft,  at  tho 
same  time  employing  infallible  means  to  avoid  any  great  wrong.  With 
the  communication  received  to-day  you  send  figures  for  twenty-eight  dis 
tricts,  including  the  twelve  sent  before,  and  still  omitting  three,  for  which 
I  suppose  the  enrolments  are  not  yet  received.  In  looking  over  the  fuller 
list  of  twenty-eight  districts,  I  find  that  the  quotas  for  sixteen  of  them  arc 
above  2,000  and  below  2,700,  while,  of  the  rest,  six  are  above  2,700  and 
six  are  below  2,000.  Applying  the  principle  to  these  new  facts,  the  Fifth 
and  Seventh  Districts  must  be  added  to  the  four  in  which  the  quotas  have 
already  been  reduced  to  2,200  for  the  first  draft;  and  with  these  four 
others  must  be  added  to  those  to  be  re-enrolled.  The  correct  case  will 
then  stand:  the  quotas  of  the  Second,  Fourth,  Fifth,  Sixth,  Seventh,  and 
Eighth  Districts  fixed  at  2,200  for  the  first  draft.  The  Provost-Marshal 
General  informs  me  that  the  drawing  is  already  completed  in  the  Six 
teenth,  Seventeenth,  Eighteenth,  Twenty-second,  Twenty-fourth,  Twenty- 
sixth,  Twenty-seventh,  Twenty-eighth,  Twenty-ninth,  and  Thirtieth  Dis 
tricts.  In  the  others,  except  the  three  outstanding,  the  drawing  will  be 
made  upon  the  quotas  as  now  fixed.  After  the  first  draft,  the  Second, 
Fourth,  Fifth,  Sixth,  Seventh,  Eighth,  Sixteenth,  Seventeenth,  Twenty- 
first,  Twenty-fifth,  Twenty-ninth,  and  Thirty- first  will  be  enrolled  for  the 
purpose,  and  in  the  manner  stated  in  my  letter  of  the  7th  inst  The  same 
principle  will  be  applied  to  the  now  outstanding  districts  when  they  shall 
come  in.  No  part  of  my  former  letter  is  repudiated  by  reason  of  not 
being  restated  in  this,  or  for  any  other  cause. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

The  draft  in  'New  York  was  resumed  on  the  19th  of  Au 
gust,  and  as  ample  preparations  had  been  made  for  the 
preservation  of  the  public  peace,  it  encountered  no  further 


406  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

opposition.  In  every  other  part  of  the  country  the  pro 
ceedings  were  conducted  and  completed  without  resist 
ance. 

Some  difficulty  was  experienced  in  Chicago,  and  the 
Mayor  and  Comptroller  of  that  city  addressed  the  Presi 
dent  on  the  subject  of  alleged  frauds  in  the  enrolment, 
and  received  the  following  dispatch  in  reply : — 

WASHINGTON,  August  27, 1863. 

F.  0.  SHERMAN,  Mayor ;  J.  S.  HATS,  Comptroller : 

Yours  of  the  24th,  in  relation  to  the  draft,  is  received.  It  seems  to  me 
the  Government  here  will  be  overwhelmed  if  it  undertakes  to  conduct 
these  matters  with  the  authorities  of  cities  and  counties.  They  must  be 
conducted  with  the  Governors  of  States,  who  will,  of  course,  represent 
their  cities  and  counties.  Meanwhile,  you  need  not  be  uneasy  until  you 
again  hear  from  here.  A.  LINCOLN. 

Subsequently,  in  reply  to  further  representations  on  the 
subject,  the  same  gentlemen  received  the  following  : — 

WASHINGTON,  September  7, 1863. 

Yours  of  August  29th  just  received.  I  suppose  it  was  intended  by  Con 
gress  that  this  Government  should  execute  the  act  in  question  without 
dependence  upon  any  other  Government,  State,  City,  or  County.  It  is, 
however,  within  the  range  of  practical  convenience  to  confer  with  the 
Governments  of  States,  while  it  is  quite  beyond  that  range  to  have  cor 
respondence  on  the  subject  with  counties  and  cities.  They  are  too  nu 
merous.  As  instances,  I  have  corresponded  with  Governor  Seymour,  but 
not  with  Mayor  Opdyke;  with  Governor  Curtin,  but  not  with  Mayor 
Henry.  A.  LINCOLN. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          407 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

MILITARY  EVENTS  OF  1863.— THE  REBEL   DEFEAT  AT  GETTYS 
BURG.— FALL  OF  VICKSBURG  AND  PORT  HUDSON. 

THE  BATTLES  AT  FREDERICKSBURG. — REBEL  RAID  INTO  PENNSYLVANIA. — 

.     RESULTS  AT  GETTYSBURG. — VICKSBURG  AND  POET  HUDSON  CAPTURED. — 

PUBLIC  REJOICINGS.  —  THE  PRESIDENT'S  SPEECH.  —  THANKSGIVING  FOB 

VICTORIES. — BATTLE  OF  CHATTANOOGA. — THANKSGIVING  PROCLAMATION. 

THE  military  events  of  1863,  though  of  very  great  im 
portance,  are  much  less  closely  connected  with  the  direct 
action  of  the  President  than  those  which  occurred  in 
1862  ;  we  shall  not  attempt,  therefore,  to  narrate  them  as 
much  in  detail.  When  General  Burnside  succeeded  Gen 
eral  McClellan  in  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
on  the  7th  of  November,  1862,  that  army  was  at  Warren- 
ton,  the  rebel  forces  falling  back  before  it  towards  Rich 
mond.  Deeming  it  impossible  to  force  the  enemy  to  a 
decisive  battle,  and  unsafe  to  follow  him  to  Richmond  on 
a  line  which  must  make  it  very  difficult  to  keep  up  his 
communications,  General  Burnside,  on  the  15th,  turned 
his  army  towards  Fredericksburg — marching  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  Rappahannock,  intending  to  cross  the  river, 
take  possession  of  Fredericksburg,  and  march  upon  Rich 
mond  from  that  point.  The  advance  division,  under  Gen 
eral  Sumner,  arrived  opposite  Fredericksburg  on  the 
19th  ;  but  a  pontoon  train,  which  had  been  ordered  and 
was  expected  to  be  there  at  the  same  time,  had  not  come 
—so  that  crossing  at  the  moment  was  impossible.  The 
delay  that  thus  became  unavoidable  enabled  General  Lee 
to  bring  up  a  strong  force  from  the  rebel  army,  and  possess 
himself  of  the  heights  of  Fredericksburg.  On  the  night 
of  the  10th  of  December,  General  Burnside  threw  a  bridge 
of  pontoons  across  the  river,  and  the  next  day  constructed 
four  bridges,  under  cover  of  a  terrific  bombardment  of 
the  town.  On  the  llth  and  12th  his  army  was  crossed 
over,  and  on  the  13th  attacked  the  enemy — General  Sum- 


408  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ner  commanding  in  front,  and  General  Franklin  Laying 
command  of  a  powerful  flanking  movement  against  the 
rebel  right.  The  rebels,  however,  were  too  strongly  post 
ed  to  be  dislodged.  Our  forces  suffered  severely,  and 
were  unable  to  advance.  On  the  night  of  the  15th,  they 
were  therefore  withdrawn  to  the  opposite  bank  of  the 
river.  Our  losses  in  this  engagement  were  one  thousand 
one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  killed,  nine  thousand  one 
hundred  and  five  wounded,  two  thousand  and  seventy- 
eight  missing  ;  total,  twelve  thousand  three  hundred  and 
twenty-one. 

The  army  remained  quiet  until  the  20th  of  January, 
when  General  Burnside  again  issued  orders  for  an  ad 
vance,  intending  to  cross  the  river  some  six  or  eight  miles 
above  Fredericksburg,  and  make  a  flank  attack  upon  the 
left  wing  of  the  rebel  army.  The  whole  army  was  moved 
to  the  place  of  crossing  early  in  the  morning,  but  a  heavy 
storm  on  the  preceding  night  had  so  damaged  the  roads 
as  to  make  it  impossible  to  bring  up  artillery  and  pontoons 
with  the  promptness  essential  to  success.  On  the  24th, 
General  Burnside  was  relieved  from  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  General  Hooker  appointed  in 
his  place.  Three  months  were  passed  in  inaction,  the 
season  forbidding  any  movement ;  but  on  the  27th  of 
April,  General  Hooker  pushed  three  divisions  of  his  army 
to  Kelley'  s  Ford,  twenty-five  miles  above  Fredericksburg, 
and  by  the  30th  had  crossed  the  river,  and  turning  south, 
had  reached  Chancellorsville — five  or  six  miles  southwest 
of  that  town.  A  strong  cavalry  force,  under  General 
Stoneman,  had  been  sent  to  cut  the  railroad  in  the  rear  of 
the  rebel  army,  so  as  to  prevent  their  receiving  re- enforce 
ments  from  Richmond — General  Hooker's  design  being 
to  attack  the  enemy  in  flank  and  rear.  The  other  divi 
sions  of  his  army  had  crossed  and  joined  his  main  force 
at  Chancellorsville,  General  Sedgwick,  with  one  division 
only,  being  left  opposite  Fredericksburg.  On  the  2d  of 
May,  the  left  wing  of  the  rebel  army,  under  General  Jack 
son,  attacked  our  right,  and  gained  a  decided  advantage 
of  position,  which  was  recovered,  however,  before  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  409 

day  closed.  The  action  was  renewed  next  day,  and  the 
advantage  remained  with  the  enemy.  General  Sedgwick, 
meantime,  had  crossed  the  river  and  occupied  the  heights 
of  Fredericksburg,  but  was  driven  from  them  and  com 
pelled  to  retreat  on  the  night  of  the  4th.  On  the  morning 
of  the  5th  a  heavy  rain-storm  set  in,  and  in  the  night  of 
that  day  General  Hooker  withdrew  his  army  to  the  north 
bank  of  the  Rappahannock,  having  lost  not  far  from 
eighteen  thousand  men  in  the  movement. 

Both  armies  remained  inactive  until  the  9th  of  June, 
when  it  was  discovered  that  the  rebel  forces  under  Lee  were 
leaving  their  position  near  Fredericksburg  and  moving 
northwest,  through  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah.  On 
the  13th  the  rebel  General  Ewell,  with  a  heavy  force,  at 
tacked  our  advance  post  of  seven  thousand  men  at  Win 
chester  under  General  Milroy,  and  not  only  compelled 
him  to  retreat,  but  pursued  him  so  closely  as  to  convert 
his  retreat  into  a  rout ;  and  on  the  14th  of  June  the  rebel 
army  began  to  cross  the  Potomac  and  advanced  upon 
Hagerstown,  Maryland,  with  the  evident  purpose  of  in 
vading  Pennsylvania.  The  movement  created  the  most 
intense  excitement  throughout  the  country.  President 
Lincoln  issued  a  proclamation  calling  for  one  hundred 
thousand  militia  from  the  States  most  directly  menaced, 
to  serve  for  six  months,  and  New  York  was  summoned 
to  send  twenty  thousand  also.  On  the  27th  the  main  body 
of  the  rebel  army  crossed  the  Potomac  at  Williamsport, 
and  General  Lee  took  up  his  head-quarters  at  Hagerstown. 

Meantime,  as  soon  as  the  movement  of  the  rebel  forces 
from  Fredericksburg  was  discovered,  our  army  had  broken 
up  its  encampment  and  marched  northward,  on  a  line 
nearly  parallel  with  that  of  the  enemy,  and  on  the  27th, 
the  same  day  that  the  rebels  reached  Hagerstown,  the 
head-quarters  of  our  army  were  at  Frederick  City — our 
whole  force  being  thus  interposed  between  the  rebels  and 
both  Baltimore  and  Washington,  and  prepared  to  follow 
them  into  Pennsylvania.  On  that  day  General  Hooker 
was  relieved  from  command  of  the  army,  which  was  con 
ferred  upon  General  Meade,-  who  at  once  ordered  an  ad- 


410  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

vance  into  Pennsylvania  in  the  general  direction  of  Har- 
risburg — towards  which  the  enemy  was  rapidly  advancing 
in  force.  On  the  1st  of  July  our  advanced  corps,  the 
First  and  Eleventh,  under  Generals  Keynolds  and  Howard, 
came  in  contact  with  the  enemy,  strongly  posted  near  the 
town  of  Gettysburg,  and,  attacking  at  once,  fought  an  in 
decisive  battle  ;  the  enemy  being  so  far  superior  in  num 
bers  as  to  compel  General  Howard,  who  was  in  command 
at  the  time,  to  fall  back  to  Cemetery  Hill  and  wait  for 
re-enforcements.  During  the  night  all  the  corps  of  our 
army  were  concentrated  and  the  next  day  posted  around 
that  point.  The  Eleventh  Corps  retained  its  position  on 
the  Cemetery  ridge  :  the  First  Corps  was  on  the  right  of 
the  Eleventh,  on  a  knoll,  connecting  with  the  ridge  ex 
tending  to  the  south  and  east,  on  which  the  Second  Corps 
was  placed.  The  right  of  the  Twelfth  Corps  rested  on  a 
small  stream.  The  Second  and  Third  Corps  were  posted 
on  the  left  of  the  Eleventh,  on  the  prolongation  of  Ceme 
tery  ridge.  The  Fifth  was  held  in  reserve  until  the  arrival 
of  the  Sixth,  at  2  P.  M.  on  the  2d,  after  a  march  of  thirty- 
two  miles  in  seventeen  hours,  when  the  Fifth  was  ordered 
to  the  extreme  left  and  the  Sixth  placed  in  reserve. 

At  about  3  o'clock  the  battle  was  opened  by  a  tremen 
dous  onset  of  the  enemy,  whose  troops  were  massed 
along  a  ridge  a  mile  or  so  in  our  front,  upon  the  Third 
Corps,  which  formed  oar  extreme  left,  and  which  met  the* 
shock  with  heroic  firmness,  until  it  was  supported  by  the 
Third  and  Fifth.  General  Sickles,  who  commanded  the 
Third  Corps,  was  severely  wounded  early  in  the  action, 
and  General  Birney,  who  succeeded  to  the  command, 
though  urged  to  fall  back,  was  enabled,  by  the  help  of  the 
First  and  Sixth  Corps,  to  hold  his  ground,  and  at  about 
sunset  the  enemy  retired  in  confusion.  Another  assault 
was  made  on  our  left  during  the  evening,  which  was  also 
repulsed.  On  the  morning  of  the  3d,  a  spirited  assault  was 
made  upon  the  right  of  our  line,  but  without  success  ; 
and  at  one  p.  M.  the  enemy  opened  an  artillery  fire  upon 
our  centre  and  left  from  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
guns,  which  continued  for  over  two  hours,  without  reply 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          411 

from  our  side,  when  it  was  followed  by  a  heavy  assault 
of  infantry,  directed  mainly  against  the  Second  Corps, 
and  repelled  with  firmness  and  success  by  that  corps, 
supported  by  Stannard's  Brigade  of  the  First  Corps. 
This  repulse  of  the  centre  terminated  the  battle.  On 
the  morning  of  the  4th,  a  reconnoissance  showed  that  the 
enemy  had  withdrawn  his  left  flank,  maintaining  his  posi 
tion  in  front  of  our  left,  with  the  apparent  purpose  of  form 
ing  a  new  line  of  attack ;  but  the  next  morning  it  was 
ascertained  that  he  was  in  full  retreat.  The  Sixth  Corps, 
with  all  disposable  cavalry,  were  at  once  sent  in  pursuit ; 
but  ascertaining  that  the  enemy  had  availed  himself  of 
very  strong  passes  which  could  be  held  by  a  small  force, 
General  Meade  determined  to  pursue  by  a  flank  move 
ment,  and  after  burying  the  dead  and  succoring  the 
wounded,  the  whole  army  was  put  in  motion  for  the 
Potomac.  On  the  12th  it  arrived  in  front  of  the  enemy, 
strongly  posted  on  the  heights  in  advance  of  Williams- 
port.  The  next  day  was  devoted  to  an  examination  of 
the  position  ;  but  on  advancing  for  an  attack  on  the  14th, 
it  was  discovered  that  the  enemy  had  succeeded  in  cross 
ing  by  the  bridge  at  Falling  Waters  and  the  ford  at 
Williamsport.  The  pursuit  was  continued  still  further, 
but  the  enemy,  though  greatly  harassed  and  subjected  to 
severe  losses,  succeeded  in  gaining  the  line  of  the  Eapi- 
dan,  and  our  forces  again  occupied  their  old  position  on 
the  Rappahannock. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  July,  the  day  celebrated 
throughout  the  country  as  the  anniversary  of  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence,  the  President  issued  the  fol 
lowing  : — 

"WASHINGTON,  July  4, 10.30  A.  M. 

The  President  announces  to  the  country  that  news  from  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  up  to  10  P.  M.  of  the  3d,  is  such  as  to  cover  that  army  with 
the  highest  honor;  to  promise  a  great  success  to  the  cause  of  the  Union, 
and  to  claim  the  condolence  of  all  for  the  many  gallant  fallen ;  and  that 
for  this  he  especially  desires  that  on  this  day,  He,  whose  will,  not  ours, 
should  ever  be  done,  be  everywhere  remembered  and  reverenced  with 
profoundest  gratitude.  A.  LINCOLN. 

The  result  of  this  battle — one  of  the  severest  and  most 


412  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

sanguinary  of  the  war— was  of  the  utmost  importance. 
It  drove  the  rebels  back  from  their  intended  invasion  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  and  compelled  them  to 
evacuate  the  upper  part  of  the  Valley  of  the  Shenan- 
doah,  leaving  in  our  hands  nearly  fourteen  thousand  pris 
oners,  and  twenty-five  thousand  small  arms  collected  on 
the  battle-field.  Our  own  losses  were  very  severe,  amount 
ing  to  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-four  killed, 
thirteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and  nine  wounded,  and 
six  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty-three  missing— in  all 
twenty-three  thousand  one  hundred  and  eighty-six. 

During  the  ensuing  season,  a  piece  of  ground,  seventeen 
and  a  half  acres  in  extent,  adjoining  the  town  cemetery, 
and  forming  an  important  part  of  the  battle-field,  was 
purchased  by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  to  be  used  as  a 
national  bursting-ground  for  the  loyal  soldiers  who  fell 
in  that  great  engagement.  It  was  dedicated,  with  solemn 
and  impressive  ceremonies,  on  the  19th  of  November, 
1863,  the  President  and  members  of  his  Cabinet  being  in 
attendance,  and  a  very  large  and  imposing  military  dis 
play  adding  grace  and  dignity  to  the  occasion.  Hon. 
Edward  Everett  delivered  the  formal  address,  and  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  made  the  following  remarks  : — 

Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  onr  fathers  brought  forth  upon  this 
continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  prop 
osition  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great 
civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so 
dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are  met  on  a  great  battle-field  of  that 
war.  We  have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  resting- 
place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  nation  might  live.  It 
is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do  this.  But  in  ,1  larger 
sense  we  cannot  dedicate,  we  cannot  consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow  this 
ground.  The  brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  con 
secrated  it  far  above  our  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little 
note,  nor  long  remember,  what  we  say  here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what 
they  did  here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the 
unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  ad 
vanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remain 
ing  before  us,  that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion 
to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion ;  that 
we  here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain ;  that 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          413 

this  nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  and  that  gov 
ernment  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish 
from  the  earth. 

The  other  great  military  achievement  of  the  year  waa 
the  capture  of  Port  Hudson  and  Vicksburg,  and  the 
opening  of  the  Mississippi  River  throughout  its  entire 
length  to  the  commerce  of  the  United  States.  General  N. 
P.  Banks,  who  succeeded  General  Butler  in  command  of 
the  military  department  of  Louisiana,  reached  New  Or 
leans,  sustained  by  a  formidable  expedition  from  New 
York,  and  assumed  command  on  the  15th  of  December, 
1862,  and  at  once  took  possession  of  Baton  Eouge.  On 
the  21st,  an  expedition  under  General  W.  T.  Sherman 
started  from  Memphis,  passed  down  the  Mississippi  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo,  some  ten  miles  above  Vicksburg, 
and  on  the  26th  ascended  that  river,  landed,  and  com 
menced  an  attack  upon  the  town  from  the  rear.  Severe 
lighting  continued  for  three  days,  during  which  time  our 
army  pushed  within  two  miles  of  the  city  ;  but  on  the 
30th  they  were  repulsed  with  heavy  loss.  On  the  2d  of 
January,  General  McClernand  arrived  and  took  com 
mand,  and  the  attack  upon  Vicksburg  was  for  the  time 
abandoned  as  hopeless.  The  capture  of  Arkansas  Post, 
however,  relieved  the  failure  in  some  degree.  On  Feb 
ruary  2d,  General  Grant  having  been  put  in  command, 
the  attack  upon  Vicksburg  was  renewed.  Various  plans 
were  undertaken,  now  to  get  in  the  rear  of  the  place  through 
baj^ous,  and  now  to  cut  a  canal  across  a  bend  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  and  thus  command  the  river  above  and  below. 
All  these  failing,  vessels  were  boldly  run  by  the  rebel 
batteries ;  and,  on  the  30th  of  April,  General  Grant 
crossed  the  river  at  Bruinsburg,  sixty-five  miles  below 
Vicksburg,  and  immediately  advanced  upon  Port  Gib 
son,  where  he  was  opposed  by  the  rebel  General  Bow- 
en,  who  was  defeated,  with  a  loss  in  killed,  wounded, 
and  prisoners,  of  one  thousand  five  hundred  men.  At 
Grand  Gulf,  ten  miles  above  Bruinsburg,  the  enemy  had 
begun  to  erect  strong  fortifications.  These  had  been 
fired  upon  by  our  gunboats  a  few  days  before,  under 
cover  of  which  the  fleet  had  run  past.  Grant  having 


414  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

now  gained  the  rear  of  this  strong  post,  Admiral  Porter, 
two  days  after  the  fight  at  Port  Gibson,  returned  to 
Grand  Gulf  and  found  it  abandoned.  Grant's  army 
then  marched  upward  towards  Vicksburg,  and  on  the 
12th  of  May  encountered  the  enemy  again  at  Raymond, 
not  far  from  Jackson,  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Missis 
sippi,  and  again  defeated  them  with  a  loss  of  eight  hun 
dred.  Two  days  after,  May  14,  they  were  opposed  by  a 
corps  of  the  enemy  under  General  Joseph  E,  Johnston, 
formerly  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Confederate 
army,  who  had  been  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  De 
partment  of  the  Mississippi.  Johnston  was  defeated,  and 
the  city  of  Jackson  fell  into  our  hands,  with  seventeen 
pieces  of  artillery  and  large  stores  of  supplies.  Grant 
then  turned  to  the  west,  directly  upon  the  rear  of  Vicks 
burg.  General  Pemberton,  the  commander  at  that  point, 
advanced  with  the  hope  of  checking  him,  but  was  de 
feated,  on  the  16th,  at  Baker's  Creek,  losing  four  thou 
sand  men,  and  twenty-nine  pieces  of  artillery.  On  the 
next  day  the  same  force  was  encountered  and  defeated  at 
Big  Black  River  Bridge,  ten  miles  from  Vicksburg,  with 
a  loss  of  two  thousand  six  hundred  men,  and  seventeen 
pieces  of  artillery.  On  the  18th,  Vicksburg  was  closely 
invested,  and  the  enemy  were  shut  up  within  their  works, 
which  were  found  to  be  very  strong.  An  attempt  to 
carry  them  by  storm  was  unsuccessful,  and  regular  siege 
was  at  once  laid  to  the  city  by  the  land  forces,  the  gun 
boats  in  the  river  co-operating.  Our  approaches  were 
pushed  forward  with  vigorous  perseverance  ;  our  works, 
in  spite  of  the  most  strenuous  opposition  of  the  garrison 
under  General  Pemberton,  drawing  nearer  every  day, 
and  the  gunboats  in  the  river  keeping  up  an  almost  con 
stant  bombardment.  The  enemy,  it  was  known,  were 
greatly  straitened  by  want  of  supplies  and  ammuni 
tion,  and  their  only  hope  of  relief  was  that  General 
Johnston  would  be  able  to  collect  an  army  sufficient  to 
raise  the  siege  by  attacking  Grant  in  his  rear.  This  had 
been  so  strongly  defended  that  a  force  of  fifty  thousand 
men  would  have  been  required  to  make  the  attempt  with 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          415 

with  any  hope  of  success,  and  Johnston  was  not  able  to 
concentrate  half  of  that  number.  General  Pemberton, 
therefore,  proposed  to  surrender  Vicksburg  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  4th  of  July,  on  condition  that  his  troops  should 
be  permitted  to  march  out.  Grant  refused,  demanding  an 
absolute  surrender  of  the  garrison  as  prisoners  of  war. 
Upon  consultation  with  his  officers,  Pemberton  acceded 
to  these  terms.  By  this  surrender  about  thirty-one  thou 
sand  prisoners,  two  hundred  and  twenty  cannon,  and 
seventy  thousand  stand  of  small  arms  fell  into  our  hands. 
The  prisoners  were  at  once  released  on  parole.  The 
entire  loss  of  the  enemy  during  the  campaign  which  was 
thus  closed  by  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg,  was  nearly 
forty  thousand  ;  ours  was  not  far  from  seven  thousand. 

The  capture  of  Vicksburg  was  immediately  followed 
by  that  of  Port  Hudson,  which  was  surrendered  on  the 
8th  of  July  to  General  Banks,  together  with  about  seven 
thousand  prisoners,  fifty  cannon,  and  a  considerable  num 
ber  of  small  arms.  The  whole  course  of  the  Mississippi, 
from  its  source  to  its  mouth,  was  thus  opened,  and  the 
Confederacy  virtually  separated  into  two  parts,  neither 
capable  of  rendering  any  effective  assistance  to  the  other. 

The  great  victories,  by  which  the  Fourth  of  July  had 
been  so  signally  and  so  gloriously  commemorated,  called 
forth  the  most  enthusiastic  rejoicings  in  every  section  of 
the  country.  Public  meetings  were  held  in  nearly  all  the 
cities  and  principal  towns,  at  which  eloquent  speeches 
and  earnest  resolutions  expressed  the  joy  of  the  people, 
and  testified  their  unflinching  purpose  to  prosecute  the 
war  until  the  rebellion  should  be  extinguished.  A  large 
concourse  of  the  citizens  of  Washington,  preceded  by  a 
band  of  music,  visited  the  residence  of  the  President,  and 
the  members  of  his  Cabinet — giving  them,  in  succession, 
the  honors  of  a  serenade — which  the  President  acknowl 
edged  in  the  following  remarks  : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  am  very  glad  indeed  to  see  you  to-night,  and  yet 
I  will  not  say  I  thank  you,  for  this  call ;  but  I  do  most  sincerely  thank 
Almighty  God  for  the  occasion  on  which  you  have  called.  How  long 
ago  is  it  ? — eighty  odd  years  since,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  for  the  first 


416  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

time,  in  the  history  of  the  world,  a  nation,  by  its  representatives,  assem 
bled  and  declared  as  a  self-evident  truth,  "that  all  men  are  created 
equal."  That  was  the  birthday  of  the  United  States  of  America.  Sinco 
then  the  Fourth  of  July  has  had  several  very  peculiar  recognitions.  The 
two  men  most  distinguished  in  the  framing  and  support  of  the  Declara 
tion  were  Thomas  Jefferson  and  John  Adams — the  one  having  penned 
it,  and  the  other  sustained  it  the  most  forcibly  in  debate — the  only  two 
of  the  fifty-five  who  signed  it,  and  were  elected  Presidents  of  the  United 
States.  Precisely  fifty  years  after  they  put  their  hands  to  the  paper,  it 
pleased  Almighty  God  to  take  both  from  this  stage  of  action.  This  was 
indeed  an  extraordinary  and  remarkable  event  in  our  history.  Another 
President,  five  years  after,  was  called  from  this  stage  of  existence  on 
the  same  day  and  month  of  the  year;  and  now  on  this  last  Fourth  of 
July,  just  passed,  when  we  have  a  gigantic  rebellion,  at  the  bottom  of 
which  is  an  effort  to  overthrow  the  principle  that  all  men  were  created 
equal,  we  have  the  surrender  of  a  most  powerful  position  and  army  on 
that  very  day.  And  not  only  so,  but  in  a  succession  of  battles  in  Penn 
sylvania,  near  to  us,  through  three  days,  so  rapidly  fought  that  they 
might  be  called  one  great  battle,  on  the  first,  second,  and  third  of  the 
month  of  July ;  and  on  the  fourth  the  cohorts  of  those  who  opposed 
the  Declaration  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  "turned  tail"  and  run. 
[Long-continued  cheers.]  Gentlemen,  this  is  a  glorious  theme,  and  the 
occasion  for  a  speech,  but  I  am  not  prepared  to  make  one  worthy  of  the 
occasion.  I  would  like  to  speak  in  terms  of  praise  due  to  the  many  brave 
officers  and  soldiers  who  have  fought  in  the  cause  of  the  Union  and  liber 
ties  of  their  country  from  the  beginning  of  the  war.  These  are  trying 
occasions,  not  only  in  success,  but  for  the  want  of  success.  I  dislike  to 
mention  the  name  of  one  single  officer,  lest  I  might  do  wrong  to  those  I 
might  forget.  Recent  events  bring  up  glorious  names,  and  particularly 
prominent  ones ;  but  these  I  will  not  mention.  Having  said  this  much,  I 
will  now  take  the  music. 

The  President,  a  few  days  afterwards,  wrote  to  General 
Grant  the  following  letter : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  July  13, 1SC3. 

Major-General  GRANT  : 

MY  DEAR  GENERAL: — I  do  not  remember  that  you  and  I  ever  met  per 
sonally.  I  write  this  now  as  a  grateful  acknowledgment  for  the  almost 
inestimable  service  you  have  done  the  country.  I  write  to  say  a  word 
further.  When  you  first  reached  the  vicinity  of  Vicksburg,  I  thought  you 
should  do  what  you  finally  did — march  the  troops  across  the  neck,  run 
the  batteries  with  the  transports,  and  thus  go  below ;  and  I  never  had 
any  faith,  except  a  general  hope  that  you  knew  better  than  I,  that  the 
Yazoo  Pass  expedition,  and  the  like,  could  succeed.  When  you  got  below, 
and  took  Port  Gibson,  Grand  Gulf,  and  vicinity,  I  thought  you  should  go 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  417 

down  the  river  arid  join  General  Banks,  and  when  you  turned  northward, 
east  of  the  Big  Black,  I  feared  it  was  a  mistake.  I  now  wish  to  make  the 
personal  acknowledgment,  that  you  were  right  and  I  was  wrong. 

Yours,  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

These  victories,  together  with  others,  "both  numerous 
and  important,  which  were  achieved  in  other  sections  of 
the  country,  gave  such  strong  grounds  of  encouragement 
and  hope  for  the  speedy  overthrow  of  the  rebellion,  that, 
on  the  15th  of  July,  the  President  issued  the  following 
proclamation  for  a  day  of  National  Thanksgiving  :— 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
A  PROCLAMATION. 

It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  hearken  to  the  supplications  and 
prayers  of  an  afflicted  people,  and  to  vouchsafe  to  the  Army  and  the 
Navy  of  the  United  States,  on  the  land  and  on  the  sea,  victories  so  signal 
and  so  effective  as  to  furnish  reasonable  grounds  for  augmented  confi 
dence  that  the  Union  of  these  States  will  bo  maintained,  their  Constitu 
tion  preserved,  and  their  peace  and  prosperity  permanently  secured ;  but 
these  victories  have  been  accorded,  not  without  sacrifice  of  life,  limb, 
and  liberty,  incurred  by  brave,  patriotic,  and  loyal  citizens.  Domestic 
affliction,  in  every  part  of  the  country,  follows  in  the  train  of  these  fear 
ful  bereavements.  It  is  meet  and  right  to  recognize  and  confess  the  prcs 
ence  of  the  Almighty  Father,  and  the  power  of  His  hand,  equally  in 
these  triumphs  and  these  sorrows. 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known,  that  I  do  set  apart  Thursday,  the  sixth 
day  of  August  next,  to  be  observed  as  a  day  for  National  Thanksgiving, 
praise,  and  prayer;  and  I  invite  the  people  of  the  United  States  to  assem 
ble  on  that  occasion  in  their  customary  places  of  worship,  and  in  the 
form  approved  by  their  own  conscience,  render  the  homage  due  to  the 
Divine  Majesty,  for  the  wonderful  things  He  has  done  in  the  Nation's 
behalf,  and  invoke  the  influence  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  to  subdue  the  anger 
which  has  produced,  and  so  long  sustained  a  needless  and  cruel  rebellion ; 
to  change  the  hearts  of  the  insurgents;  to  guide  the  counsels  of  the  Gov 
ernment  with  wisdom  adequate  to  so  great  a  national  emergency,  and  to 
visit  with  tender  care  and  consolation,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  our  land,  all  those  who,  through  the  vicissitudes  of  marches,  voyages, 
battles,  and  sieges,  have  been  brought  to  suffer  in  mind,  body,  or  estate, 
and  finally,  to  lead  the  whole  nation,  through  paths  of  repentance  and 
submission  to  the  Divine  will,  back  to  the  perfect  enjoyment  of  union 
and  fraternal  peace. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand,  and  caused  th#  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 
27 


118  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  15th  day  of  July,  in  the  j  ear  of 
our   Lord  one  thousand   eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of 
[L.  s.]  the    independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty  - 
eighth.  ABIIAHAM  LINCOLN, 

By  the  President: 

WM.  II.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

In  other  portions  of  the  field  of  war,  our  arms,  during 
the  year  1863,  had  achieved  other  victories  of  marked 
importance  which  deserve  mention,  though  their  relation 
to  the  special  object  of  this  work  is  not  such  as  to  require 
them  to  be  described  in  detail. 

After  the  retreat  of  the  rebel  General  Lee  to  the  south 
side  of  the  Rapidan,  a  considerable  portion  of  his  army 
was  detached  and  sent  to  re-enforce  Bragg,  threatened  by 
Rosecrans,  at  Chattanooga ;  but,  with  his  numbers  thus 
diminished,  Lee  assumed  a  threatening  attitude  against 
Meade,  and  turning  his  left  flank,  forced  him  to  fall  back 
to  the  line  of  Bull  Run.  Several  sharp  skirmishes  oc 
curred  during  these  operations,  in  which  both  sides  sus 
tained  considerable  losses,  but  no  substantial  advantage 
was  gained  by  the  rebels,  and  by  the  1st  of  November 
they  had  resumed  their  original  position  on  the  south  side 
of  the  Rapidan. 

After  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro' ,  and  the  occupation 
of  that  place  by  our  troops,  on  the  5th  of  January,  1863, 
the  enemy  took  position  at  Shelby ville  and  Tullahoma, 
and  the  winter  and  spring  were  passed  in  raids  and  unim 
portant-  skirmishes.  In  June,  while  General  Grant  was 
besieging  Vicksburg,  information  reached  the  Govern 
ment  which  led  to  the  belief  that  a  portion  of  Bragg' s 
army  had  been  sent  to  the  relief  of  that  place  ;  and  Gen 
eral  Rosecrans  was  urged  to  take  advantage  of  this  divi 
sion  of  the  rebel  forces  and  drive  them  back  into  Georgia, 
so  as  completely  to  deliver  East  Tennessee  from  the  rebel 
armies.  He  was  told  that  General  Burnside  would  move 
from.  Kentucky  in  aid  of  this  movement.  General  Rose 
crans,  however,  deemed  his  forces  unequal  to  such  an 
enterprise ;  but,  receiving  re-enforcements,  he  commenced 
on  1  bp  25th  of  June  a  forward  movement  upon  the  enemy, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  419 

strongly  intrenched  at  Tullahoma,  with  his  main  force 
near  Shelby ville.  Deceiving  the  rebel  General  by  a 
movement  upon  his  left  flank,  Rosecrans  threw  the  main 
body  of  his  army  upon  the  enemy's  right,  which  he  turned 
so  completely  that  Bragg  abandoned  his  position,  and  feil 
back  rapidly,  and  in  confusion,  to  Bridgeport,  Alabama, 
being  pursued  as  far  as  practicable  by  our  forces.  Gen 
eral  Burnside  had  been  ordered  to  connect  himself  with 
Rosecrans,  but  had  failed  to  do  so.  Bragg  continued  his 
retreat  across  the  Cumberland  Mountain  and  the  Tennes 
see  River,  and  took  post  at  Chattanooga,  whither  he  was 
pursued  by  Rosecrans,  who  reached  the  Tennessee  on  the 
20th  of  August,  and  on  the  21st  commenced  shelling  Chat 
tanooga  and  making  preparation  for  throwing  his  army 
across  the  river.  A  reconnoissance,  made  by  General 
Crittenden  on  the  9th  of  September,  disclosed  the  fact 
that  the  rebels  had  abandoned  the  position,  which  was 
immediately  occupied  by  our  forces,  who  pushed  forward 
towards  the  South.  Indications  that  the  rebel  General 
was  receiving  heavy  re-enforcements  and  manoeuvring  to 
turn  the  right  of  our  army,  led  to  a  concentration  of  all  our 
available  forces ;  but,  notwithstanding  all  this,  on  the 
19th  of  September,  General  Rosecrans  was  attacked 
by  the  rebel  forces — their  main  force  being  directed 
against  his  left  wing,  under  General  Thomas,  endeav 
oring  to  turn  it  so  as  to  gain  the  road  to  Chattanoo 
ga.  The  attack  was  renewed  the  next  morning,  and 
with  temporary  success — Longstreet's  Corps,  which  had 
been  brought  down  from  the  Army  of  Virginia,  hav 
ing  reached  the  field  and  poured  its  massive  columns 
through  a  gap  left  in  the  centre  of  our  line  by  an  unfor 
tunate  misapprehension  of  an  order ;  but  the  opportune 
arrival  and  swift  energy  of  General  Granger  checked  his 
advance,  and  the  desperate  valor  of  Thomas  and  his 
troops  repulsed  every  subsequent  attempt  of  the  enemy 
to  carry  the  position.  Our  losses,  in  this  series  of  engage 
ments,  were  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-four  killed,  nine 
thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty-two  wounded,  and  four 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty -rive  missing — a  total  t 


420  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

swelled  by  the  estimated  losses  of  our  cavalry  to  about 
sixteen  thousand  three  hundred  and  fifty-one.  The  rebel 
General  immediately  sent  Longstreet  against  Burnside, 
who  was  at  Knoxville,  while  he  established  his  main 
force  again  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chattanooga.  In 
October,  General  Rosecrans  was  superseded  by  General 
Grant.  On  November  23d,  having  been  re-enforced  by 
General  Sherman  from  Vicksburg,  General  Grant  moved 
his  army  to  the  attack,  and  on  the  25th  the  whole  of  the 
range  of  heights  known  as  Missionary  Ridge,  held  by 
Bragg,  was  carried  by  our  troops  after  a  desperate  strug 
gle,  and  the  enemy  completely  routed.  This  was  a  very 
severe  engagement,  and  our  loss  was  estimated  at  about 
four  thousand.  Generals  Thomas  and  Hooker  pushed 
the  rebel  forces  back  into  Georgia,  and  Granger  and 
Sherman  were  sent  into  East  Tennessee  to  relieve  Burn- 
side,  and  raise  the  siege  of  Knoxyille,  which  was  pressed 
by  Longstreet,  who,  failing  in  this  attempt,  soon  after 
retreated  towards  Virginia. 

Upon  receiving  intelligence  of  these  movements  the 
President  issued  the  following  recommendation  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  December  7,  1863. 

Reliable  information  being  received  that  the  insurgent  force  is  retreat 
ing  from  East  Tennessee,  under  circumstances  rendering  it  probable  that 
the  Union  forces  cannot  hereafter  be  dislodged  from  that  important  posi 
tion  ;  and  esteeming  this  to  be  of  high  national  consequence,  I  recom 
mend  that  all  loyal  people  do,  on  receipt  of  this  information,  assemble  at 
their  places  of  worship,  and  render  special  homage  and  gratitude  to  Al 
mighty  God  for  this  great  advancement  of  the  national  cause. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

On  the  3d  of  October,  the  President  had  issued  the  fol 
lowing  proclamation,  recommending  the  observance  of  the 
last  Thursday  of  November  as  a  day  of  Thanksgiving  : — 

PROCLAMATION. 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
The  year  that  is  drawing  towards  its  close  has  been  filled  with  the 
blessings  of  fruitful  fields  and  healthful  skies.  To  these  bounties,  which 
are  so  constantly  enjoyed  that  we  are  prone  to  forget  the  source  from  whicl' 
they  come,  others  have  been  added  which  are  of  so  extraordinary  a  na 
ture  that  they  cannot  fail  to  penetrate  and  soften  even  the  heart  whicn 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  421 

is  habitually  insensible  to  the  ever-watchful  providence  of  Almighty 
God.  In  the  midst  of  a  civil  war  of  unequalled  magnitude  and  severity, 
which  has  sometimes  seemed  to  invite  and  provoke  the  aggressions  of 
foreign  States,  peace  has  been  preserved  with  all  nations,  order  has  been 
maintained,  the  laws  have  been  respected  and-  obeyed,  and  harmony  has 
prevailed  everywhere  except  in  the  theatre  of  military  conflict,  while 
that  theatre  has  been  greatly  contracted  by  the  advancing  armies  and 
navies  of  the  Union.  The  needful  diversion  of  wealth  and  strength  from 
the  fields  of  peaceful  industry  to  the  national  defence,  has  not  arrested 
the  plough,  the  shuttle,  or  the  ship.  The  axe  has  enlarged  the  borders  of 
our  settlements,  and  the  mines,  as  well  of  iron  and  coal  as  of  the  precious 
metals,  have  yielded  even  more  abundantly  than  heretofore.  Population 
has  steadily  increased,  notwithstanding  the  waste  that  has  been  made  in 
the  camp,  the  siege,  and  the  battle-field;  and  the  country,  rejoicing  iu 
the  consciousness  of  augmented  strength  and  vigor,  is  permitted  to  expect 
a  continuance  of  years,  with  large  increase  of  freedom. 

No  hnman  counsel  hath  devised,  nor  hath  any  mortal  hand  worked  out 
these  great  things.  They  are  the  gracious  gifts  of  the  Most  High  God, 
who,  while  dealing  with  us  in  anger  for  our  sins,  hath  nevertheless  re 
membered  mercy. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  fit  and  proper  that  they  should  be  solemnly, 
reverently,  and  gratefully  acknowledged,  as  with  one  heart  and  voice, 
by  the  whole  American  people.  I  do,  therefore,  invite  my  fellow-citizens 
in  every  part  of  the  United  States,  and  also  those  who  are  at  sea,  and 
those  who  are  sojourning  in  foreign  lands,  to  set  apart  and  observe 
the  last  Thursday  of  November  next  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving  and  prayer 
to  our  beneficent  Father,  who  dwelleth  in  the  heavens.  And  I  recom 
mend  to  them  that,  while  offering  up  the  ascriptions  justly  due  to  Him 
for  such  singular  deliverances  and  blessings,  they  do  also,  with  humble 
penitence  for  our  national  perverseness  and  disobedience,  commend  to  His 
tender  care  all  those  who  have  become  widows,  orphans,  mourners,  or 
sufferers  in  the  lamentable  civil  strife  in  which  we  are  unavoidably  en 
gaged,  and  fervently  implore  the  interposition  of  the  Almighty  hand  to 
heal  the  wounds  of  the  nation,  and  to  restore  it,  as  soon  as  may  be  con 
sistent  with  the  divine  purposes,  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  peace,  harmony, 
tranquillity,  and  union. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand,  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  third  day  of  October,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord   one  thousand  eight  hundred   and   sixty-three, 
[L.  s.]      and  of  the  independence  of  the  United   States  the  eighty- 
eighth. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President : 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWA.KD,  Secretary  of  State. 


422  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

POLITICAL  MOVEMENTS  IN  MISSOURI.— THE  STATE  ELECTIONS  OF 

1863. 

GENEKAL  FKEMOXT  IN  MISSOURI. — THE  PRESIDENT'S  LETTER  TO  GEXEBAL 
HUNTER. — EMANCIPATION  IN  MISSOURI. — APPOINTMENT  OF  GENERAL 
ScnoFiELD. — THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  MISSOURI  KA.DICALS. — THE  PRES 
IDENT  TO  THE  MISSOURI  COMMITTEE. — THE  PRESIDENT  AND  GENERAL 
SOHOFIELD. — THE  PRESIDENT  AND  THE  CHURCHES.—  LETTER  TO  ILLINOIS. 
—TnE  ELECTIONS  OF  1863. 

THE  condition  of  affairs  in  Missouri  had  Ibeen  somewhat 
peculiar,  from  the  very  outbreak  of  the  rebellion.  At 
the  outset  the  Executive  Department  of  the  State  Gov 
ernment  was  in  the  hands  of  men  in  full  sympathy  with 
the  secession  cause,  who,  under  pretence  of  protecting 
the  State  from  domestic  violence,  were  organizing  its 
forces  for  active  co-operation  with  the  rebel  movement. 
On  the  30th  of  July,  1861,  the  State  Convention,  origi 
nally  called  by  Governor  Jackson,  for  the  purpose  of 
taking  Missouri  out  of  the  Union,  but  to  which  the 
people  had  elected  a  large  majority  of  Union  men,  de 
clared  all  the  Executive  offices  of  the  State  vacant,  by 
reason  of  the  treasonable  conduct  of  the  incumbents,  and 
appointed  a  Provisional  Government,  of  which  the  Hon. 
H.  R.  Gamble  was  at  the  head.  He  at  once  took  meas 
ures  to  maintain  the  national  authority  within  the  State. 
He  ordered  the  troops  belonging  to  the  rebel  Confederacy 
to  withdraw  from  it,  and  called  upon  all  the  citizens  of 
tlie  State  to  organize  for  its  defence,  and  for  the  preserva 
tion  of  peace  within  its  borders.  He  also  issued  a  proc 
lamation,  framed  in  accordance  with  the  following  sug 
gestions  from  Washington : — 

WASHINGTON,  August  3,  1801. 

To  His  Excellency  Gov.  GAMBLE,  Governor  of  Missouri : 

In  reply  to  your  message,  addressed  to  the  President,  I  am  directed  to 
to  say,  that  if,  by  a  proclamation,  you  promise  security  to  citizens  in 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  423 

ani.3,  who  voluntarily  return  to  their  allegiance,  and  behave  as  peaceable 
and  loyal  men,  thio  Government  will  cause  the  promise  to  be  respected. 

SIMON  CAMERON,  Secretary  of  War. 

Two  days  after  this,  Governor  Jackson,  returning  from 
Richmond,  declared  the  State  to  be  no  longer  one  of  the 
United  States ;  and  on  the  2d  of  November,  the  legisla 
ture,  summoned  by  him  as  Governor,  ratified  a  compact, 
by  which  certain  commissioners,  on  both  sides,  had 
agreed  that  Missouri  should  join  the  rebel  Confederacy. 
The  State  authority  was  thus  divided— two  persons 
claiming  to  wield  the  Executive  authority,  and  two 
bodies,  also,  claiming  to  represent  the  popular  will — 
one  adhering  to  the  Union,  and  the  other  to  the  Confed 
eracy  in  organized  rebellion  against  it.  This  state  of 
things  naturally  led  to  wide-spread  disorder,  and  carried 
all  the  evils  of  civil  war  into  every  section  and  neighbor 
hood  of  the  State. 

To  these  evils  were  gradually  added  others,  growing 
out  of  a  division  of  sentiment,  which  afterwards  ripened 
into  sharp  hostility,  among  the  friends  of  the  Union 
within  the  State.  One  of  the  earliest  causes  of  this 
dissension  was  the  action  and  removal  of  General  Fre 
mont,  who  arrived  at  St.  Louis,  to  take  command  of  the 
Western  Department,  on  the  26th  of  July,  1861.  On  the 
31st  of  August  he  issued  a  proclamation,  declaring  that 
circumstances,  in  his  judgment,  of  sufficient  urgency, 
rendered  it  necessary  that  "the  Commanding  General  of 
the  Department  should  assume  the  administrative  power 
of  the  State,"  thus  superseding  entirely  the  authority  of 
the  civil  rulers.  He  also  proclaimed  the  whole  State  to 
be  under  martial  law,  declared  that  all  persons  taken 
with  arms  in  their  hands,  within  the  designated  lines  of 
the  Department,  should  be  tried  by  court-martial,  and,  if 
found  guilty,  shot ;  and  confiscated  the  property  and 
emancipated  the  slaves  of  "all  persons  who  should  be 
proved  to  have  taken  an  active  part  with  the  enemies  of 
the  United  States."  This  latter  clause,  transcending  the 
authority  conferred  by  the  Confiscation  Act  of  Congress, 


424  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

was  subsequently  modified  "by  order  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States.* 

On  the  14th  of  October,  after  a  personal  inspection  of 
affairs  in  that  Department  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  an 
order  was  issued  from  the  War  Department,  in  effect 
censuring  General  Fremont  for  having  expended  very 
large  sums  of  the  public  money,  through  agents  of  his 
own  appointment,  and  not  responsible  to  the  Govern 
ment  ;  requiring  all  contracts  and  disbursements  to  be 
made  by  the  proper  officers  of  the  army  ;  directing  the 
discontinuance  of  the  extensive  fieldworks  which  the  Gen 
eral  was  erecting  around  St.  Louis  and  Jefferson  City,  and 
also  the  barracks  in  construction  around  his  head- quar 
ters  ;  and  also  notifying  him  that  the  officers  to  whom  he 
had  issued  commissions  would  not  be  paid  until  those 
commissions  should  have  been  approved  by  the  Presi 
dent.  On  the  1st  of  November,  General  Fremont  en 
tered  into  an  agreement  with  General  Sterling  Price, 
commanding  the  rebel  forces  in  Missouri,  by  which  each 
party  stipulated  that  no  further  arrests  of  citizens  should 
bo  made  on  either  side  for  the  expression  of  political 
opinions,  and  releasing  all  who  were  then  in  custody  on 
such  charges. 

On  the  2d  of  November,  General  Fremont  was  relieved 
from  his  command  in  the  Western  Department,  in  conse 
quence  of  his  action  in  the  matters  above  referred  to,  his 
command  devolving  on  General  Hunter,  to  whom,  as 
soon  as  a  change  in  the  command  of  the  Department  had 
been  decided  on,  the  President  had  addressed  the  follow 
ing  letter : — 

WASHINGTON,  October  24, 1801. 

SIE  : — The  command  of  the  Department  of  the  West  having  devolved 
upon  you,  I  propose  to  offer  you  a  few  suggestions,  knowing  how  hazard 
ous  it  is  to  bind  down  a  distant  commander  in  the  field  to  specific  lines  of 
operation,  as  so  much  always  depends  on  the  knowledge  of  localities  and 
passing  events.  It  is  intended,  therefore,  to  leave  considerable  margin 
for  the  ercrcise  of  your  judgment  and  discretion. 

The  ^iiain  rebel  army  (Price's)  west  of  the  Mississippi  is  believed  to 
Imvo  passed  Dade  County  in  full  retreat  upon  Northwestern  Arkansas, 

*  See  page  208. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  425 

leaving  Missouri  almost  free  from  the  enemy,  excepting  in  the  southeast 
part  of  the  State.  Assuming  this  basis  of  fact,  it  seems  desiral  le — as  you 
are  not  likely  to  overtake  Price,  and  are  in  danger  of  making  too  long  a 
line  from  your  own  base  of  supplies  and  re-enforcements — that  you  should 
give  up  the  pursuit,  halt  your  main  army,  divide  it  into  two  corps  of 
observation,  one  occupying  Sedalia  and  the  other  Holla,  the  present 
termini  of  railroads,  then  recruit  the  condition  of  both  corps  by  re 
establishing  and  improving  their  discipline  and  instruction,  perfecting 
their  clothing  and  equipments,  and  providing  less  uncomfortable  quarters. 
Of  course,  both  railroads  must  be  guarded  and  kept  open,  judiciously 
employing  just  so  much  force  as  is  necessary  for  this.  From  these  two 
points,  Sedalia  and  Rolla,  and  especially  in  judicious  co-operation  with 
Lane  on  the  Kansas  border,  it  would  be  very  easy  to  concentrate,  and 
repel  any  army  of  the  enemy  returning  on  Missouri  on  the  southwest. 
As  it  is  not  probable  any  such  attempt  to  return  will  be  made  before  or 
during  the  approaching  cold  weather,  before  spring  the  people  of  Missouri 
will  be  in  no  favorable  mood  for  renewing  for  next  year  the  troubles 
which  have  so  much  afflicted  and  impoverished  them  during  this. 

If  you  take  this  line  of  policy,  and  if,  as  I  anticipate,  you  will  see  no 
enemy  in  great  force  approaching,  you  will  have  a  surplus  force  which  you 
can  withdraw  from  those  points,  and  direct  to  others,  as  may  be  needed 
— the  railroads  furnishing  ready  means  of  re-enforcing  those  main  points, 
if  occasion  requires. 

Doubtless  local  uprisings  for  a  time  will  continue  to  occur,  but  those 
can  be  met  by  detachments  of  lo'cal  forces  of  our  own,  and  will  ere  long 
tire  out  of  themselves. 

While,  as  stated  at  the  beginning  of  this  letter,  a  large  discretion  must 
be  and  is  left  with  yourself,  I  feel  sure  that  an  indefinite  pursuit  of  Price, 
or  an  attempt  by  this  long  and  circuitous  route  to  reach  Memphis,  will  be 
exhaustive  beyond  endurance,  and  will  end  in  the  loss  of  the  whole  force 
engaged  in  it.  Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  LINCOLN. 
The  Commander  of  the  Department  of  the  West. 

General  Hunter' s  first  act  was  to  repudiate  the  agree 
ment  of  General  Fremont  with  General  Price,  and,  on 
the  18th  of  November,  General  Halleck  arrived  as  his 
successor. 

The  action  of  General  Fremont  had  given  rise  to  very 
serious  complaints  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  Missouri ; 
and  these,  in  turn,  had  led  to  strong  demonstrations  on  his 
behalf.  His  removal  was  made  the  occasion  for  public 
manifestations  of  sympathy  for  him,  and  of  censure  for  the 
Government.  An  address  was  presented  to  him.  signed 


426  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES.  AND 

by  large  numbers  of  the  citizens  of  St.  Louis,  those  of 
German  birth  largely  predominating,  in  which  his  removal 
was  ascribed  to  jealousy  of  his  popularity,  and  to  the  fact 
that  his  policy  in  regard  to  emancipation  was  in  advance 
of  the  Government  at  Washington.  "You  have  risen," 
said  this  address,  "too  fast  in  popular  favor.  The  policy 
announced  in  your  proclamation,  although  hailed  as  a. 
political  and  military  necessity,  furnished  your  ambitious 
rivals  and  enemies  with  a  cruel  weapon  for  your  intended 
destru  ction.  The  harbingers  of  truth  will  ever  be  crucified 
by  the  Pharisees.  We  cannot  be  deceived  by  shallow 
and  flimsy  pretexts,  by  unfounded  and  slanderous  reports. 
We  entertain  no  doubt  of  your  ability  to  speedily  con 
found  and  silence  your  traducers.  The  day  of  reckoning 
is  not  far  distant,  and  the  people  will  take  care  that  the 
schemes  of  your  opponents  shall,  in  the  end,  be  signally 
defeated."  The  General  accepted  these  tributes  to  his 
merits,  and  these  denunciations  of  the  Government,  with 
grateful  acknowledgments,  saying  that  the  kind  and  affec 
tionate  demonstrations  which  greeted  him,  cheered  and 
strengthened  his  confidence — "my  confidence,"  he  said, 
"already  somewhat  wavering,  in  our  republican  institu 
tions.  ' ' 

The  sharp  personal  discussions  to  which  this  incident 
gave  rise,  were  made  still  more  bitter,  by  denunciations 
of  General  Halleck's  course  in  excluding,  for  military 
reasons,  which  have  been  already  noticed,*  fugitive  slaves 
from  our  lines,  and  by  the  contest  that  soon  came  up  in 
the  State  Convention,  on  the  general  subject  of  emancipa 
tion.  On  the  7th  of  June,  1862,  a  bill  was  introduced 
into  the  convention  by  Judge  Breckinridge,  of  St.  Louis, 
for  gradual  emancipation,  framed  in  accordance  with  the 
recommendation  of  the  President's  Message.  By  the 
combined  votes  of  those  who  were  opposed  to  eman 
cipation  in  any  form,  and  those  who  were  opposed  to  the 
President's  plan  of  gradual  emancipation,  this  bill  was 
summarily  laid  on  the  table.  But  on  the  13th,  the  subject 
was  again  brought  up  by  a  message  from  Governor 

See  page  330. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  427 

Gamble,  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  Congress  had 
passed  a  resolution,  in  accordance  with  the  President's 
recommendation,  declaring  that  "the  United  States  ought 
to  co-operate  with  any  State  which  might  adopt  a  gradual 
emancipation  of  slavery,  giving  to  such  State,  at  its  dis 
cretion,  compensation  for  the  inconvenience,  public  and 
private,  caused  by  such  a  change  of  system."  This  mes 
sage  was  referred  to  a  special  committee,  which  reported 
resolutions,  recognizing  the  generous  spirit  of  this  pro 
posal,  but  declining  to  take  any  action  upon  it.  These 
resolutions  were  adopted,  and  on  the  16th  a  Mass  Con 
vention  of  Emancipationists,  consisting  of  one  hundred 
and  ninety-five  delegates  from  twenty -five  counties,  met  at 
Jefferson  City,  and  passed  resolutions,  declaring  it  to  be  the 
duty  of  the  next  General  Assembly  to  pass  laws  giving  effect 
to  a  gradual  system  of  emancipation  on  the  basis  proposed. 

At  the  State  election,  in  the  following  November,  the 
question  of  emancipation  was  the  leading  theme  of  con 
troversy.  Throughout  the  State  the  canvass  turned  upon 
this  issue,  and  resulted  in  the  choice  of  a  decided  majority 
of  the  Assembly  favorable  to  emancipation.  But  the  di 
vision  in  the  ranks  of  this  party  still  continued,  and  gave 
rise  to  very  heated  and  bitter  contests,  especially  in  St. 
Louis.  During  the  summer,  the  main  rebel  army  having 
been  driven  from  the  State,  and  the  Union  army  being  of 
necessity  in  the  main  vrithdrawn  to  other  fields,  the  State 
was  overrun  by  reckless  bands  of  rebel  guerrillas,  who 
robbed  and  plundered  Union  citizens,  and  created  very 
great  alarm  among  the  people.  In  consequence  of  these 
outrages,  Governor  Gamble  ordered  the  organization  of 
the  entire  militia  of  the  State,  and  authorized  General 
Schofield  to  call  into  active  service  such  portions  of  it  as 
might  be  needed  to  put  down  marauders,  and  defend  peace 
able  and  loyal  citizens.  The  organization  was  effected 
with  great  promptness,  and  the  State  militia  became  a 
powerful  auxiliary  of  the  National  forces,  and  cleared  all 
sections  of  the  State  of  the  lawless  bands  which  had  in 
flicted  so  much  injury  and  committed  so  many  outrages. 

On  the  19th  of  September,  the  States  of  Missouri,  Kan 


428  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

sas,  and  Arkansas  were  formed  into  a  military  district, 
of  which  the  command  was  assigned  to  General  Curtis, 
who  was  thoroughly  in  sympathy  with  the  friends  of  im 
mediate  emancipation  and  the  supporters  of  General 
Fremont  in  his  differences  with  the  Government.  He  had 
control  of  the  National  forces  in  his  district,  but  Governor 
Gamble  did  not  give  him  command  of  the  State  militia. 

The  differences  of  political  sentiment  between  the  two 
sections  of  the  Union  men  of  the  State  came  thus  to  be 
represented,  to  some  extent,  by  two  organized  military 
forces  ;  and  the  contest  between  their  respective  partisans 
continued  to  be  waged  with  increasing  bitterness,  greatly 
to  the  embarrassment  of  the  Government  at  Washington, 
and  to  the  weakening  of  the  Union  cause.  This  continued 
until  the  spring  of  1863,  when  the  President  removed 
General  Curtis  from  his  command,  and  appointed  General 
Schoiield  in  his  place.  This  gave  rise  to  very  vehement 
remonstrances  and  protests,  to  one  of  which,  sent  by  tele 
graph,  the  President  made  the  following  reply  : — 

Your  dispatch  of  to-day  is  just  received.  It  is  very  painful  to  me  that 
you,  in  Missouri,  cannot,  or  will  not,  settle  your  factional  quarrel  among 
yourselves.  I  have  been  tormented  with  it  beyond  endurance,  for  months, 
by  both  sides.  Neither  side  pays  the  least  respect  to  my  appeals  to  your 
reason.  I  am  now  compelled  to  take  hold  of  the  case. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

To  General  Schofield  himself,  the  President  soon  after 
addressed  the  following  letter  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  "WASHINGTON,  May  27,  1863. 

General  J.  M.  SCHOFIELD  : 

DEAR  SIR  : — Having  removed  General  Curtis  and  assigned  you  to  the 
command  of  the  Department  of  the  Missouri,  I  think  it  may  be  of  some 
advantage  to  me  to  state  to  you  why  I  did  it.  I  did  not  remove  Genera- 
Curtis  because  of  my  full  conviction  that  he  had  done  wrong  by  commis 
sion  or  omission.  I  did  it  because  of  a  conviction  in  my  mind  that  the 
Union  men  of  Missouri,  constituting,  when  united,  a  vast  majority  of  tue 
people,  have  entered  into  a  pestilent,  factious  quarrel,  among  themselves, 
General  Curtis,  perhaps  not  of  choice,  being  the  head  of  one  faction,  and 
Governor  Gamble  that  of  the  other.  After  months  of  labor  to  reconcile 
the  difficulty,  it  seemed  to  grow  worse  and  worse,  until  I  felt  it  my  duty 
to  break  it  up  somehow,  and  as  I  could  not  remove  Governor  Gamble,  I 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  429 

Lad  to  remove  General  Curtis.  Now  that  you  are  in  the  position,  I  wish 
you  to  undo  nothing  merely  because  General  Curtis  or  Governor  Gamble 
did  it,  but  to  exercise  your  own  judgment,  and  do  right  for  the  public  in 
terest.  Let  your  military  measures  be  strong  enough  to  repel  the  invaders 
and  keep  the  peace,  and  not  so  strong  as  to  unnecessarily  harass  and  per 
secute  the  people.  It  is  a  difficult  role,  and  so  much  greater  will  be  the 
honor  if  you  perform  it  well.  If  both  factions,  or  neither,  shall  abuse 
you,  you  will  probably  be  about  right.  Beware  of  being  assailed  by  one 
and  praised  by  the  other.  Yours  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

This  action  gave  special  dissatisfaction  to  the  more  rad 
ical  Unionists  of  the  State.  They  had  been  anxious  to 
have  the  Provisional  Government,  of  which  Governor 
Gamble  was  the  executive  head,  set  aside  by  the  National 
authority,  and  the  control  of  the  State  vested  in  a  Military 
Governor  clothed  with  the  authority  which  General  Fre 
mont  had  assumed  to  exercise  by  his  proclamation  of 
August  31st,  1861;  —  and  the  Germans  enlisted  in  the 
movement  had  made  very  urgent  demands  for  the  restora 
tion  of  General  Fremont  himself.  Several  deputations 
visited  Washington,  for  the  purpose  of  representing  these 
views  and  wishes  to  the  President — though  they  by  no 
means  restricted  their  efforts  at  reform  to  matters  within 
their  own  State,  but  insisted  upon  sundry  changes  in  the 
Cabinet,  upon  the  dismissal  of  General  Halleck  from  the 
position  of  Commander  of  the  Armies  of  the  United  States, 
and  upon  other  matters  of  equal  magnitude  and  impor 
tance. 

The  following  report  of  President  Lincoln's  reply  to 
these  various  requests  was  made  by  a  member  of  a  com 
mittee  appointed  at  a  mass  meeting,  composed  mainly  of 
Germans,  and  held  at  St.  Louis  on  the  10th  of  May : 
although  made  by  a  person  opposed  to  the  President' s 
action,  it  probably  gives  a  substantially  correct  statement 
of  his  remarks  :— 

Messrs.  EMILE  PRETORIOTJS,  THEODORE  OLSHATJSEN,  R.  E.  ROMBAUR,  &c. : 

GENTLEMEN  : — During  a  professional  visit  to  Washington  City,  I  pre 
sented  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  in  compliance  with  your  in 
structions,  a  copy  of  the  resolutions  adopted  in  mass  meeting  at  St.  Louis 
on  the  10th  of  May,  1863,  and  I  requested  a  reply  to  the  suggestions  therein 
contained.  The  President,  after  a  careful  and  loud  reading  of  the  whole 


430  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

report  of  proceedings,  saw  proper  to  enter  into  a  conversation  of  two 
hours'  duration,  in  the  course  of  which  most  of  the  topics  embraced  in 
the  resolutions  and  other  subjects  were  discussed. 

As  my  share  in  the  conversation  is  of  secondary  importance,  I  propose 
to  omit  it  entirely  in  this  report,  and,  avoiding  details,  to  communicate  to 
you  the  substance  of  noteworthy  remarks  made  by  the  President. 

1.  The  President  said  that  it  may  be  a  misfortune  for  the  nation  that  he 
was  elected  President.     But,  having  been  elected  by  the  people,  he  meant 
to  be  President,  and  perform  his  duty  according  to  his  best  understanding, 
if  he  had  to  die  for  it.     No  General  will  be  removed,  nor  will  any  change 
in  the  Cabinet  be  made,  to  suit  the  views  or  wishes  of  any  particular 
party,  faction,  or  set  of  men.     General  Halleck  is  not  guilty  of  the  charges 
made  against  him,  most  of  which  arise  from  misapprehension  or  ignorance 
of  those  who  prefer  them. 

2.  The  President  said  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  Generals 
John  C.  Fremont,  B.  F.  Butler,  and  F.  Sigel  are  "  systematically  kept  out 
of  command,"  as  stated  in  the  fourth  resolution;   that,  on  the  contrary, 
he  fully  appreciated  the  merits  of  the  gentlemen  named ;  that  by  their 
own  actions  they  had  placed  themselves  in  the  positions  which  they  occu 
pied  ;  that  he  was  not  only  willing,  but  anxious  to  place  them  again  in 
command  as  soon  as  he  could  find  spheres  of  action  for  them,  without 
doing  injustice  to  others,  but  that  at  present  he  "  had  more  pegs  than 
holes  to  put  them  in." 

3.  As  to  the  want  of  unity,  the  President,  without  admitting  such  to  be 
the  case,  intimated  that  each  member   of  the  Cabinet  was  responsible 
mainly  for  the  manner  of  conducting  the  affairs  of  his  particular  depart 
ment  ;  that  there  was  no  centralization  of  responsibility  for  the  action  of 
the  Cabinet  anywhere,  except  in  the  President  himself. 

4.  The  dissensions  between  Union  men  in  Missouri  are  due  solely  to  a 
factions   spirit,  which  is   exceedingly  reprehensible.      The  two  parties 
"ought  to  have  their  heads  knocked  together."     "Either  would  rather 
see  the  defeat  of  their  adversary  than  that  of  Jefferson  Davis."     To  this 
spirit  of  faction  is  to  be  ascribed  the  failure  of  the  legislature  to   elect 
senators  and  the  defeat  of  the  Missouri  Aid  Bill  in  Congress,  the  passage 
of  which  the  President  strongly  desired. 

The  President  said  that  the  Union  men  in  Missouri  who  are  in  favor  of 
gradual  emancipation  represented  his  views  better  t  lan  those  who  are  in 
favor  of  immediate  emancipation.  In  explanation  of  his  views  on  this 
subject,  the  President  said  that  in  his  speeches  he  had  frequently  used  as 
an  illustration,  the  case  of  a  man  who  had  an  excrescence  on  the  back 
of  his  neck,  the  removal  of  which,  in  one  operation,  would  result  in  the 
death  of  the  patient,  while  "tinkering  it  off  by  degrees"  would  preserve 
life.  Although  sorely  tempted,  I  did  not  reply  with  the  illustration  of  th»j 
dog  whose  tail  was  amputated  by  inches,  but  confined  myself  to  argu 
ments.  The  President  announced  clearly  that,  as  far  as  he  was  at  present 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  431 

advised,  the  radicals  in  Missouri  had  no  right  to  consider  themselves  the 
exponents  of  his  views  on  the  subject  of  emancipation  in  that  State. 

5.  General  Curtis  was  not  relieved  on  account  of  any  wrong  act  or  great 
mistake  committed  by  him.  The  system  of  Provost- Marshals,  established 
by  him  throughout  the  State,  gave  rise  to  violent  complaint.  That  the 
President  had  thought  at  one  time  to  appoint  General  Fremont  in  his 
place ;  that  at  another  time  he  had  thought  of  appointing  General  Mc 
Dowell,  whom  he  characterized  as  a  good  and  loyal  though  very  unfortu 
nate  soldier ;  and  that,  at  last,  General  Schofield  was  appointed,  with  a 
view,  if  possible,  to  reconcile  and  satisfy  the  two  factions  in  Missouri. 
He  has  instructions  not  to  interfere  with  either  party,  but  to  confine  him 
self  to  his  military  duties.  I  assure  you,  gentlemen,  that  our  side  was  as 
fully  presented  as  the  occasion  permitted.  At  the  close  of  the  conversa 
tion,  the  President  remarked  that  there  was  evidently  a  u  serious  misunder 
standing  "  springing  up  between  him  and  the  Germans  of  St.  Louis,  which 
he  would  like  to  see  removed.  Observing  to  him  that  the  difference  of 
opinion  related  to  facts,  men,  and  measures,  I  withdrew. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  &c., 

JAMES  TAUSSIO. 

On  the  1st  of  July  the  State  Convention,  in  session  at 
Jefferson  City,  passed  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
declaring  that  slavery  should  cease  to  exist  in  Missouri 
on  the  4th  of  July,  1870,  with  certain  specified  exceptions. 
This,  however,  was  by  no  means  accepted  as  a  final  dis 
position  of  the  matter.  The  demand  was  made  for  imme 
diate  emancipation,  and  Governor  Gamble  and  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Provisional  Government  who  had  favored  the 
policy  adopted  by  the  State  Convention,  were  denounced 
as  the  advocates  of  slavery  and  allies  of  the  rebellion.  In 
the  early  part  of  August  a  band  of  rebel  guerrillas  made 
a  raid  into  the  town  of  Lawrence,  Kansas,  and  butchered 
in  cold  blood  over  two  hundred  unarmed  citizens  of  the 
place.  This  brutal  act  aroused  the  most  intense  excite 
ment  in  the  adjoining  State  of  Missouri,  of  which  the  op 
ponents  of  the  Provisional  Government  took  advantage 
to  throw  upon  it  and  General  Schofield,  who  had  command 
of  the  State  militia  as  well  as  of  the  National  forces,  the 
responsibility  of  having  permitted  this  massacre  to  take 
place. 

A  Mass  Convention  was  held  at  Jefferson  City  on  the  3d 
of  September,  at  which  resolutions  were  adopted  denoun- 


432  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

oing  the  military  policy  pursued  in  the  State  and  the  del 
egation  of  military  powers  to  the  Provisional  Government. 
A  committee  of  one  from  each  county  was  appointed  to 
visit  Washington  and  lay  their  grievances  before  the 
President ;  and  arrangements  were  also  made  for  the  ap 
pointment  of  a  Committee  of  Public  Safety,  to  organize  and 
arm  the  loyal  men  of  the  State,  and,  in  the  event  of  not  ob 
taining  relief,  to  call  on  the  people  in  their  sovereign  capa 
city  to  "take  such  measures  of  redress  as  the  emergency 
might  require."  In  the  latter  part  of  September  the  com 
mittee  appointed  by  this  convention  visited  Washington 
and  had  an  interview  with  the  President  on  the  30th,  in 
which  they  represented  Governor  Gamble  and  General 
Schofield  as  in  virtual  alliance  with  the  rebels,  and  de 
manded  the  removal  of  the  latter  as  an  act  of  justice  to 
the  loyal  and  anti-slavery  men  of  the  State.  The  com 
mittee  visited  several  of  the  Northern  cities,  and  held 
public  meetings  for  the  purpose  of  enlisting  public  senti 
ment  in  their  support.  At  these  meetings  it  was  claimed 
that  the  radical  emancipation  party  was  the  only  one 
which  represented  the  loyalty  of  Missouri,  and  President 
Lincoln  was  very  strongly  censured  for  "  closing  his  ears 
to  the  just,  loyal,  and  pcitriotic  demands  of  the  radical 
party,  while  he  indorsed  the  disloyal  and  oppressive  de 
mands  of  Governor  Gamble,  General  Schofield,  and  their 
adherents." 

On  the  5th  of  October  President  Lincoln  made  to  the 
representations  and  requests  of  the  committee  the  follow 
ing  reply : — 

EXKCUTIVK  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  October  5, 1863. 

Hon.  CHARLES  DRAKE  and  others,  Committee  : 

GENTLEMEN  : — Your  original  address,  presented  on  the  80th  ult.,  and 
the  four  supplementary  ones  presented  on  the  3d  inst.,  have  heen  care 
fully  considered.  I  hope  you  will  regard  the  other  duties  claiming  my 
attention,  together  with  the  great  length  and  importance  of  these  docu 
ments,  as  constituting  a  sufficient  apology  for  not  having  responded 
sooner. 

These  papers,  framed  for  a  common  object,  consist  of  the  things  de 
manded,  and  the  reasons  for  demanding  them. 

The  tb'ngs  demanded  are — 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  433 

First.  That  General  Schofield  shall  be  relieved,  and  General  Butler  be 
appointed  as  Commander  of  the  Military  Department  of  Missouri. 

Second.  That  the  system  of  enrolled  militia  in  Missouri  may  be  broken 
up,  and  National  forces  be  substituted  for  it;  and 

Third.  That  at  elections,  persons  may  not  be  allowed  to  vote  who  aro 
not  entitled  by  law  to  do  so. 

Among  the  reasons  given,  enough  of  suffering  and  wrong  to  Union 
men  is  certainly,  and  I  suppose  truly,  stated.  Yet  the  whole  case,  as 
presented,  fails  to  convince  me  that  General  Schofnld,  or  the  enrolled 
militia,  is  responsible  for  that  suffering  and  wrong.  The  whole  can  bo 
explained  on  a  more  charitable,  and,  as  I  think,  a  more  rational  hy 
pothesis. 

We  are  in  civil  war.  In  such  cases  there  always  is  a  main  question ; 
but  in  this  case  that  question  is  a  perplexing  compound — Union  and 
slavery.  It  thus  becomes  a  question  not  of  two  sides  merely,  but  of  at 
least  four  sides,  even  among  those  who  are  for  the  Union,  saying  nothing 
of  those  who  are  against  it.  Thus,  those  who  are  for  the  Union  with,  but 
not  without  slavery  ;  those  for  it  without,  but  not  with;  those  for  it  with 
or  without,  but  prefer  it  with  ;  and  those  for  it  with  or  without,  but  pre 
fer  it  without. 

Among  these,  again,  is  a  subdivision  of  those  who  are  for  gradual,  but 
not  for  immediate,  and  those  who  are  for  immediate,  but  not  for  gradual 
extinction  of  slavery. 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  all  these  shades  of  opinion,  and  even  more, 
may  be  sincerely  entertained  by  honest  and  truthful  men.  Yet,  all  being 
for  the  Union,  by  reason  of  these  differences  eacli  will  prefer  a  different 
way  of  sustaining  the  Union.  At  once,  sincerity  is  questioned,  and  mo 
tives  are  assailed.  Actual  war  coming,  blood  grows  hot,  and  blood  is 
spilled.  Thought  is  forced  from  old  channels  into  confusion.  Deception 
ureeds  and  thrives.  Confidence  dies,  and  universal  suspicion  reigns. 
Each  man  feels  an  impulse  to  kill  his  neighbor,  lest  he  be  killed  by  him. 
Revenge  and  retaliation  follow.  And  all  this,  as  before  said,  may  be 
among  honest  men  only.  But  this  is  not  all.  Every  foul  bird  comes 
abroad,  and  every  dirty  reptile  rises  up.  These  add  crime  to  confusion. 
Strong  measures  deemed  indispensable,  but  harsh  at  best,  such  men 
make  worse  by  maladministration.  Murders  for  old  grudges,  and  mur 
ders  for  pelf,  proceed  under  any  cloak  that  will  best  serve  for  the  oo- 
casion. 

These  causes  amply  account  for  what  has  occurred  in  Missouri,  with 
out  ascribing  it  to  the  weakness  or  wickedness  of  any  general.  The 
newspaper  files,  those  chroniclers  of  current  events,  will  show  that  th« 
evils  now  complained  of  were  quite  as  prevalent  under  Fremont,  Hunter, 
Halleck,  and  Curtis,  as  under  Schofield.  If  the  former  had  greater  force 
opposed  to  them,  they  also  had  greater  force  with  which  to  meet  it. 
When  the  organized  rebel  array  left  the  State,  the  main  Federal  force  had 
to  go  also,  leaving  the  department  commander  at  homo,  relatively  no 
28 


434  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

stronger  than  before.  Without  disparaging  any,  I  affirm  with  confidence 
that  no  commander  of  that  department  has,  in  proportion  to  his  means, 
.done  better  than  General  Schofield. 

The  first  specific  charge  against  General  Schofield  is,  that  the  enrolled 
militia  was  placed  under  his  command,  whereas  it  had  not  been  placed 
under  the  command  of  General  Curtis.  The  fact  is,  I  believe,  true ;  but 
you  do  not  point  out,  nor  can  I  conceive  how  that  did,  or  could,  injure 
loyal  men  or  the  Union  cause. 

You  charge  that  General  Curtis  being  superseded  by  General  Schofield, 
Franklin  A.  Dick  was  superseded  by  James  O.  Broadhead  as  Provost- 
Marshal  General.  IsTo  very  specific  showing  is  made  as  to  how  this  did 
or  could  injure  the  Union  cause.  It  recalls,  however,  the  condition  of 
things,  as  presented  to  me,  which  led  to  a  change  of  commander  of  that 
department. 

To  restrain  contraband  intelligence  and  trade,  a  system  of  searches, 
seizures,  permits,  and  passes,  had  been  introduced,  I  think,  by  General 
Fremont.  When  General  Ilalleck  came,  he  found  and  continued  the  sys 
tem,  and  added  an  order,  applicable  to  some  parts  of  the  State,  to  levy 
and  collect  contributions  from  noted  rebels,  to  compensate  losses,  and 
relieve  destitution  caused  by  the  rebellion.  The  action  of  General  Fre 
mont  and  General  Ilalleck,  as  stated,  constituted  a  sort  of  system  which 
General  Curtis  found  in  full  operation  when  he  took  command  of  the  de 
partment.  That  there  was  a  necessity  for  something  of  the  sort,  was 
clear ;  but  that  it  could  only  be  justified  by  stern  necessity,  and  that  it 
was  liable  to  great  abuse  in  administration,  was  equally  clear.  Agents  to 
execute  it,  contrary  to  the  great  prayer,  were  led  into  temptation.  Some 
might,  while  others  would  not,  resist  that  temptation.  It  was  not  possi 
ble  to  hold  any  to  a  very  strict  accountability ;  and  those  yielding  to  the 
temptation  would  sell  permits  and  passes  to  those  who  would  pay  most 
and  most  readily  for  them,  and  would  seize  property  and  collect  levies 
in  the  aptest  way  to  fill  their  own  pockets.  Money  being  the  object,  the 
man  having  money,  whether  loyal  or  disloyal,  would  be  a  victim.  This 
practice  doubtless  existed  to  some  extent,  and  it  was  a  real  additional 
evil,  that  it  could  bq,  and  was  plausibly  charged  to  exist  in  greater  extent 
than  it  did. 

When  General  Curtis  took  command  of  the  department,  Mr.  Dick, 
against  whom  I  never  knew  any  thing  to  allege,  had  general  charge  of  this 
system.  A  controversy  in  regard  to  it  rapidly  grew  into  almost  unman 
ageable  proportions.  One  side  ignored  the  necessity  and  magnified  the 
evils  of  the  system,  while  the  other  ignored  the  evils  and  magnified  the 
.,necessity ;  and  each  bitterly  assailed  the  other.  I  could  not  fail  to  see 
that  the  controversy  enlarged  in  the  same  proportion  as  the  professed 
Union  men  there  distinctly  took  sides  in  two  opposing  political  parties. 
1  exhausted  my  wits,  and  very  nearly  my  patience  also,  in  efforts  to  con 
vince  both  that  the  evils  they  charged  on  each  other  were  inherent  in  the 
cade,  and  could  not  be  cured  by  giving  either  party  a  victory  over  the  other. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  435 

Plainly,  the  irritating  system  was  not  to  be  perpetual;  and  it  was 
plausibly  urged  that  it  could  be  modified  at  once  with  advantage.  The 
case  could  scarcely  be  worse,  and  whether  it  could  be  made  better  could 
only  be  determined  by  a  trial.  In  this  view,  and  not  to  ban  or  brand 
General  Curtis,  or  to  give  a  victory  to  any  party,  1  made  the  change  of 
commander  for  the  department.  I  now  learn  that  soon  after  this  change 
Mr.  Dick  was  removed,  and  that  Mr.  Broadhead,  a  gentleman  of  no  less 
good  character,  was  put  in  the  place.  The  mere  fact  of  this  change  is 
more  distinctly  complained  of  than  is  any  conduct  of  the  new  officer,  or 
other  consequence  of  the  change. 

I  gave  the  new  commander  no  instructions  as  to  the  administration  of 
the  system  mentioned,  beyond  what  is  contained  in  the  private  letter 
afterwards  surreptitiously,  published,  in  which  I  directed  him  to  act  solely 
for  the  public  good,  and  independently  of  both  parties.  Neither  any 
thing  you  have  presented  me,  nor  any  thing  I  have  otherwise  learned,  has 
convinced  me  that  he  has  been  unfaithful  to  this  charge. 

Imbecility  is  urged  as  one  cause  for  removing  General  Schofield ;  arid 
the  late  massacre  at  Lawrence,  Kansas,  is  pressed  as  evidence  of  that  im 
becility.  To  my  mind  that  fact  scarcely  tends  to  prove  the  proposition;. 
That  massacre  is  only  an  example  of  what  Grierson,  John  Morgan,  and 
many  others  might  have  repeatedly  d,one  on  their  respective  raids,  had 
they  chosen  to  incur  the  personal  hazard,  and  possessed  the  fiendish  hearts 
to  do  it. 

The  charge  is  made  that  General  Schofield,  on  purpose  to  protect  the 
Lawrence  murderers,  would  not  allow  them  to  be  pursued  into  Missouri. 
While  no  punishment  could  be  too  sudden  or  too  severe  for  those  mur 
derers,  I  am  well  satisfied  that  the  preventing  of  the  threatened  remedial 
raid  into  Missouri  was  the  only  way  to  avoid  an  indiscriminate  massacre 
there,  including  probably  more  innocent  than  guilty.  Instead  of  con 
demning,  I  therefore  approve  what  I  understand  General  Schofield  did  in 
that  respect. 

The  charge  that  General  Schofield  has  purposely  withheld  protection 
from  loyal  people,  and  purposely  facilitated  the  objects  of  the  disloyal, 
are  altogether  beyond  my  power  of  belief.  I  do  not  arraign  the  veracity 
of  gentlemen  as  to  the  facts  complained  of,  but  I  do  more  than  question 
the  judgment  which  would  infer  that  these  facts  occurred  in  accordance 
with  the  purposes  of  General  Schofield. 

With  my  present  views,  I  must  decline  to  remove  General  Schofield 
In  this  I  decide  nothing  against  General  Butler.  I  sincerely  wish  it  were 
convenient  to  assign  him  a  suitable  command. 

In  order  to  meet  some  existing  evils,  I  have  addressed  a  letter  of 
instruction  to  General  Schofield,  a  copy  of  which  I  enclose  to  you. 
As  to  the  "Enrolled  Militia,"  I  shall  endeavor  to  ascertain,  better  than  I 
now  know,  what  is  its  exact  value.  Let  me  say  now,  however,  that 
your  proposal  to  substitute  National  force  for  the  "  Enrolled  Militia," 
implies  that,  in  your  judgment,  the  latter  is  doing  something  which  needs 


436  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

to  be  done;  and  if  so,  the  proposition  to  throw  that  force  away,  and  to 
supply  its  place  by  bringing  other  forces  from  the  field  where  they  are 
urgently  needed,  seems  to  me  very  extraordinary.  Whence  shall  they 
come?  Shall  they  be  withdrawn  from  Banks,  or  Grant,  or  Steele,  or 
Rosecrans  ? 

Few  things  have  been  so  grateful  to  my  anxious  feelings,  as  when  in 
June  last,  the  local  force  in  Missouri  aided  General  Schoficld  to  so 
promptly  send  a  large  general  force  to  the  relief  of  General  Grant,  then 
investing  Vicksburg,  and  menaced  from  without  by  General  Johnston. 
Was  this  all  wrong?  Should  the  Enrolled  Militia  then  have  been  broken 
up,  and  General  Heron  kept  from  Grant  to  police  Missouri  ?  So  far  from 
finding  cause  to  object,  I  confess  to  a  sympathy  for  whatever  relieves  our 
general  force  in  Missouri,  and  allows  it  to  serve  elsewhere. 

I  therefore,  as  at  present  advised,  cannot  attempt  the  destruction  of 
the  Enrolled  Militia  of  Missouri.  I  may  add,  that  the  force  being  under 
the  National  military  control,  it  is  also  within  the  proclamation  in  regard 
to  the  habeas  corpus. 

I  concur  in  the  propriety  of  your  request  in  regard  to  elections,  and 
have,  as  you  see,  directed  General  Schofield  accordingly.  I  do  not  feel 
justified  to  enter  upon  the  broad  field  you  present  in  regard  to  the  politi 
cal  differences  between  Radicals  and  Conservatives.  From  time  to  time  I 
have  done  and  said  what  appeared  to  me  proper  to  do  and  say.  The 
public  knows  it  well.  It  obliges  nobody  to  follow  me,  and  I  trust  it 
obliges  me  to  follow  nobody.  The  Radicals  and  Conservatives  each 
agree  with  me  in  some  things  and  disagree  in  others.  I  could  wish  both 
to  agree  with  me  in  all  things;  for  then  they  would  agree  with  each 
other,  and  would  be  too  strong  for  any  foe  from  any  quarter.  They, 
however,  choose  to  do  otherwise,  and  I  do  not  question  their  rigut.  I, 
too,  shall  do  what  seems  to  be  my  duty.  I  hold  whoever  commands  in 
Missouri  or  elsewhere  responsible  to  me,  and  not  to  either  Radicals  or 
Conservatives.  It  is  my  duty  to  hear  all ;  but,  at  last,  I  must,  within  my 
sphere,  judge  what  to  do  and  what  to  forbear. 

Your  obedient  servant,  A.  LINCOLN. 


INSTRUCTIONS  TO  GENERAL  SCHOFIELD. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  Octoler  1, 1S63. 

General  JOHN  M.  SCHOFIELD  : 

There  is  no  organized  military  force  in  avowed  opposition  to  the  Gen 
eral  Government  now  in  Missouri,  and  if  any  shall  reappear,  your  duty  in 
regard  to  it  will  be  too  plain  to  require  any  special  instruction.  Still, 
the  condition  of  things,  both  there  and  elsewhere,  is  such  as  to  render 
it  indispensable  to  maintain,  for  a  time,  the  United  States  military  estab 
lishment  in  that  State,  as  well  aa  to  rely  upon  it  for  a  fair  contribution 
of  support  to  that  establishment  generally.  Your  immediate  duty  in 
regard  to  Missouri  now  is  to  advance  the  efficiency  of  that  establishment, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          437 

and  to  so  use  it,  as  far  as  practicable,  to  compel  the  excited  people  there 
to  let  one  another  alone. 

Under  your  recent  order,  which  I  have  approved,  you  will  only  arrest 
individuals,  and  suppress  assemblies  or  newspapers,  when  they  may  be 
working  palpable  injury  to  the  military  in  your  charge;  and  in  no  other 
case  will  you  interfere  with  the  expression  of  opinion  in  any  form,  or 
allow  it  to  be  interfered  with  violently  by  others.  In  this  you  have  a 
discretion  to  exercise  with  great  caution,  calmness,  and  forbearance. 

With  the  matter  of  removing  the  inhabitants  of  certain  counties  en 
masse,  and  of  removing  certain  individuals  from  time  to  time,  who  are 
supposed  to  be  mischievous,  I  am  not  now  interfering,  but  ana  leaving  to 
your  own  discretion. 

Nor  am  I  interfering  with  what  may  still  seem  to  you  to  be  necessary 
restrictions  upon  trade  and  intercourse.  I  think  proper,  however,  to 
enjoin  upon  you  the  following:  Allow  no  part  of  the  military  under 
your  command  to  be  engaged  in  either  returning  fugitive  slaves,  or  in 
forcing  or  enticing  slaves  from  their  homes;  and,  so  far  as  practicable, 
enforce  the  same  forbearance  upon  the  people. 

Report  to  me  your  opinion  upon  the  availability  for  good  of  the  en 
rolled  militia  of  the  State.  Allow  no  one  to  enlist  colored  troops,  except 
upon  orders  from  you,  or  from  here  through  you. 

Allow  no  one  to  assume  the  functions  of  confiscating  property,  under 
the  law  of  Congress,  or  otherwise,  except  upon  orders  from  here. 

At  elections  see  that  those,  and  only  those,  are  allowed  to  vote,  who 
are  entitled  to  do  so  by  the  laws  of  Missouri,  including  as  of  those  laws 
the  restrictions  laid  by  the  Missouri  Convention  upon  those  who  may 
have  participated  in  the  rebellion. 

So  far  as  practicable,  you  will,  by  means  of  your  military  force,  expel 
guerrillas,  marauders,  and  murderers,  and  all  who  are  known  to  harbor, 
aid,  or  abet  them.  But  in  like  manner  you  will  repress  assumptions  of 
unauthorized  individuals  to  perform  the  same  service,  because  under  pro- 
terice  of  doing  this  they  become  marauders  and  murderers  themselves. 

To  now  restore  peace,  let  the  military  obey  orders ;  and  those  not  of 
the  military  leave  each  other  alone,  thus  not  breaking  the  peace  them 
selves. 

In  giving  the  above  directions,  it  is  not  intended  to  restrain  you  in 
other  expedient  and  necessary  matters  not  falling  within  their  range. 

Your  obedient  servant,  A.  LINCOLN. 

The  condition  of  affairs  in  this  department  continued  to 
"be  greatly  disturbed  by  political  agitations,  and  the  per 
sonal  controversies  to  which  they  gave  rise  ;  and  after  a 
lapse  of  some  months  th^  President  deemed  it  wise  to 
relieve  General  Schoiield  from  further  command  in  this 
department.  This  was  done  by  an  order  from  the  War 


438  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Department,  dated  January  24th,  1864,  by  which,  also, 
General  Rosecrans  was  appointed  in  his  place.  In  his 
order  assuming  command,  dated  January  30th,  General 
Eosecrans  paid  a  very  high  compliment  to  his  predeces 
sor,  for  the  admirable  order  in  which  he  found  the  business 
of  the  department,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  he  might 
receive  "the  honest,  firm,  and  united  support  of  all  true 
national  and  Union  men  of  the  Department,  without 
regard  to  politics,  creed,  or  party,  in  his  endeavors  to 
maintain  law  and  re-establish  peace,  and  secure  pros 
perity  throughout  its  limits." 

Before  closing  this  notice  of  the  perplexities  and  an 
noyances  to  which  the  President  was  subjected  by  the 
domestic  contentions  of  Missouri,  we  may  mention,  as  an 
illustration  of  the  extent  to  which  they  were  carried,  the 
case  of  Eev.  Dr.  McPheeters,  who  had  been  silenced  by 
General  Curtis  for  preaching  disloyalty  to  his  congrega 
tion  in  St.  Louis.  The  incident  gave  rise  to  a  good  deal 
of  excitement,  which  was  continued  throughout  the  year. 
Towards  the  close  of  it  the  President  wrote  the  following 
letter  in  reply  to  an  appeal  for  his  interference  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  December  23, 1S63. 

I  have  just  looked  over  a  petition  signed  by  some  three  dozen  citizens 
of  St.  Louis,  and  their  accompanying  letters,  one  by  yourself,  one  by  a 
Mr.  Nathan  Ranney,  and  one  by  a  Mr.  John  D.  Coalter,  the  whole  rela 
ting  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  McPheeters.  The  petition  prays,  in  the  name  of 
justice  and  mercy,  that  I  will  restore  Dr.  McPheeters  to  all  his  ecclesias 
tical  rights. 

This  gives  no  intimation  as  to  what  ecclesiastical  rights  are  withdrawn. 
Your  letter  states  that  Provost-Marshal  Dick,  about  a  year  ago,  ordered 
the  arrest  of  Dr.  McPheeters,  pastor  of  the  Vine  Street  Church,  pro 
hibited  him  from  officiating,  and  placed  the  management  of  affairs  of  the 
church  out  of  the  control  of  the  chosen  trustees ;  and  near  the  close  you 
state  that  a  certain  course  "would  insure  his  release."  Mr.  Ranney's 
letter  says:  "Dr.  Samuel  McPheeters  is  enjoying  all  the  rights  of  a  civil 
ian,  but  cannot  preach  the  Gospel!"  Mr.  Coalter,  in  his  letter,  asks: 
"  Is  it  not  a  strange  illustration  of  the  condition  of  things,  that  the  ques 
tion  who  shall  be  allowed  to  preach  in  a  church  in  St.  Louis  shall  be  de 
cided  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  ?" 

Now,  all  tins  sounds  very  strangely;  and,  withal,  a  little  as  if  you 
gentlemen,  making  the  application,  do  not  understand  the  case  alike; 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  439 

one  affirming  that  his  doctor  is  enjoying  all  the  rights  of  a  civilian,  an^l 
another  pointing  out  to  me  what  will  secure  his  release!  On  the  2d  of 
January  last,  I  wrote  to  General  Curtis  in  relation  to  Mr.  Dick's  order 
upon  Dr.  McPheeters  ;  and,  as  I  suppose  the  doctor  is  enjoying  all  the 
rights  of  a  civilian,  I  only  quote  that  part  of  my' letter  which  relates  to 
the  church.  It  was  as  follows  :  "But  I  must  add  that  the  United  States 
Government  must  not,  as  by  this  order,  undertake  to  run  the  churches. 
When  an  individual,  in  a  church  or  out  of  it,  becomes  dangerous  to  the 
public  interest,  he  must  be  checked ;  but  the  churches,  as  such,  must 
take  care  of  themselves.  It  will  not  do  for  the  United  States  to  appoint 
trustees,  supervisors,  or  other  agents  for  the  churches." 

This  letter  going  to  General  Curtis,  then  in  command,  I  supposed,  of 
course,  it  was  obeyed,  especially  as  I  heard  no  further  complaint  from 
Doctor  Me.  or  his  friends  for  nearly  an  entire  year.  I  have  never  inter 
fered,  nor  thought  of  interfering,  as  to  who  shall  or  shall  not  preach  in 
any  church;  nor  have  I  knowingly  or  believingly  tolerated  any  one  else 
to  interfere  by  my  authority.  If  any  one  is  so  interfering  by  color  of  my 
authority,  I  would  like  to  have  it  specifically  made  known  to  me. 

If,  after  all,  what  is  now  sought,  is  to  have  rne  put  Doctor  Me.  back 
over  the  heads  of  a  majority  of  his  own  congregation,  that,  too,  will  be 
declined.  I  will  not  have  control  of  any  church  on  any  side. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

The  Presbytery,  the  regular  church  authority  in  the 
matter,  subsequently  decided  that  Dr.  McPheeters  could 
not  return  to  his  pastoral  charge. 


The  victories  of  the  Union  arms  during  the  summer  of 
1863 — the  repulse  of  the  rebels  at  Gettysburg,  the  cap 
ture  of  Yicksburg  and  Port  Hudson,  and  the  consequent 
restoration  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  commerce  of  the 
nation — produced  the  most  salutary  effect  upon  the  public 
sentiment  of  the  country.  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
partisan  opposition  to  specific  measures  of  the  Adminis 
tration,  and  in  some  quarters  this  took  the  form  of  open 
hostility  to  the  further  prosecution  of  the  war.  But  the 
spirit  and  determination  of  the  people  were  at  their 
height,  and  the  Union  party  entered  upon  the  political 
contests  of  the  autumn  of  1863,  in  the  several  States, 
with  confidence  and  courage. 

The  President  had  been  invited  by  the  ".Republican  State 
Committee  of  Illinois  to  attend  the  State  Convention,  to 


440  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

be  held  at  Springfield  on  the  3d  of  September.  Finding 
it  impossible  to  accept  the  invitation,  he  wrote  in  reply 
the  following  letter,  in  which  several  of  the  most  con 
spicuous  features  of  his  policy  are  defended  against  the 
censures  by  which  they  had  been  assailed  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  August  26, 1863. 

Hon.  JAMES  0.  CONKLING  : 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — Your  letter  inviting  me  to  attend  a  mass  meeting  of 
unconditional  Union  men,  to  be  held  at  the  capital  of  Illinois,  on  the  3d 
day  of  September,  has  been  received.  It  would  be  very  agreeable  for  mo 
thus  to  meet  my  old  friends  at  my  own  home ;  but  I  cannot  just  now  bo 
absent  from  here  so  long  as  a  visit  there  would  require. 

The  meeting  is  to  be  of  all  those  who  maintain  unconditional  devotion 
to  the  Union ;  and  I  am  sure  that  my  old  political  friends  will  thank  mo 
for  tendering,  as  I  do,  the  nation's  gratitude  to  those  other  noble  men 
whom  no  partisan  malice  or  partisan  hope  can  make  false  to  the  nation's 
life. 

There  are  those  who  are  dissatisfied  with  me.  To  such  I  would  say : 
You  desire  peace,  and  you  blame  me  that  we  do  not  have  it.  But  how 
can  we  attain  it  ?  There  are  but  three  conceivable  ways :  First — to  sup 
press  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms.  This  I  am  trying  to  do.  Are  you 
for  it  ?  If  you  are,  so  far  we  are  agreed.  If  you  are  not  for  it,  a  second 
way  is  to  give  up  the  Union.  I  am  against  this.  Are  you  for  it?  If  you 
are,  you  should  say  so  plainly.  If  you  are  not  for  force,  nor  yet  for  dis 
solution,  there  only  remains  some  imaginable  compromise. 

I  do  not  believe  that  any  compromise  embracing  the  maintenance  of 
the  Union  is  now  possible.  All  that  I  learn  leads  to  a  directly  opposite 
belief.  The  strength  of  the  rebellion  is  its  military,  its  army.  That  army 
dominates  all  the  country,  and  all  the  people,  within  its  range.  Any  offer 
of  terms  made  by  any  man  or  men  within  that  range,  in  opposition  to 
that  army,  is  simply  nothing  for  the  present ;  because  such  man  or  men 
have  no  power  whatever  to  enforce  their  side  of  a  compromise,  if  one 
were  made  with  them. 

To  illustrate :  Suppose  refugees  from  the  South  and  peace  men  of  the 
North  get  together  in  convention,  and  frame  and  proclaim  a  compromise 
embracing  a  restoration  of  the  Union.  In  what  /ray  can  that  compro 
mise  be  used  to  keep  Lee's  army  out  of  Pennsylvania?  Meade's  army 
can  keep  Lee's  army  out  of  Pennsylvania,  and,  I  think,  can  ultimately 
drive  it  out  of  existence.  But  no  paper  compromise  to  which  the  con 
trollers  of  Lee's  army  are  not  agreed  can  at  all  affect  that  army.  In  an 
effort  at  such  compromise  we  would  waste  time,  which  the  enemy  would 
improve  to  our  disadvantage ;  and  that  would  be  all. 

A  compromise,  to  be  effective,  must  be  made  either  with  those  who 
control  the  rebel  army,  or  with  the  people,  first  liberated  from  the  domi- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          441 

nation  of  tli.it  army  by  the  success  of  our  own  army.  Now,  allow  me  to 
assure  you  that  no  word  or  intimation  from  that  rebel  army,  or  from  any 
of  the  men  controlling  it,  in  relation  to  any  peace  compromise,  has  ever 
come  to  my  knowledge  or  belief.  All  charges  and  insinuations  to  the 
contrary  are  deceptive  and  groundless.  And  I  promise  you  that  if  any 
such  proposition  shall  hereafter  come,  it  shall  not  be  rejected  and  kept  a 
secret  from  you.  I  freely  acknowledge  myself  to  be  the  servant  of  the 
people,  according  to  the  bond  of  service,  the  United  States  Constitution ; 
and  that,  as  such,  I  am  responsible  to  them. 

But,  to  be  plain.  You  are  dissatisfied  with  me  about  the  negro. 
Quite  likely  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion  between  you  and  myself  upon 
that  subject.  I  certainly  wish  that  all  men  could  be  free,  while  you,  I 
suppose,  do  not.  Yet,  I  have  neither  adopted  nor  proposed  any  measure 
which  is  not  consistent  with  even  your  view,  provided  that  you  are  for 
the  Union.  I  suggested  compensated  emancipation ;  to  which  you  re 
plied  you  wished  not  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes.  But  I  had  not  asked  you 
to  be  taxed  to  buy  negroes,  except  in  such  way  as  to  save  you  from  greater 
taxation  to  save  the  Union  exclusively  by  other  means. 

You  dislike  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  perhaps  would  have 
it  retracted.  You  say  it  is  unconstitutional.  I  think  differently.  I  think 
the  Constitution  invests  its  Commander-in-Chief  with  the  law  of  war  in 
time  of  war.  The  most  that  can  be  said,  if  so  much,  is,  that  slaves  are 
property.  Is  there,  has  there  ever  been,  any  question  that  by  the  law  of 
war,  property,  both  of  enemies  and  friends,  may  be  taken  when  needed  ? 
And  is  it  not  needed  whenever  it  helps  us  and  hurts  the  enemy  ?  Armies, 
the  world  over,  destroy  enemies'  property  when  they  cann«t  use  it ;  and 
even  destroy  their  own  to  keep  it  from  the  enemy.  Civilized  belligerents 
do  all  in  their  power  to  help  themselves  or  hurt  the  enemy,  except  a  few 
things  regarded  as  barbarous  or  cruel.  Among  the  exceptions  are  tho 
massacre  of  vanquished  foes  and  non-combatants,  male  and  female. 

But  the  Proclamation,  as  law,  either  is  valid  or  is  not  valid.  If  it  is 
not  valid  it  needs  no  retraction.  If  it  is  valid  it  cannot  be  retracted,  any 
more  than  the  dead  can  be  brought  to  life.  Some  of  you  profess  to  think 
its  retraction  would  operate  favorably  for  the  Union.  Why  better  after 
the  retraction  than  before  the  issue  ?  There  was  more  than  a  year  and  a 
half  of  trial  to  suppress  the  rebellion  before  the  Proclamation  was  issued, 
the  last  one  hundred  days  of  which  passed  under  an  explicit  notice  that 
it  was  coming,  unless  averted  by  those  in  revolt  returning  to  their 
allegiance.  The  war  has  certainly  progressed  as  favorably  for  us  since 
the  issue  of  the  Proclamation  as  before. 

I  know,  as  fully  as  one  can  know  the  opinions  of  others,  that  some  of 
the  commanders  of  our  armies  in  the  field,  who  have  given  us  our  most 
important  victories,  believe  the  Emancipation  policy  and  tho  use  of 
colored  troops  constitute  the  heaviest  blows  yet  dealt  to  the  rebellion, 
and  that  at  least  one  of  those  important  successes  could  not  have  been 
achieved  when  it  was  but  for  the  aid  of  black  soldiers. 


442  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Among  the  commanders  who  hold  these  views  are  some  who  have 
never  had  any  affinity  with  what  is  called  "Abolitionism,"  or  with 
"Republican  party  politics,"  but  who  hold  them  purely  as  military 
opinions.  I  submit  their  opinions  as  entitled  to  some  weight  against  the 
objections  often  urged  that  emancipation  and  arming  the  blacks  are 
unwise  as  military  measures,  and  were  not  adopted  as  such  in  good 
faith. 

You  say  that  you  will  not  fight  to  free  negroes.  Some  of  them  seem 
willing  to  fight  for  you  ;  but  no  matter.  Fight  you,  then,  exclusively,  to 
save  the  Union.  I  issued  the  Proclamation  on  purpose  to  aid  you  in 
saving  the  Union.  Whenever  you  shall  have  conquered  all  resistance  to 
the  Union,  if  I  shall  urge  you  to  continue  fighting,  it  will  be  an  apt  time 
then  for  you  to  declare  you  will  not  fight  to  free  negroes.  I  thought  that 
in  your  struggle  for  the  Union,  to  whatever  extent  the  negroes  should 
cease  helping  the  enemy,  to  that  extent  it  weakened  the  enemy  in  his  re 
sistance  to  you.  Do  you  think  differently?  I  thought  that  whatever 
negroes  can  be  got  to  do  as  soldiers,  leaves  just  so  much  less  for  white 
soldiers  to  do  in  saving  the  Union.  Does  it  appear  otherwise  to  you? 
But  negroes,  like  other  people,  act  upon  motives.  Why  should  they  do 
any  thing  for  us  if  we  will  do  nothing  for  them?  If  they  stake  their  lives 
for  us  they  must  be  prompted  by  the  strongest  motive,  even  the  promise 
of  freedom.  And  the  promise,  being  made,  must  be  kept. 

The  signs  look  better.  The  Father  of  Waters  again  goes  unvexed  to 
the  sea.  Thanks  to  the  great  Northwest  for  it ;  nor  yet  wholly  to  them. 
Three  hundred  miles  up  they  met  New-England,  Empire,  Keystone,  and 
Jersey,  hewing  their  way  right  and  left.  The  sunny  South,  too,  in  more 
colors  than  one,  also  lent  a  helping  hand.  On  the  spot,  their  part  of  the 
history  was  jotted  down  in  black  and  white.  The  job  was  a  great  national 
one,  and  let  none  be  slighted  who  bore  an  honorable  part  in  it.  And 
while  those  who  have  cleared  the  great  river  may  well  be  proud,  even 
that  is  not  all.  It  is  hard  to  say  that  any  thing  has  been  more  bravely  and 
well  done  than  at  Antietam,  Murfreesboro',  Gettysburg,  and  on  many 
fields  of  less  note.  Nor  must  Uncle  Sam's  web  feet  be  forgotten.  At  all 
the  watery  margins  they  have  been  present,  not  only  on  the  deep  sea,  the 
broad  bay,  and  the  rapid  river,  but  also  up  the  narrow,  muddy  bayou, 
and  wherever  the  ground  was  a  little  damp,  they  have  b^en  and  made 
their  tracks.  Thanks  to  all.  For  the  great  Republic — for  the  principle 
it  lives  by  and  keeps  alive — for  man's  vast  future — thanks  to  all. 

Peace  does  not  appeal-  so  distant  as  it  did.  I  hope  it  will  come  soon, 
and  come  to  stay;  and  so  come  as  to  be  worth  the  keeping  in  all  future 
time.  It  will  then  have  been  proved  that  among  freemen  there  can  be 
no  successful  appeal  from  the  ballot  to  the  bullet,  and  that  they  who  take 
such  appeal  are  sure  to  lose  their  case  and  pay  the  cost.  And  there  will 
be  some  black  men  who  can  remember  that  with  silent  tongue,  and 
clinched  teeth,  and  steady  eye,  and  well-poised  bayonet,  they  havo 
helped  mankind  on  to  this  great  consummation,  while  I  fear  there  wil] 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          443 

be  some  white  ones  unable  to  forget  that  with  malignant  heart  and  de 
ceitful  speech  they  have  striven  to  hinder  it. 

Still,  let  us  not  he  over-sanguine  of  a  speedy,  final  triumph.  Let  us  be 
quite  sober.  Let  us  diligently  apply,  the  means,  never  doubting  that  a 
just  God,  in  His  own  good  time,  will  give  us  the  rightful  result. 

Yours,  very  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

The  result  of  the  canvass  justified  the  confidence  of  the 
friends  of  the  Administration.  Every  State  in  which  elec 
tions  were  held,  with  the  single  exception  of  New  Jersey, 
voted  to  sustain  the  Government ;  and  in  all  the  largest 
and  most  important  States  the  majorities  were  so  large  as 
to  make  the  result  of  more  than  ordinary  significance.  In 
Ohio,  Vallandigham,  who  had  been  put  in  nomination 
mainly  on  account  of  the  issue  he  had  made  with  the 
Government  in  the  matter  of  his  arrest,  was  defeated  by  a 
majority  of  nearly  one  hundred  thousand.  New  York, 
which  had  elected  Governor  Seymour  the  year  before, 
and  had  been  still  further  distinguished  and  disgraced  by 
the  anti-draft  riots  of  July,  gave  a  majority  of  not  far  from 
thirty  thousand  for  the  Administration ;  and  Pennsyl 
vania,  in  spite  of  the  personal  participation  of  General 
McClellan  in  the  canvass  against  him,  re-elected  Governor 
Curtin  by  about  the  same  majority.  These  results  fol 
lowed  a  very  active  and  earnest  canvass,  in  which  the 
opponents  of  the  Administration  put  forth  their  most 
vigorous  efforts  for  its  defeat.  The  ground  taken  by  its 
friends  in  every  State  was  that  which  had  been  held  by 
the  President  from  the  beginning — that  the  rebellion  must 
be  suppressed  and  the  Union  preserved,  at  whatever  cost 
—that  this  could  only  be  done  by  force,  and  that  it  was 
not  only  the  right,  but  the  duty,  of  the  Government  to  use 
all  the  means  at  its  command,  not  incompatible  with  the 
laws  of  war  and  the  usages  of  civilized  nations,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  this  result.  They  vindicated  the  action 
of  the  Government  in  the  matter  of  arbitrary  arrests,  and 
sustained  throughout  the  canvass,  in  every  State,  the 
policy  of  the  President  in  regard  to  slavery  and  in  issuing 
the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  as  a  military  measure, 
against  the  vehement  and  earnest  efforts  of  the  Opposition, 


444  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  result  was,  therefore,  justly  claimed  as  a  decided 
verdict  of  the  people  in  support  of  the  Government.  It 
was  so  regarded  by  all  parties  throughout  the  country, 
and  its  effect  upon  their  action  was  of  marked  importance. 
While  it  gave  renewed  vigor  and  courage  to  the  friends 
of  the  Administration  everywhere,  it  developed  the  divi 
sion  of  sentiment  in  the  ranks  of  the  Opposition,  which, 
in  its  incipient  stages,  had  largely  contributed  to  their 
defeat.  The  majority  of  that  party  were  inclined  to 
acquiesce  in  the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  country,  that 
the  rebellion  could  be  subdued  only  by  successful  war, 
and  to  sustain  the  Government  in  whatever  measures 
might  be  deemed  necessary  for  its  effectual  prosecution  : — 
but  the  resolute  resistance  of  some  of  its  more  conspicuous 
leaders  withheld  them  from  open  action  in  this  direc 
tion. 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  445 


CHAPTER   XY. 

THE  CONGRESS  OF  1863-4.— MESSAGE  OF  THE  PRESIDENT.— ACTION 
OF  THE  SESSION.— PROGRESS  IN  RAISING  TROOPS. 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE. — THE  PROCLAMATION  OF  AMNESTY. — EXPLAN 
ATORY  PROCLAMATION. — DEBATE  ON  SLAVERY. — CALL  FOR  TROOPS. — 
GENERAL  BLAIR'S  RESIGNATION. — DIPLOMATIC  CORRESPONDENCE. — OUR 
RELATIONS  WITH  ENGLAND. — FRANCE  AND  MEXICO. — THE  PRESIDENT 
AND  THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE. 

CONGRESS  met  on  Monday,  December  7,  1863.  The 
House  of  Kepresentatives  was  promptly  organized  by  the 
election  of  Hon.  Sclmyler  Colfax,  a  Republican  from  In 
diana,  to  be  Speaker — he  receiving  one  hundred  and  one 
votes  out  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-one,  the  whole  num 
ber  cast.  Mr.  Cox,  of  Ohio,  was  the  leading  candidate 
of  the  Democratic  opposition,  but  he  received  only  iifty- 
one  votes,  the  remaining  twenty-nine  being  divided  among 
several  Democratic  members.  In  the  Senate,  the  Sena 
tors  from  West  Virginia  were  admitted  to  their  seats  by 
a  vote  of  thirty-six  to  five. 

On  the  9th,  the  President  transmitted  to  both  Houses 
the  following  Message  : — 

Fellow- Citizens  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives : 

Another  year  of  health  and  of  sufficiently  abundant  harvests  has 
passed.  Fur  these,  and  especially  for  the  improved  condition  of  our  na  • 
tional  affairs,  our  renewed  and  profoundest  gratitude  to  God  is  due.  We 
remain  in  peace  and  friendship  with  foreign  Powers.  The  efforts  of  dis 
loyal  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  involve  us  in  foreign  wars  to  aid  an 
inexcusable  insurrection  have  been  unavailing.  Her  Britannic  Majesty's 
Government,  as  was  justly  expected,  have  exercised  their  authority  to 
prevent  the  departure  of  new  hostile  expeditions  from  British  ports. 

The  Emperor  of  France  has,  by  a  like  proceeding,  promj;  tly  vindicated 
the  neutrality  which  he  proclaimed  at  the  beginning  of  the  contest. 

Questions  of  great  intricacy  and  importance  have  arisen  out  of  the 
blockade,  and  other  belligerent  operations,  between  the  Government  and 
•several  of  the  maritime  Powers,  but  they  have  been  discussed,  and,  as 


446  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

far  as  was  possible,  accommodated  in  a  spirit  of  frankness,  justice,  and 
mutual  good-will. 

It  is  especially  gratifying  that  our  prize  courts,  by  the  impartiality  of 
their  adjudications,  have  commanded  the  respect  and  confidence  of  mari 
time  Powers. 

The  supplemental  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
for  the  suppression  of  the  African  slave-trade,  made  on  the  17th  day  of 
February  last,  has  been  duly  ratified  and  carried  into  execution.  It  is 
believed  that  so  far  as  American  ports  and  American  citizens  are  con 
cerned,  that  inhuman  and  odious  traffic  has  been  brought  to  an  end. 

I  have  thought  it  proper,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Senate,  to 
concur  with  the  interested  commercial  Powers,  in  an  arrangement  for 
the  liquidation  of  the  Scheldt  dues,  upon  the  principles  which  have  been 
heretofore  adopted  in  regard  to  the  imposts  upon  navigation  in  the  waters 
of  Denmark. 

The  long-pending  controversy  between  this  Government  and  that  of 
Chili,  touching  the  seizure  at  Sitana,  in  Peru,  by  Chilian  officers,  of  a 
large  amount  in  treasure,  belonging  to  citizens  of  the  United  States,  has 
been  brought  to  a  close  by  the  award  of  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the 
Belgians,  to  whose  arbitration  the  question  was  referred  by  the  parties. 

The  subject  was  thoroughly  and  patiently  examined  by  that  justly 
respected  magistrate,  and  although  the  sum  awarded  to  the  claimants 
rnay  not  have  been  as  large  as  they  expected,  there  is  no  reason  to  dis 
trust  the  wisdom  of  His  Majesty's  decision.  That  decision  was  promptly 
complied  with  by  Chili  when  intelligence  in  regard  to  it  reached  that 
country. 

The  Joint  Commission,  under  the  act  of  the  last  session  for  carrying 
into  effect  the  Convention  with  Peru  on  the  subject  of  claims,  has  been 
organized  at  Lima,  and  is  engaged  in  the  business  intrusted  to  it. 

Difficulties  concerning  interoceanic  transit  through  Nicaragua  are  in 
course  of  amicable  adjustment. 

In  conformity  with  principles  set  forth  in  my  last  Annual  Message,  I 
have  received  a  representative  from  the  United  States  of  Colombia,  and 
have  accredited  a  Minister  to  that  Kepublic. 

Incidents  occurring  in  the  progress  of  our  civil  war  have  forced  upon 
my  attention  the  uncertain  state  of  international  questions  touching  the 
rights  of  foreigners  in  this  country  and  of  United  States  citizens  abroad. 

In  regard  to  some  Governments,  these  rights  are  at  least  partially  de 
fined  by  treaties.  In  no  instance,  however,  is  it  expressly  stipulated  that 
in  the  event  of  civil  war  a  foreigner  residing  in  this  country,  within  the 
lines  of  the  insurgents,  is  to  be  exempted  from  the  rule  which  classes 
him  as  a  belligerent,  in  whose  behalf  the  Government  of  his  country  can 
not  expect  any  privileges  or  immunities  distinct  from  that  character.  [ 
regret  to  say,  however,  that  such  claims  have  been  put  forward,  ana,  in 
some  instances,  in  behalf  of  foreigners  who  have  lived  in  the  United 
States  the  greater  part  of  their  lives. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  447 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  many  persons  born  in  foreign  countries, 
who  have  declared  their  intention  to  become  citizens,  or  who  have  been 
fully  naturalized,  have  evaded  the  military  duty  required  of  them  by 
denying  the  fact,  and  thereby  throwing  upon  the  Government  the  burden 
of  proof.  It  has  been  found  difficult  or  impracticable  to  obtain  this 
proof,  from  the  want  of  guides  to  the  proper  sources  of  information. 
These  might  be  supplied  by  requiring  clerks  of  courts,  where  declarations 
of  intention  may  be  made,  or  naturalizations  effected,  to  send  periodically 
lists  of  the  names  of  the  persons  naturalized,  or  declaring  their  intention 
to  become  citizens,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  in  whose  depart 
ment  those  names  might  be  arranged  and  printed  for  general  information. 
There  is  also  reason  to  believe  that  foreigners  frequently  become  citizens 
of  the  United  States  for  the  sole  purpose  of  evading  duties  imposed  by 
the  laws  of  their  native  countries,  to  which,  on  becoming  naturalized 
here,  they  at  once  repair,  and  though  never  returning  to  the  United 
States,  they  still  claim  the  interposition  of  this  Government  as  citizens. 

Many  altercations  and  great  prejudices  have  heretofore  arisen  out  of 
this  abuse.  It  is,  therefore,  submitted  to  your  serious  consideration.  I*. 
might  be  advisable  to  fix  a  limit  beyond  which  no  citizen  of  the  United 
States  residing  abroad  may  claim  the  interposition  of  his  Government. 

The  right  of  suffrage  has  often  been  assumed  and  exercised  by  aliens 
under  pretences  of  naturalization,  which  they  have  disavowed  when 
drafted  into  the  military  service. 

Satisfactory  arrangements  have  been  made  with  the  Emperor  of  Rus 
sia,  which,  it  is  believed,  will  result  in  effecting  a  continuous  line  of  tele 
graph  through  that  empire  from  our  Pacific  coast. 

I  recommend  to  your  favorable  consideration  the  subject  of  an  inter 
national  telegraph  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  also  of  a  telegraph  be 
tween  this  capital  and  the  national  forts  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Such  communications,  established  with  any  rea 
sonable  outlay,  would  be  economical  as  well  as  effective  aids  to  the  diplo 
matic,  military,  and  naval  service. 

The  Consular  system  of  the  United  States,  under  the  enactments  of 
the  last  Congress,  begins  to  be  self-sustaining,  and  there  is  reason  to  hope 
that  it  may  become  entirely  so  with  the  increase  of  trade,  which  will 
ensue  whenever  peace  is  restored. 

Our  Ministers  abroad  have  been  faithful  in  defending  American  rights. 
In  protecting  commercial  interests,  our  Consuls  have  necessarily  had  to 
encounter  increased  labors  and  responsibilities  growing  out  of  the  war. 
These  they  have,  for  the  most  part,  met  and  discharged  with  zeal  'and 
efficiency.  This  acknowledgment  justly  includes  those  Consuls  who, 
residing  in  Morocco,  Egypt,  Turkey,  Japan,  China,  and  other  Oriental 
countries,  are  charged  with  complex  functions  and  extraordinary  powers. 

The  condition  of  the  several  organized  Territories  is  generally  satisfao- 
tory,  although  Indian  disturbances  in  New  Mexico  have  not  been  entirely 
suppressed. 


448  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  mineral  resources  of  Colorado,  Nevada,  Idaho,  New  Mexico,  and 
Arizona,  are  proving  far  richer  than  has  been  heretofore  understood.  I 
lav  before  you  a  communication  on  this  subject  from  the  Governor  of 
New  Mexico.  I  again  submit  to  your  consideration  the  expediency  of 
establishing  a  system  for  the  encouragement  of  emigration.  Although 
this  source  of  national  wealth  and  strength  is  again  flowing  with  greater 
freedom  than  for  several  years  before  the  insurrection  occurred,  there  is 
still  a  great  deficiency  of  laborers  in  every  field  of  industry,  especially  in 
agriculture  and  in  our  mines,  as  well  of  iron  and  coal  as  of  the  precious 
metals.  While  the  demand  for  labor  is  thus  increased  here,  tens  of 
thousands  of  persons,  destitute  of  remunerative  occupation,  are  throng 
ing  our  foreign  consulates,  and  offering  to  emigrate  to  the  United  States, 
if  essential,  but  very  cheap,  assistance  can  be  afforded  them.  It  is  easy 
to  see  that  under  the  sharp  discipline  of  civil  war  the  nation  is  beginning 
a  new  life.  This  noble  effort  demands  the  aid,  and  ought  to  receive  the 
attention  and  support,  of  the  Government. 

Injuries  unforeseen  by  the  Government,  and  unintended,  may  in  somo 
cases  have  been  inflicted  on  the  subjects  or  citizens  of  foreign  countries, 
both  at  sea  and  on  land,  by  persons  in  the  service  of  the  United  States. 
As  this  Government  expects  redress  from  other  Powers  when  similar 
injuries  are  inflicted  by  persons  in  their  service  upon  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  we  must  be  prepared  to  do  justice  to  foreigners.  If  the 
existing  judicial  tribunals  are  inadequate  to  this  purpose,  a  special  court 
may  be  authorized,  with  power  to  hear  and  decide  such  claims  of  the 
character  referred  to  as  may  have  arisen  under  treaties  and  the  publio 
law.  Conventions  for  adjusting  the  claims  by  joint  commission  have 
been  proposed  to  some  Governments,  but  no  definite  answer  to  the  prop 
osition  has  yet  been  received  from  any. 

In  the  course  of  the  session  I  shall  probably  have  occasion  to  request 
you  to  provide  indemnification  to  claimants  where  decrees  of  restitution 
have  been  rendered,  and  damages  awarded  by  Admiralty  Courts;  and  in 
other  cases,  where  this  Government  may  be  acknowledged  to  be  liable  in 
principle,  and  where  the  amount  of  that  liability  has  been  ascertained  by 
an  informal  arbitration,  the  proper  officers  of  the  Treasury  have  deemed 
themselves  required  by  the  law  of  the  United  States  upon  the  subject,  to 
demand  a  tax  upon  the  incomes  of  foreign  Consuls  in  this  country.  While 
such  a  demand  may  not,  in  strictness,  be  in  derogation  of  public  law,  or 
perhaps  of  any  existing  treaty  between  the  United  States  and  a  foreign 
country,  the  expediency  of  so  far  modifying  the  act  as  to  exempt  from 
tax  the  income  of  such  Consuls  as  are  not  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
derived  from  the  emoluments  of  their  office,  or  from  property  not  situate 
m  the  United  States,  is  submitted  to  your  serious  consideration.  I  mako 
this  suggestion  upon  the  ground  that  a  comity  which  ought  to  be  recip 
rocated  exempts  our  Consuls  in  all  other  countries  from  taxation  to  tho 
extent  thus  indicated.  The  United  States,  I  think,  ought  not  to  be  ex 
ceptionally  illiberal  to  international  trade  and  commerce. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  449 

The  operations  of  the  Treasury  during  the  last  year  have  been  success 
fully  conducted.  The  enactment  by  Congress  of  a  National  Banking 
Law  has  proved  a  valuable  support  of  the  public  credit,  and  the  general 
legislation  in  relation  to  loans  has  fully  answered  the  expectation  of  it? 
favorers.  Some  amendments  may  be  required  to  perfect  existing  laws, 
but  no  change  in  their  principles  or  general  scope  is  believed  to  be  needed. 
Since  these  measures  have  been  in  operation,  all  demands  on  the  Treas 
ury,  including  the  pay  of  the  army  and  navy,  have  been  promptly  met 
and  fully  satisfied.  No  considerable  body  of  troops,  it  is  believed,  were 
ever  more  amply  provided  and  more  liberally  and  punctually  paid ;  and, 
it  may  be  added,  that  by  no  people  were  the  burdens  incident  to  a  great 
war  more  cheerfully  borne. 

The  receipts  during  the  year,  from  all  sources,  including  loans  and  the 
balance  in  the  Treasury  at  its  commencement,  were  $901,125,674  86,  and 
the  aggregate  disbursements  $895,796,630  65,  leaving  a  balance  on  the 
1st  of  July,  1863,  of  $5,329,044  21.  Of  the  receipts,  there  were  derived 
from  customs  $69,059,64240;  from  internal  revenue,  $37,640,78795, 
from  direct  tax,  $1,485,10361;  from  lands,  $167,61717;  from  miscel 
laneous  sources,  $3,046,615  35;  and  from  loans,  $776,682,361  57:  making 
the  aggregate  $901,125,674  86.  Of  the  disbursements,  there  were  for  the 
civil  service  $23,253,922  08;  for  pensions  and  Indians,  $4,216,520  79;  for 
interest  on  public  debt,  $24,729,846  51 ;  for  the  War  Department,  $599,- 
298,60083;  for  the  Navy  Department,  $63,211,105  27 ;  for  payment  of 
funded  and  temporary  debt,  $181,086,635  07  :  making  the  aggregate  $895,- 
796,630  65,  and  leaving  the  balance  of  $5,329,044  21. 

But  the  payment  of  the  funded  and  temporary  debt,  having  been  made 
from  moneys  borrowed  during  the  year,  must  be  regarded  as  merely  nom 
inal  payments,  and  the  moneys  borrowed  to  make  them  as  merely  nomi 
nal  receipts ;  and  their  amount,  $181,086,535  07,  should  therefore  be 
deducted  both  from  receipts  and  disbursements.  This  being  done,  there 
remains,  as  actual  receipts,  $720,039,039  79,  and  the  actual  disbursements 
$714,709,995  58,  leaving  the  balance  as  already  stated. 

The  actual  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  first  quarter,  and  the  esti 
mated  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  remaining  three  quarters  of  the 
current  fiscal  year,  1864,  will  be  shown  in  detail  by  the  report  of  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury,  to  which  I  invite  your  attention. 

It  is  sufficient  to  say  here,  that  it  is  not  believed  that  actual  results  will 
exhibit  a  state  of  the  finances  less  favorable  to  the  country  than  the  esti 
mates  of  that  officer  heretofore  submitted,  while  it  is  confidently  expected 
that,  at  the  close  of  the  year,  both  disbursements  and  debt  will  be  found 
very  considerably  less  than  has  been  anticipated. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  is  a  document  of  great  interest.  It 
consists  of — 

First.— The  military  operations  of  the  year  detailed  in  the  report  of  the 
General-in-Chief. 

Second.— The  organization  of  colored  persons  into  the  war  service 
29 


450  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Third. — The  exchange  of  prisoners,  fully  set  forth  in  the  letter  of  Gen 
eral  Hitchcock. 

Fourth. — The  operations  under  the  act  for  enrolling  and  calling  out  the 
national  forces,  detailed  in  the  report  of  the  Provost-Marshal  General. 

Fifth,. — The  organization  of  the  Invalid  Corps.     And — 

Sixth. — The  operations  of  the  several  departments  of  the  Quartermaster- 
General,  Commissary-General,  Paymaster-General,  Chief  of  Engineers, 
Chief  of  Ordnance,  and  Surgeon-General.  It  has  appeared  impossible  to 
make  a  valuable  summary  of  this  report,  except  such  as  would  be  too  ex 
tended  for  this  place,  and  hence  I  content  myself  by  asking  your  carefuJ 
attention  to  the  report  itself.  The  duties  devolving  on  the  naval  branch 
of  the  service  during  the  year,  and  throughout  the  whole  of  this  unhappy 
contest,  have  been  discharged  with  fidelity  and  eminent  success.  The  ex 
tensive  blockade  has  been  constantly  increasing  in  efficiency,  as  the  navy 
has  expanded,  yet  on  so  long  a  line  it  has,  so  far,  been  impossible  entirely 
to  suppress  illicit  trade.  From  returns  received  at  the  Navy  Department, 
it  appears  that  more  than  one  thousand  vessels  have  been  captured  since 
the  blockade  was  instituted,  ai;  that  the  value  of  prizes  already  sent  in 
tor  adjudication  amount  to  over  t  hirten  millions  of  dollars. 

The  naval  force  of  the  United  States  consists  at  this  time  of  five  hundred 
and  eighty-eight  vessels  completed  and  in  the  course  of  completion,  and 
of  these  seventy-five  are  iron-clad  or  armored  steamers.  The  events  of 
the  war  give  an  increased  interest  and  importance  to  the  navy,  which  will 
probably  extend  beyond  the  war  itself.  The  armored  vessels  in  our  navy ; 
completed  and  in  service,  or  which  are  under  contract  and  approaching 
completion,  are  believed  to  exceed  in  number  those  of  any  other  Power ; 
but  while  these  may  be  relied  upon  for  harbor  defence  and  coast  service, 
others  of  greater  strength  and  capacity  will  be  necessary  for  cruising  pur 
poses,  and  to  maintain  our  rightful  position  on  the  ocean. 

The  change  that  has  taken  place  in  naval  vessels  and  naval  warfare  since 
the  introduction  of  steam  as  a  motive  power  for  ships  of  war,  demands 
either  a  corresponding  change  in  some  of  our  existing  navy-yards,  or  the 
establishment  of  new  ones,  for  the  construction  and  necessary  repair  of 
modern  naval  vessels.  No  inconsiderable  embarrassment,  delay,  and  pub 
lic  injury,  have  been  experienced  from  the  want  of  such  governmental 
establishments. 

The  necessity  »>f  such  a  navy-yard,  so  furnished,  at  some  suitable  place 
upon  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  has,  on  repeated  occasions,  been  brought  to 
the  attention  of  Congress  by  the  Navy  Department,  and  is  again  presented 
in  the  report  of  the  Secretary,  which  accompanies  this  communication.  I 
think  it  my  duty  to  invite  your  special  attention  to  this  subject,  and  also 
to  that  of  establishing  a  yard  and  depot  for  naval  purposes  upon  one  of 
the  "Western  rivers.  A  naval  force  has  been  created  on  these  interior 
waters,  and  under  many  disadvantages,  within  a  little  more  than  two 
years,  exceeding  in  number  the  whole  naval  force  of  the  country  at  the 
commencement  of  the  present  Administration.  Satisfactory  and  important 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  451 

as  have  been  the  performances  of  the  heroic  men  of  the  navy  at  tnis  in 
teresting  period,  they  are  scarcely  more  wonderful  than  the  success  of  our 
mechanics  and  artisans  in  the  production  of  war- vessels,  which  has  created 
a  new  form  of  naval  power. 

Our  country  has  advantages  superior  to  any  other  nation  in  our  resources 
of  iron  and  timber,  with  inexhaustible  quantities  of  fuel  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  both,  and  all  available  and  in  close  proximity  to  navigable 
waters.  Without  the  advantage  of  public  works,  the  resources  of  the 
nation  have  been  developed,  and  its  power  displayed,  in  the  construction 
of  a  navy  of  such  magnitude,  which  has  at  the  very  period  of  its  creation 
rendered  signal  service  to  the  Union. 

The  increase  of  the  number  of  seamen  in  the  public  service  from  seven 
thousand  five  hundred  men  in  the  spring  of  1861,  to  about  thirty-four 
thousand  at  the  present  time,  has  been  accomplished  without  special  legis 
lation  or  extraordinary  bounties  to  promote  that  increase.  It  has  been 
found,  however,  that  the  operation  of  the  draft,  with  the  high  bounties 
paid  for  army  recruits,  is  beginning  to  affect  injuriously  the  naval  service, 
and  will,  if  not  corrected,  be  likely  to  impair  its  efficiency  by  detaching 
seamen  from  their  proper  vocation,  and  inducing  them  to  enter  the  army. 
I  therefore  respectfully  suggest  that  Congress  might  aid  both  the  army 
and  naval  service  by  a  definite  provision  on  this  subject,  which  would  at 
the  same  time  be  equitable  to  the  communities  more  especially  interested. 

I  commend  to  your  consideration  the  suggestions  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  in  regard  to  the  policy  of  fostering  and  training  seamen,  and  also 
the  education  of  officers  and  engineers  for  the  naval  service.  The  Naval 
Academy  is  rendering  signal  service  in  preparing  midshipmen  for  the 
highly  responsible  duties  which  in  after-life  they  will  be  required  to  per 
form.  In  order  that  the  country  should  not  be  deprived  of  the  proper 
quota  of  educated  officers,  for  which  legal  provision  has  been  made  at  the 
naval  school,  the  vacancies  caused  by  the  neglect  or  omission  to  make 
nominations  from  the  States  in  insurrection,  have  been  filled  by  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy.  The  school  is  now  more  full  and  complete  than  at  any 
former  period,  and  in  every  respect  entitled  to  the  favorable  consideration 
of  Congress. 

During  the  last  fiscal  year  the  financial  condition  of  the  Post-Office  De 
partment  has  been  one  of  increasing  prosperity,  and  lam  gratified  in  being 
able  to  state  that  the  actual  postal  revenue  has  nearly  equalled  the  entire 
expenditures,  the  latter  amounting  to  $11,314,206  84,  and  the  former  to 
$11,163,789  59,  leaving  a  deficiency  of  but  $150,417  25.  In  1860,  the 
year  immediately  preceding  the  rebellion,  the  deficiency  amounted  to 
$5,656,705  49,  the  postal  receipts  for  that  year  being  $2,647,225  19  less 
than  those  of  1863.  The  decrease  since  1860  in  the  annual  amount  of 
transportation  has  been  only  about  25  per  cent. ;  but  the  annual  expendi 
ture  on  account  of  the  same  has  been  reduced  35  per  cent.  It  is  manifest, 
therefore,  that  the  Post-Office  Department  may  become  self-sustaining  in 
a  few  years,  even  with  the  restoration  of  the  whole  service. 


152  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  international  conference  of  postal  delegates  from  the  principal 
countries  of  Europe  and  America,  which  was  called  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  Postmaster-General,  met  at  Paris  on  the  llth  of  May  last,  and  con 
cluded  its  deliberations  on  the  8th  of  June.  The  principles  established 
by  the  conference  as  best  adapted  to  facilitate  postal  intercourse  between 
nations,  and  as  the  basis  of  future  postal  conventions,  inaugurates  a  gen 
eral  system  of  uniform  international  charges  at  reduced  rates  of  postage, 
and  cannot  fail  to  produce  beneficial  results.  I  refer  you  to  the  Report 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  which  is  herewith  laid  before  you,  for 
useful  and  varied  information  in  relation  to  Public  Lands,  Indian  Affairs, 
Patents,  Pensions,  and  other  matters  of  the  public  concern  pertaining  to 
his  department. 

The  quantity  of  land  disposed  of  during  the  last  and  the  first  quarter 
of  the  present  fiscal  year  was  three  million  eight  hundred  and  forty- 
one  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-nine  acres,  of  which  one  hundred 
and  sixty-one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  eleven  acres  were  sold  for  cash. 
One  million  four  hundred  and  fifty-six  thousand  five  hundred  and  four 
teen  acres  were  taken  up  under  the  Homestead  Law,  and  the  residue  dis 
posed  of  under  laws  granting  lands  for  military  bounties,  for  railroad  and 
other  purposes.  It  also  appears  that  the  sale  of  public  lands  is  largely 
on  the  increase. 

It  has  long  been  a  cherished  opinion  of  some  of  our  wisest  statesme/i 
that  the  people  of  the  United  States  had  a  higher  and  more  enduring  in 
terest  in  the  early  settlement  and  substantial  cultivation  of  the  public 
lands  than  in  the  amount  of  direct  revenue  to  be  derived  from  the  sale  of 
them.  This  opinion  has  had  a  controlling  influence  in  shaping  legislation 
upon  the  subject  of  our  national  domain.  I  may  cite,  as  evidence  of  this, 
the  liberal  measures  adopted  in  reference  to  actual  settlers,  the  grant  to 
the  States  of  the  overflowed  lands  within  their  limits,  in  order  to  their 
being  reclaimed  and  rendered  fit  for  cultivation,  the  grants  to  railway 
companies  of  alternate  sections  of  land  upon  the  contemplated  lines  of 
their  roads,  which,  when  completed,  will  so  largely  multiply  the  facilities 
for  reaching  our  distant  possessions.  This  policy  has  received  its  most 
signal  and  beneficent  illustration  in  the  recent  enactment  granting  home 
steads  to  actual  settlers.  Since  the  first  day  of  January  last,  the  before- 
mentioned  quantity  of  one  million  four  hundred  and  fifty-six  thousand  five 
hundred  and  fourteen  acres  of  land  have  been  taken  up  under  its  pro 
visions.  This  fact,  and  the  amount  of  sales,  furnish  gratifying  evidence  of 
increasing  settlement  upon  the  public  lands,  notwithstanding  the  great 
struggle  in  which  the  energies  of  the  nation  have  been  engaged,  and  which 
has  required  so  large  a  withdrawal  of  our  citizens  from  their  accustomed 
pursuits.  I  cordially  concur  in  the  recommendation  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  suggesting  a  modification  of  the  act  in  favor  of  those  engaged 
in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United  States. 

I  doubt  not  that  Congress  will  cheerfully  adopt  such  measures  as  will, 
without  essentially  changing  the  general  features  of  the  system,  secure  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  453 

the  greatest  practical  extent  its  benefits  to  those  who  have  left  their 
homes  in  defence  of  the  country  in  this  arduous  crisis. 

I  invite  your  attention  to  the  views  of  the  Secretary  as  to  the  propriety 
of  raising,  by  appropriate  legislation,  a  revenue  from  the  mineral  lands  of 
the  United  States.  The  measures  provided  at  your  last  session  for  the 
removal  of  certain  Indian  tribes  have  been  carried  into  effect.  Sundry 
treaties  have  been  negotiated,  which  will,  in  due  time,  be  submitted  for 
the  constitutional  action  of  the  Senate.  They  contain  stipulations  for  ex 
tinguishing  the  possessory  rights  of  the  Indians  to  large  and  valuable 
tracts  of  lands.  It  is  hoped  that  the  effect  of  these  treaties  will  result  in 
the  establishment  of  permanent  friendly  relations  with  such  of  these 
tribes  as  have  been  brought  into  frequent  and  bloody  collision  with  our 
outlying  settlements  and  emigrants.  Sound  policy,  and  our  imperative 
duty  to  these  wards  of  the  Government,  demand  our  anxious  and  con 
stant  attention  to  their  material  well-being,  to  their  progress  in  the  arts 
of  civilization,  and,  above  all,  to  that  moral  training  which,  under  the 
blessing  of  Divine  Providence,  will  confer  upon  them  the  elevated  and 
sanctifying  influences,  the  hopes  and  consolations  of  the  Christian  faith. 
I  suggested  in  my  last  Annual  Message  the  propriety  of  remodelling  our 
Indian  system.  Subsequent  events  have  satisfied  me  of  its  necessity. 
The  details  set  forth  in  the  report  of  the  Secretary  evince  the  urgent  need 
for  immediate  legislative  action. 

I  commend  the  benevolent  institutions,  established  or  patronized  by  the 
Government  in  this  District,  to  your  generous  and  fostering  care. 

The  attention  of  Congress,  during  the  last  session,  was  engaged  to  some 
extent  with  a  proposition  for  enlarging  the  water  communication  between 
the  Mississippi  River  and  the  northeastern  seaboard,  which  proposition, 
however,  failed  for  the  time.  Since  then,  upon  a  call  of  the  greatest 
respectability,  a  convention  has  been  held  at  Chicago  upon  the  same  sub 
ject,  a  summary  of  whose  views  is  contained  in  a  Memorial  Address  to 
the  President  and  Congress,  and  which  I  now  have  the  honor  to  lay 
before  you.  That  the  interest  is  one  which  will  ere  long  force  its  own 
way  I  do  not  entertain  a  doubt,  while  it  is  submitted  entirely  to  your 
wisdom  as  to  what  can  be  done  now.  Augmented  interest  is  given  to 
this  subject  by  the  actual  commencement  of  work  upon  the  Pacific  Rail 
road,  under  auspices  so  favorable  to  rapid  progress  and  completion.  The 
enlarged  navigation  becomes  a  palpable  need  to  the  great  road. 

I  transmit  the  second  annual  report  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  De 
partment  of  Agriculture,  asking  your  attention  to  the  developments  in 
that  vital  interest  of  the  nation. 

When  Congress  assembled  a  year  ago,  the  war  had  already  lasted  nearly 
twenty  months,  and  there  had  been  many  conflicts  on  both  land  and  sea. 
with  varying  results ;  the  rebellion  had  been  pressed  back  into  reduced 
limits;  yet  the  tone  of  public  feeling  and  opinion,  at  home  and  abroad, 
was  not  satisfactory.  With  other  signs,  the  popular  elections  then  just 
past  indicated  uneasiness  among  ourselves,  while,  amid  much  that  was 


454  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  ANL 

cold  and  menacing,  the  kindest  words  coming  from  Europe  were  uttered 
in  accents  of  pity  that  we  were  too  blind  to  surrender  a  hopeless  cause. 
Our  commerce  was  suffering  greatly  by  a  few  vessels  built  upon  and 
furnished  from  foreign  shores,  and  we  were  threatened  with  such  addi 
tions  from  the  same  quarters  as  would  sweep  our  trade  from  the  seas  and 
raise  our  blockade.  We  had  failed  to  elicit  from  European  Governments 
any  thing  hopeful  upon  this  subject. 

The  preliminary  Emancipation  Proclamation  issued  in  September  was 
running  its  assigned  period  to  the  beginning  of  the  new  year.  A  month 
later,  the  final  proclamation  came,  including  the  announcement  that 
colored  men  of  suitable  condition  would  be  received  in  the  war  service. 
The  policy  of  emancipation  and  of  employing  black  soldiers  gave  to  the 
future  a  new  aspect,  about  which  hope  and  fear  and  doubt  contended  in 
uncertain  conflict.  According  to  our  political  system,  as  a  matter  of  civil 
administration,  the  Government  had  no  lawful  power  to  effect  emancipa 
tion  in  any  State,  and  for  a  long  time  it  had  been  hoped  that  the  rebel 
lion  could  bo  suppressed  without  resorting  to  it  as  a  military  measure. 
It  was  all  the  while  deemed  possible  that  the  necessity  for  it  might  come, 
and  that  if  it  should,  the  crisis  of  the  contest  would  then  be  presented. 
It  came,  and,  as  was  anticipated,  was  followed  by  dark  and  doubtful 
days. 

Eleven  months  having  now  passed,  we  are  permitted  to  take  another 
review.  The  rebel  borders  are  pressed  still  further  back,  and  by  the 
complete  opening  of  the  Mississippi,  the  country  dominated  by  the  rebel 
lion  is  divided  into  distinct  parts,  with  no  practical  communication  be 
tween  them.  Tennessee  and  Arkansas  have  been  substantially  cleared 
of  insurgent  control,  and  influential  citizens  in  each — owners  of  slaves 
and  advocates  of  slavery  at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion— now  declare 
openly  for  emancipation  in  their  respective  States.  Of  those  States  not 
included  in  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  Maryland  and  Missouri, 
neither  of  which  three  years  ago  would  tolerate  any  restraint  upon  the 
extension  of  slavery  into  new  Territories,  only  dispute  now  as  to  the  best 
mode  of  removing  it  within  their  own  limits. 

Of  those  who  were  slaves  at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion,  full  one 
hundred  thousand  are  now  in  the  United  States  military  service,  about 
one-half  of  which  number  actually  bear  arms  in  the  ranks— thus  giving 
the  double  advantage  of  taking  so  much  labor  from  the  insurgent  cause 
and  supplying  the  places  which  otherwise  must  be  filled  with  so  many 
white  men.  So  far  as  tested,  it  is  difficult  to  say  they  are  not  as  good 
soldiers  as  any.  No  servile  insurrection  or  tendency  to  violence  or  cruel 
ty  has  marked  the  measures  of  emancipation  and  arming  the  blacks.  Theso 
measures  have  been  much  discussed  in  foreign  countries,  and,  contemporary 
with  such  discussion,  the  tone  of  public  sentiment  there  is  much  improved. 
At  home  the  same  measures  have  been  fully  discussed,  supported,  criticised, 
and  denounced,  and  the  annual  elections  following  are  highly  encouraging 
to  those  whose  official  duty  it  is  to  bear  the  country  through  this  grea 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  455 

trial.  Thus  we  have  the  new  reckoning.  The  crisis  which  threatened 
to  divide  the  friends  of  the  Union  is  past. 

Looking  now  to  the  present  and  future,  and  with  reference  to  a  re 
sumption  of  the  National  authority  in  the  States  wherein  that  authority 
has  been  suspended,  I  have  thought  fit  to  issue  a  proclamation — a  copy  of 
which  is  herewith  transmitted.  On  examination  of  this  proclamation,  it 
will  appear,  as  is  believed,  that  nothing  is  attempted  beyond  what  is  amply 
justified  by  the  Constitution.  True,  the  form  of  an  oath  is  given,  but  no 
man  is  coerced  to  take  it.  The  man  is  only  promised  a  pardon  in  case  he 
voluntarily  takes  the  oath.  The  Constitution  authorizes  the  Executive  to 
grant  or  withdraw  the  pardon  at  his  own  absolute  discretion,  and  this 
includes  the  power  to  grant  on  terms,  as  is  fully  established  by  judicial 
and  other  authorities.  It  is  also  proffered  that  if  in  any  of  the  States  named 
a  State  Government  shall  be  in  the  mode  prescribed  set  up,  such  govern 
ment  shall  be  recognized  and  guaranteed  by  the  United  States,  and  that 
under  it  the  State  shall,  on  the  constitutional  conditions,  be  protected 
against  invasion  and  domestic  violence. 

The  constitutional  obligation  of  the  United  States  to  guarantee  to  every 
State  in  the  Union  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  to  protect  the 
State  in  the  cases  stated,  is  explicit  and  full.  But  why  tender  the  benefits 
of  this  provision  only  to  a  State  Government  set  up  in  this  particular  way? 
This  section  of  the  Constitution  contemplates  a  case  wherein  the  element 
within  a  State  favorable  to  republican  government  in  the  Union  may  be 
too  feeble  for  an  opposite  and  hostile  element  external  to  or  even  within 
the  State,  and  such  are  precisely  the  cases  with  which  we  are  now 
dealing. 

An  attempt  to  guarantee  and  protect  a  revived  State  Government, 
constructed  in  whole  or  in  preponderating  part  from  the  very  element 
against  whose  hostility  and  violence  it  is  to  be  protected,  is  simply  absurd. 
There  must  be  a  test  by  which  to  separate  the  opposing  elements,  so  as  to 
build  only  from  the  sound ;  and  that  test  is  a  sufficiently  liberal  one  which 
accepts  as  sound  whoever  will  make  a  sworn  recantation  of  his  former 
unsoundness. 

f  But  if  it  be  proper  to  require,  as  a  test  of  admission  to  the  political  body, 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  to  the 
Union  under  it,  why  also  to  the  laws  and  proclamations  in  regard  to 
slavery  ? 

Those  laws  and  proclamations  were  enacted  and  put  forth  for  the  pur 
pose  of  aiding  in  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  To  give  them  their 
fullest  effect  there  had  to  be  a  pledge  for  their  maintenance.  In  my  judg 
ment  they  have  aided  and  will  further  aid  the  cause  for  which  they  were 
intended. 

To  now  abandon  them  would  be  not  only  to  relinquish  a  lever  of  power, 
but  would  also  be  a  cruel  and  an  astounding  breach  of  faith. 

I  may  add,  at  this  point,  that  while  I  remain  in  my  present  position,  I 
*hall  not  attempt  to  retract  or  modify  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  nor 


456  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

shall  I  return  to  slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that  proc 
lamation,  or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Congress. 

For  these  and  other  reasons,  it  is  thought  best  that  support  of  these 
measures  shall  be  included  in  the  oath,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  Exec 
utive  may  lawfully  claim  it  in  return  for  pardon  and  restoration  of  for 
feited  rights,  which  he  has  a  clear  constitutional  power  to  withhold  al 
together  or  grant  upon  the  terms  which  he  shall  deem  wisest  for  the 
public  interest.  It  should  be  observed,  also,  that  this  part  of  the  oath  is 
subject  to  the  modifying  and  abrogating  power  of  legislation  and  supreme 
judicial  decision. 

The  proposed  acquiescence  of  the  National  Executive  in  any  reasonable 
temporary  State  arrangement  for  the  freed  people,  is  made  with  the  view 
of  possibly  modifying  the  confusion  and  destitution  which  must  at  best 
attend  all  classes  by  a  total  revolution  of  labor  throughout  whole  States. 
It  is  hoped  that  the  already  deeply  afflicted  people  in  those  States  may 
be  somewhat  more  ready  to  give  up  the  cause  of  their  affliction,  if,  to  this 
extent,  this  vital  matter  be  left  to  themselves,  while  no  power  of  the  Na 
tional  Executive  to  prevent  an  abuse  is  abridged  by  the  proposition. 

The  suggestion  in  the  proclamation  as  to  maintaining  the  political  frame 
work  of  the  States  on  what  is  called  reconstruction,  is  made  in  the  hope 
that  it  may  do  good,  without  danger  of  harm.  It  will  save  labor,  and 
avoid  great  confusion.  But  why  any  proclamation  now  upon  this  subject? 
This  question  is  beset  with  the  conflicting  views  that  the  step  might  be 
delayed  too  long,  or  be  taken  too  soon.  In  some  States  the  elements  for 
resumption  seem  ready  for  action,  but  remain  inactive,  apparently  for  want 
of  a  rallying-point — a  plan  of  action.  Why  shall  A  adopt  the  plan  of  B, 
rather  than  B  that  of  A?  And  if  A  and  B  should  agree,  how  can  they 
know  but  that  the  General  Government  here  will  reject  their  plan?  By 
the  proclamation  a  plan  is  presented  which  may  be  accepted  by  them  as  a 
rallying  point — and  which  they  are  assured  in  advance  will  not  be  reject 
ed  here.  This  may  bring  them  to  act  sooner  than  they  otherwise  would. 

The  objection  to  a  premature  presentation  of  a  plan  by  the  National 
Executive  consists  in  the  danger  of  commiltals  on  points  which  could  be 
more  safely  If  "t  to  further  developments.  Care  has  been  taken  to  so 
shape  the  document  as  to  avoid  embarrassments  from  this  source.  Saying 
that  on  certain  terms  certain  classes  will  be  pardoned  with  rights  restored, 
it  is  not  said  that  other  classes  or  other  terms  will  never  be  included. 
Saying  that  reconstruction  will  be  accepted  if  presented  in  a  specified  way, 
it  is  not  said  it  will  never  be  accepted  in  any  other  way.  The  move 
ments  by  State  action  for  emancipation  in  several  of  the  States  not  inclu 
ded  in  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  are  matters  of  profound  gratulation. 
And  while  I  do  not  repeat  in  detail  what  I  have  heretofore  so  earnestly 
urged  upon  this  subject,  my  general  views  and  feelings  remain  unchanged; 
and  I  trust  that  Congress  will  omit  no  fair  opportunity  of  aiding  these  im 
portant  steps  to  the  great  consummation. 

In  the  midst  of  other  cares,  however  important,  we  must  not  lose  sight 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  457 

of  the  fact  that  the  war  power  is  still  our  main  reliance.  To  that  power 
alone  can  we  look,  for  a  time,  to  give  confidence  to  the  people  in  the  con 
tested  regions,  that  the  insurgent  power  will  not  again  overrun  them. 
Until  that  confidence  shall  be  established,  little  can  be  done  anywhere  for 
what  is  called  reconstruction.  Hence  our  chiefest  care  must  still  be  di 
rected  to  the  army  and  navy,  who  have  thus  far  borne  their  harder  part 
BO  nobly  and  well.  And  it  may  be  esteemed  fortunate  that  in  giving  the 
greatest  efficiency  to  these  indispensable  arms,  we  do  also  honorably 
recognize  the  gallant  men,  from  commander  to  sentinel,  who  compose 
them,  and  to  whom,  more  than  to  others,  the  world  must  stand  indebted 
for  the  home  of  freedom,  disenthralled,  regenerated,  enlarged,  and  per 
petuated. 

(Signed)  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

December  8, 1863. 

The  following  proclamation  was  appended  to  the  Mes 
sage  :— 

PROCLAMATION-. 

Whereas,  in  and  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  it  is  provided 
that  the  President  shall  have  power  to  grant  reprieves  and  pardons  for 
offences  against  the  United  States,  except  in  cases  of  impeachment ;  and 
whereas,  a  rebellion  now  exists,  whereby  the  loyal  State  Governments  of 
several  States  have  for  a  long  time  been  subverted,  and  many  persons 
have  committed  and  are  now  guilty  of  treason  against  the  United  States ; 
and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  said  rebellion  and  treason,  laws  have  been 
enacted  by  Congress,  declaring  forfeitures  and  confiscation  of  property 
and  liberation  of  slaves,  all  upon  terms  and  conditions  therein  stated,  and 
also  declaring  that  the  President  was  thereby  authorized  at  any  time 
thereafter,  by  proclamation,  to  extend  to  persons  who  may  have  partici 
pated  in  the  existing  rebellion  in  any  State  or  part  thereof,  pardon  and 
amnesty,  with  such  exceptions  and  at  such  times  and  on  such  conditions 
as  he  may  deem  expedient  for  tire  public  welfare  ;  and 

Whereas,  the  Congressional  declaration  for  limited  xid  conditional 
pardon  accords  with  the  well-established  judicial  exposition  of  the  par 
doning  power ;  and 

Whereas,  with  reference  to  the  said  rebellion,  the  President  of  the 
United  States  has  issued  several  proclamations  with  provisions  in  regard 
to  the  liberation  of  slaves ;  and 

Whereas,  it  is  now  desired  by  some  persons  heretofore  engaged  in  said 
rebellion  to  resume  their  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  and  to  rein- 
augurate  loyal  State  Governments  within  and  for  their  respective  States : 
Therefore, 

I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do  proclaim,  de 
clare,  and  make  known  to  all  persons  who  have  directly  or  by  implication 
participated  in  the  existing  rebellion,  except  as  hereinafter  excepted,  that 


458  THE  LIFE?  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

a  full  pardon  is  hereby  granted  to  them  and  each  of  them,  with  restora 
tion  of  all  rights  of  property,  except  as  to  slaves,  and  in  property  cases 
where  rights  of  third  parties  shall  have  intervened,  and  upon  the  condition 
that  every  such  person  shall  take  and  subscribe  an  oath  and  thencefor 
ward  keep  and  maintain  said  oath  inviolate,  an  oath  which  shall  be  regis 
tered  for  permanent  preservation,  and  shall  be  of  the  tenor  and  effect 
following,  to  wit:  — 


"  I, 


,  do  solemnly  swear,  in  presence  of  Almighty 
faithfully  support,  protect,  and  defend  the  C 


that  I  will  henceforth  faithfully  support,  protect,  and  defend  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  and  the  Union  of  the  States  thereunder  ;  and 
that  I  will  in  like  manner  abide  by  and  faithfully  support  all  acts  of 
Congress  passed  during  the  existing  rebellion  with  reference  to  slaves, 
so  long  and  so  far  as  not  repealed,  modified,  or  held  void  by  Congress,  or 
by  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  ;  and  that  I  will  in  like  manner  abide 
by  and  faithfully  support  all  proclamations  of  the  President  made  during 
the  existing  rebellion  having  reference  to  slaves,  so  long  and  so  far  as  not 
modified  or  declared  void  by  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court.  So  help  mo 
GorV 

The  persons  excepted  from  the  benefits  of  the  foregoing  provisions  are  : 
All  who  are,  or  shall  have  been  civil  or  diplomatic  officers  or  agents  of 
the  so-called  Confederate  Government  ;  all  who  have  left  judicial  stations 
under  the  United  States  to  aid  the  rebellion  ;  all  who  are,  or  shall  have 
been  military  or  naval  officers  of  said  so-called  Confederate  Govern 
ment,  above  the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  army,  or  of  lieutenant  in  the  navy  ; 
all  who  left  seats  in  the  United  States  Congress  to  aid  the  rebellion  ;  all 
who  resigned  commissions  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States, 
and  afterwards  aided  the  rebellion  ;  and  all  who  have  engaged  in  any 
way  in  treating  colored  persons,  or  white  persons  in  charge  of  such, 
otherwise  than  lawfully  as  prisoners  of  war,  and  which  persons  may  have 
been  found  in  the  United  States  service  as  soldiers,  seamen,  or  any  other 
capacity;  and  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  that, 
whenever,  in  any  of  the  States  of  Arkansas,  Texas,  Louisiana,  Mississippi, 
Tennessee,  Alabama,  Georgia,  Florida,  South  Carolina,  and  Forth  Caro 
lina,  a  number  of  persons  not  less  than  one-tenth  in  number  of  the  votes 
cast  in  such  States  at  the  presidential  election  of  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty,  each  having  taken  the  oath  aforesaid, 
and  not  having  since  violated  it,  and  being  a  qualified  voter  by  the  elec 
tion  law  of  the  State  existing  immediately  before  the  so-called  act  of 
secession,  and  excluding  all  others,  shall  re-establish  a  State  Government 
which  shall  be  republican,  and  in  nowise  contravening  said  uath,  such 
shall  be  recognized  as  the  true  Government  of  the  State,  and  the  State 
shall  receive  thereunder  the  benefits  of  the  constitutional  provision,  which 
declares  that 

uThe  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union 
a  republican  form  of  government,  and  shall  protect  each  of  them 
Against  invasion,  and,  on  application  of  the  Legislature,  or  the  Execu- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  459 

five,  when  the  Legislature  cannot  be   convened,  against  domestic  vio 
lence." 

And  I  do  further  proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known,  that  any  pro 
vision  which  may  be  adopted  by  such  State  Government  in  relation  to 
the  freed  people  of  such  State,  which  shall  recognize  and  declare  their 
permanent  freedom,  provide  for  their  education,  and  which  may  yet  be 
consistent,  as  a  temporary  arrangement,  with  their  present  condition  as 
a  laboring,  landless,  and  homeless  ^lass,  will  not  be  objected  to  by  the 
National  Executive. 

And  it  is  suggested  as  not  improper  that,  in  constructing  a  loyal  State 
Government  in  any  State,  the  name  of  the  State,  the  boundary,  the 
subdivisions,  the  Constitution,  and  the  general  code  of  laws,  as  before 
the  rebellion,  be  maintained,  subject  only  to  the  modifications  made 
necessary  by  the  conditions  he  "em  before  stated,  and  such  others,  if 
any,  not  contravening  said  conditions,  and  which  may  be  deemed  expe 
dient  by  those  framing  the  new  State  Government.  To  avoid  misunder 
standing,  it  may  be  proper  to  say  that  this  proclamation,  so  far  as  it 
relates  to  State  Governments,/ has  no  reference  to  States  wherein  loyal 
State  Governments  have  all  the  while  been  maintained;  and  for  the 
same  reason  it  may  be  proper  to  further  say,  that  whether  members 
sent  to  Congress  from  any  State  shall  be  admitted  to  seats,  constitution 
ally  rests  exclusively  with  the  respective  Houses,  and  not  to  any  extent 
with  the  Executive.  And  still  further,  that  this  proclamation  is  intended 
to  present  the  people  of  the  States  wherein  the  national  authority  has 
been  suspended,  and  the  loyal  State  Governments  have  been  subverted,  a 
mode  in  and  by  which  the  national  authority  and  loyal  State  Govern 
ments  may  be  re-established  within  said  States,  or  in  any  of  them.  And, 
while  the  mode  presented  is  the  best  the  Executive  can  suggest  with  hip 
present  impressions,  it  must  not  be  understood  that  no  other  possibl* 
mode  would  be  acceptable. 

Given  under  my  hand  at  the  City  of  Washington,  the  eighth  day  of  De 
cember,  A.  D.  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  and  of  th* 
independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty-eighth. 

ABPAKA.M  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President : 

WM.  H.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

In  further  prosecution  of  the  object  sought  by  this 
measure  of  amnesty,  the  President  subsequently  issued 
the  following  additional  explanatory 

PROCLAMATION. 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
Wliereas,  it  has  become  necessary  to  define  the  cases  in  which  insui 
gent  enemies  are  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  the  Proclamation  of  the  I'res; 


460  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

dent  of  the  United  States,  which  was  made  on  the  8th  day  of  December, 
1863,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  shall  proceed  to  avail  themselves  of 
these  benefits ;  and  whereas  the  objects  of  that  Proclamation  were  to 
suppress  the  insurrection  and  to  restore  the  authority  of  the  United 
States ;  and  whereas  the  amnesty  therein  proposed  by  the  President  was 
offered  with  reference  to  these  objects  alone : 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
do  hereby  proclaim  and  declare  that  the  said  Proclamation  does  not  apply 
to  the  cases  of  persons  who,  at  the  time  when  they  seek  to  obtain  the 
benefits  thereof  by  taking  the  oath  thereby  prescribed,  are  in  military, 
naval,  or  civil  confinement  or  custody,  or  under  bonds,  or  on  parole  of 
the  civil,  military,  or  naval  authorities,  or  agents  of  the  United  States,  as 
prisoners  of  war,  or  persons  detained  for  offences  of  any  kind,  either  be 
fore  or  after  conviction ;  and  that  on  the  contrary  it  does  apply  only  to 
those  persons  who,  being  yet  at  large,  und  free  from  any  arrest,  confine 
ment,  or  duress,  shall  voluntarily  come  forward  and  take  the  said  oath, 
with  the  purpose  of  restoring  peace,  and  establishing  the  national  au 
thority. 

Persons  excluded  from  the  amnesty  offered  in  the  said  Proclamation 
may  apply  to  the  President  for  clemency,  like  all  other  offenders,  and 
their  application  will  receive  due  consideration. 

I  do  further  declare  and  proclaim  that  the  oath  presented  in  the  afore 
said  proclamation  of  the  8th  of  December,  1863,  may  be  taken  and  sub 
scribed  before  any  commissioned  officer,  civil,  military,  or  naval,  in  the 
service  of  the  United  States,  or  any  civil  or  military  officer  of  a  State  or 
Territory  not  in  insurrection,  who,  by  the  laws  thereof,  may  be  qualified 
for  administering  oaths. 

All  officers  who  receive  such  oaths  are  hereby  authorized  to  give  cer 
tificates  thereof  to  the  persons  respectively  by  whom  they  are  made,  and 
such  officers  are  hereby  required  to  transmit  the  original  records  of  such 
oaths,  at  as  early  a  day  as  may  be  convenient,  to  the  Department  of  State, 
where  they  will  be  deposited,  and  remain  in  the  archives  of  the  Govern 
ment. 

The  Secretary  of  State  will  keep  a  registry  thereof,  and  will,  on  appli 
cation,  in  proper  cases,  issue  certificates  of  such  records  in  the  customary 
form  of  official  certificates. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 

of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed.     Done  at  the  City  of  Wash- 

[L.  s.]     ington,  the  26th  day  of  March,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1864, 

and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty -eighth. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President : 

WM.  H.  SEWAKD,  Secretary  of  State. 

The  diplomatic  correspondence  of  the  year  1863,  which 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  461 

was  transmitted  to  Congress  with  the  President's  Mes 
sage,  was  voluminous  and  interesting.  But  it  touched 
few  points  of  general  interest,  relating  mainly  to  matters 
of  detail  in  the  relations  between  the  United  States  and 
foreign  Powers.  One  point  of  importance  was  gained  in 
the  course  of  our  correspondence  with  Great  Britain— 
the  issuing  of  an  order  by  that  Government  forbidding 
the  departure  of  formidable  rams  which  were  building  in 
.  English  ports  unquestionably  for  the  rebel  service.  Our 
minister  in  London  had  been  unwearied  in  collecting  evi 
dence  of  the  purpose  and  destination  of  these  vessels,  and 
in  pressing  upon  the  British  Government  the  absolute 
necessity,  if  they  wished  to  preserve  peaceful  relations 
with  the  United  States,  of  not  permitting  their  professedly 
neutral  ports  to  be  used  as  naval  depots  and  dock-yards 
for  the  service  of  the  rebels.  On  the  5th  of  September, 
1863,  Mr.  Adams  had  written  to  Lord  Russell,  acknowl 
edging  the  receipt  of  a  letter  from  him  in  which  the  de 
liberate  purpose  of  the  British  Government  to  take  no 
action  in  regard  to  these  rams  was  announced.  Mr. 
Adams  had  expressed  his  regret  at  such  a  decision,  which 
he  said  he  could  regard  as  no  otherwise  than  as  prac 
tically  opening  to  the  insurgents  free  liberty  in  Great 
Britain  to  prepare  for  entering  and  destroying  any  of  the 
Atlantic  seaports  of  the  United  States.  "It  would  be 
superfluous  in  me,"  added  Mr.  Adams,  "to  point  out  to 
your  lordship  that  this  is  war.  No  matter  what  may  be 
the  theory  adopted  of  neutrality  in  a  struggle,  when  this 
process  is  carried  on  in  the  manner  indicated,  from  a  ter 
ritory  and  with  the  aid  of  the  subjects  of  a  third  party, 
that  third  party  to  all  intents  and  purposes  ceases  to  be 
neutral.  Neither  is  it  necessary  to  show  that  any  Gov 
ernment  which  suffers  it  to  be  done,  fails  in  enforcing  the 
essential  conditions  of  international  amity  towards  the 
country  against  whom  the  hostility  is  directed.  In  my 
belief  it  is  impossible  that  any  nation,  retaining  a  proper 
degree  of  self-respect,  could  tamely  submit  to  a  continu 
ance  of  relations  so  utterly  deficient  in  reciprocity.  I 
liave  no  idea  that  Great  Britain  would  do  so  for  a  mo- 


462  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ment."  On  the  8th  of  September,  Earl  Russell  wrote  to 
Mr.  Adams,  to  inform  him  that  ' '  instructions  had  been 
issued  which  would  prevent  the  departure  of  the  two 
iron-clad  vessels  from  Liverpool."  The  Earl  afterwards 
explained  in  Parliament,  however,  when  charged  with 
having  taken  this  action  under  an  implied  menace  of  war 
conveyed  in  the  letter  of  Mr.  Adams,  that  it  was  taken  in 
pursuance  of  a  decision  which  had  been  made  previous  to 
the  receipt  of  that  letter  and  in  ignorance  of  its  existence. 
On  the  llth  of  July,  Mr.  Seward  forwarded  a  dispatch 
to  Mr.  Adams,  elicited  by  the  decision  of  the  British 
Court  in  the  case  of  the  Alexandra,  which  had  been 
seized  on  suspicion  of  having  been  fitted  out  in  violation 
of  the  laws  of  Great  Britain  against  the  enlistment  of 
troops  to  serve  against  nations  with  which  that  Govern 
ment  was  at  peace.  The  decision  was  a  virtual  repeal  of 
the  enlistment  act  as  a  penal  measure  of  prevention,  and 
actually  left  the  agents  of  the  rebels  at  full,  liberty  to 
prepare  ships  of  war  in  English  ports  to  cruise  against 
the  commerce  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Seward  conveyed 
to  Mr.  Adams  the  President's  views  on  the  extraordinary 
state  of  affairs  which  this  decision  revealed.  Assuming 
that  the  British  Government  had  acted  throughout  in 
perfect  good  faith,  and  that  the  action  of  its  judicial  tri 
bunals  was  not  to  be  impeached,  this  dispatch  stated  that 
"if  the  rulings  of  the  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer  in 
the  case  of  the  Alexandra  should  be  affirmed  by  the  court 
of  last  resort,  so  as  to  regulate  the  action  of  her  Majesty's 
Government,  the  President  would  be  left  to  understand 
that  there  is  no  law  in  Great  Britain  which  will  be  effec 
tive  to  preserve  mutual  relations  of  forbearance  between 
the  subjects  of  her  Majesty  and  the  Government  and  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  in  the  only  point  where  they  are 
exposed  to  infraction.  And  the  United  States  will  be 
without  any  guarantee  whatever  against  the  indiscrimi 
nate  and  unlawful  employment  of  capital,  industry,  and 
skill  by  British  subjects,  in  building,  arming,  equipping, 
and  sending  forth  ships  of  war  from  British  ports,  to 
make  war  against  the  United  States."  The  suggestion 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  463 

was  made  whether  it  would  not  "be  wise  for  Parliament 
to  amend  a  law  thus  proved  to  be  inadequate  to  the  pur 
pose  for  which  it  was  intended.  If  the  law  must  be  left 
without  amendment  and  be  construed  by  the  Government 
in  conformity  with  the  rulings  in  this  case,  then,  said  Mr. 
Seward,  "  there  will  be  left  for  the  United  States  no  alter 
native  but  to  protect  themselves  and  their  commerce 
against  armed  cruisers  proceeding  from  British  ports  as 
against  the  naval  forces  of  a  public  enemy  ;  and  also  to 
claim  and  insist  upon  indemnities  for  the  injuries  which 
all  such  expeditions  have  hitherto  committed  or  shall 
hereafter  commit  against  this  Government  and  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States. "  "  Can  it  be  an  occasion  for  either 
surprise  or  complaint,"  asked  Mr.  Seward,  "  that  if  this 
condition  of  things  is  to  remain  and  receive  the  deliberate 
sanction  of  the  British  Government,  the  navy  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  will  receive  instructions  to  pursue  these  ene 
mies  into  the  ports  which  thus,  in  violation  of  the  law  of 
nations  and  the  obligations  of  neutrality,  become  harbors 
for  the  pirates  ?"  Before  the  receipt  of  this  dispatch,  Mr. 
Adams  had  so  clearly  presented  the  same  views,  of  the 
inevitable  results  of  the  policy  the  British  Government 
seemed  to  be  pursuing,  to  Lord  Russell,  as  to  render  its 
transmission  to  him  unnecessary — Mr.  Seward,  on  the 
13th  of  August,  informing  Mr.  Adams  that  he  regarded 
his  ''previous  communications  to  Earl  Russell  on  the 
subject  as  an  execution  of  his  instructions  by  way  of  an 
ticipation." 

Our  relations  with  France  continued  to  be  friendly  ;  but 
the  proceedings  of  the  French  in  Mexico  gave  rise  to  rep 
resentations  on  both  sides  which  may  have  permanent 
importance  for  the  welfare  of  both  countries.  Rumors 
were  circulated  from  time  to  time  in  France  that  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  had  protested,  or  was  about 
to  protest,  against  the  introduction  into  Mexico  of  a 
monarchical  form  of  government,  under  a  European  prince, 
to  be  established  and  supported  by  French  arms ;  and 
these  reports  derived  a  good  deal  of  plausibility  from  the 
language  of  the  American  press,  representing  the  un- 


164  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

doubted  sentiment  of  a  very  large  portion  of  the  American 
people.  Various  incidental  conversations  were  had  on 
this  subject  during  the  summer  of  1863,  between  Mr.  Day 
ton,  our  Minister  in  Paris,  and  the  French  Minister  of 
Foreign  Affairs,  in  which  the  latter  uniformly  assured 
Mr.  Dayton  that  France  had  no  thought  of  conquering 
Mexico  or  establishing  there  a  dominant  and  permanent 
power.  She  desired  simply  to  enforce  the  payment  of 
just  claims  and  to  vindicate  her  honor.  In  a  conversation 
reported  by  Mr.  Dayton  in  a  letter  dated  August  21,  M. 
Drouyn  de  1'Huys  took  occasion  again  to  say  that 
"  France  had  no  purpose  in  Mexico  other  than  heretofore 
stated— that  she  did  not  mean  to  appropriate  permanently 
any  part  of  that  country,  and  that  she  should  leave  it  as 
soon  as  her  griefs  were  satisfied,  and  she  could  do  so  with 
honor. "  "In  the  abandon  of  a  conversation  somewhat 
familiar,"  adds  Mr.  Dayton,  "I  took  occasion  to  say  that 
in  quitting  Mexico  she  might  leave  &  puppet  behind  her. 
He  said  no  ;  the  strings  would  be  too  long  to  work.  He 
added  that  they  had  had  enough  of  colonial  experience  in 
Algeria :  that  the  strength  of  France  was  in  her  compact 
body  and  well-defined  boundary.  In  that  condition  she 
had  her  resources  always  at  command.- ' 

In  a  dispatch  dated  September  14,  Mr.  Dayton  reports 
a  conversation  in  which  the  French  Minister  referred  to 
the  "almost  universal  report  that  our  Government  only 
awaits  the  termination  of  our  domestic  troubles  to  drive 
the  French  out  of  Mexico."  He  said  that  the  French 
naturally  conclude  that,  if  they  are  to  have  trouble  with 
us,  it  would  be  safest  to  take  their  own  time  ;  and  he 
assured  M.  Drouyn  de  1'  Huys  that,  ' '  relying  on  the  con 
stant  assurances  of  France  as  to  its  purposes  in  Mexico, 
and  its  determination  to  leave  the  people  free  as  to  their 
form  of  government,  and  not  to  hold  or  colonize  any  por 
tion  of  their  territories,"  our  Government  had  indicated 
no  purpose  to  interfere  in  the  quarrel,  not  concealing  at 
the  same  time  our  earnest  solicitude  for  the  well-being  of 
that  country,  and  an  especial  sensitiveness  as  to  any 
forcible  interference  in  the  form  of  its  government. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  465 

On  the  21st  of  September,  Mr.  Seward  instructed  Mr. 
Dayton  to  call  the  attention  of  the  French  Minister  to  the 
apparent  deviations  of  the  French  in  Mexico  from  the 
tenor  of  the  assurances  uniformly  given  by  the  French 
Government  that  they  did  not  intend  permanent  occupa 
tion  of  that  country,  or  any  violence  to  the  sovereignty  of 
its  people.  And  on  the  26th  of  the  same  month  Mr. 
Seward  set  forth  at  some  length  the  position  of  our  Gov 
ernment  upon  this  question,  which  is  mainly  embodied  in 
the  following  extract : — 

The  United  States  hold,  in  regard  to  Mexico,  the  same  principles  that 
they  hold  in  regard  to  all  other  nations.  They  have  neither  a  right  nor  a 
disposition  to  intervene  by  force  in  the  internal  affairs  of  Mexico,  whether 
to  establish  and  maintain  a  republic  or  even  a  domestic  government  there, 
or  to  overthrow  an  imperial  or  a  foreign  one,  if  Mexico  chooses  to  estab 
lish  or  accept  it.  The  United  States  have  neither  the  right  nor  the  dis 
position  to  intervene  by  force  on  either  side  in  the  lamentable  war  which 
is  going  on  between  France  and  Mexico.  On  the  contrary,  they  practise 
in  regard  to  Mexico,  in  every  phase  of  that  war,  the  non-intervention 
which  they  require  all  foreign  powers  to  observe  in  regard  to  the  United 
States.  But  notwithstanding  this  self-restraint  this  Government  knows 
full  well  that  the  inherent  normal  opinion  of  Mexico  favors  a  government 
there  republican  in  form  and  domestic  in  its  organization,  in  preference  to 
any  monarchical  institutions  to  be  imposed  from  abroad.  This  Govern 
ment  knows  also  that  this  normal  opinion  of  the  people  of  Mexico  re 
sulted  largely  from  the  influence  of  popular  opinion  in  this  country,  and 
is  continually  invigorated  by  it.  The  President  believes,  moreover,  that 
this  popular  opinion  of  the  United  States  is  just  in  itself  and  eminently 
essential  to  the  progress  of  civilization  on  the  American  continent,  which 
civilization,  it  believes,  can  and  will,  if  left  free  from  European  resistance, 
work  harmoniously  together  with  advancing  refinement  on  the  other  con 
tinents.  This  Government  believes  that  foreign  resistance,  or  attempts  to 
control  American  civilization,  must  and  will  fail  before  the  ceaseless  and 
ever-increasing  activity  of  material,  moral,  and  political  forces,  which 
peculiarly  belong  to  the  American  continent.  Nor  do  the  United  States 
deny  that,  in  their  opinion,  their  own  safety  and  the  cheerful  destiny  to 
which  they  aspire  are  intimately  dependent  on  the  continuance  of  free 
republican  institutions  throughout  America.  They  have  submitted  these 
opinions  to  the  Emperor  of  France,  on  proper  occasions,  as  worthy  of  his 
serious  consideration,  in  determining  how  he  would  conduct  and  clostf 
what  might  prove  a  successful  war  in  Mexico.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to 
practise  reserve  upon  the  point  that  if  France  should,  upon  due  consider 
ation,  determine  to  adopt  a  policy  in  Mexico  adverse  to  tke  American 
30 


466  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

opinion  and  sentiments  which  I  have  described,  that  policy  wonld  prob 
ably  scatter  seeds  which  would  be  fruitful  of  jealousies  which  might 
ultimately  ripen  into  collision  between  France  and  the  United  States  and 
other  American  republics.  .  .  .  The  statements  made  to  you  by  M. 
Drouyn  de  1'Huys  concerning  the  Emperor's  intentions  are  entirely  satis 
factory,  if  we  are  permitted  to  assume  them  as  having  been  authorized 
to  be  made  by  the  Emperor  in  view  of  the  present  condition  of  affairs  in 
Mexico. 


The  French  Minister,  in  a  conversation  on  the  8th  of 
October,  stated  to  Mr.  Dayton  that  the  vote  of  the  entire 
population  of  Mexico,  Spanish  and  Indian,  would  be 
taken  as  to  the  form  of  government  to  be  established,  and 
he  had  no  doubt  a  large  majority  of  that  vote  would  be 
in  favor  of  the  Archduke  Maximilian.  He  also  expressed 
a  desire  that  the  United  States  would  express  its  acquies 
cence  in  such  a  result,  and  its  readiness  to  enter  into 
peaceful  relations  with  such  a  Government,  by  acknowl 
edging  it  as  speedily  as  possible — inasmuch  as  such  a 
course  would  enable  France  the  sooner  to  leave  Mexico 
and  the  new  Government  to  take  care  of  itself.  In  reply 
ing  to  this  request,  on  the  23d  of  October,  Mr.  Seward 
repeated  the  determination  of  our  Government  to  maintain 
a  position  of  complete  neutrality  in  the  war  between 
France  and  Mexico,  and  declared  that  while  they  could 
not  anticipate  the  action  of  the  people  of  Mexico,  they 
had  not  "the  least  purpose  or  desire  to  interfere  with 
their  proceedings,  or  control  or  interfere  with  their  free 
choice,  or  disturb  them  in  the  exercise  of  whatever  insti 
tutions  of  government  they  may,  in  the  exercise  of  an  ab 
solute  freedom,  establish."  As  we  did  not  consider  the 
war  yet  closed,  however,  we  were  not  at  liberty  to  con 
sider  the  question  of  recognizing  the  Government  which, 
in  the  further  chances  of  that  war,  might  take  the  place 
of  the  one  now  existing  in  Mexico,  with  which  our  rela 
tions  were  those  of  peace  and  friendship. 

The  policy  of  the  President,  therefore,  in  regard  to  the 
war  in  Mexico,  was  that  of  neutrality  ;  and,  although  this 
policy  in  some  respects  contravened  the  traditional  pur 
poses  and  principles  of  the  Government  and  people  of 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  467 

the  United  States,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  what  other  could 
have  been  adopted  without  inviting  hazards  which  no 
responsible  statesman  has  a  right  to  incur.  The  war 
against  Mexico  was  undertaken  ostensibly  for  objects 
and  purposes  which  we  were  compelled  to  regard  as 
legitimate,  and  we  could  not  ourselves  depart  from  a 
strict  neutrality  without  virtually  conceding  the  right, 
not  only  of  France,  but  of  every  other  nation  interested 
in  our  downfall,  to  become  party  to  the  war  against  us. 
While  we  have  to  a  certain  extent  pledged  ourselves  to 
hold  the  whole  continent  open  to  republican  institutions, 
our  first  duty  was  clearly  to  preserve  the  existence  of 
our  own  Republic,  not  only  for  ourselves,  but  as  the  only 
condition  on  which  republicanism  anywhere  is  possible. 
The  President,  therefore,  in  holding  this  country  wholly 
aloof  from  the  war  with  France,  consulted  the  ultimate 
and  permanent  interests  of  democratic  institutions  not 
less  than  the  safety  and  welfare  of  the  United  States,  and 
pursued  the  only  policy  at  all  compatible  with  the  pres 
ervation  of  our  Union  and  the  final  establishment  of  the 
Monroe  doctrine.  Neither  the  President  nor  the  people, 
however,  indicated  any  purpose  to  acquiesce  in  the  impo 
sition  of  a  foreign  prince  upon  the  Mexican  people  by 
foreign  armies  ;  and  on  the  4th  of  April,  1864,  the  House 
of  Representatives  adopted  the  following  resolution  upon 
the  subject,  which  embodies,  beyond  all  doubt,  the  set 
tled  sentiment  of  the  people  of  this  country  : — 

Resolved,  That  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  are  unwilling  by 
silence  to  leave  the  nations  of  the  world  under  the  impression  that  they 
are  indifferent  spectators  of  the  deplorable  events  now  transpiring  in  the 
Republic  of  Mexico ;  therefore,  they  think  it  fit  to  declare  that  it  does 
not  accord  with  the  sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  to 
acknowledge  a  monarchical  government  erected  on  the  ruins  of  any 
republican  government  in  America,  under  the  auspices  of  any  European 
Power. 

The  Senate,  however,  took  no  action  upon  the  resolu 
tion.  But  in  consequence  of  a  statement  by  the  Paris 
Mbniteur,  that  the  French  Government  had  received 
from  our  authorities  "  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  sense 


468  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

and  bearing"  of  the  resolution,  the  House  on  the  23d 
of  May  called  for  the  explanation  which  had  been  given 
to  the  Government  of  France.  In  answer  to  this  call, 
the  President  transmitted  a  report  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  enclosing  a  dispatch  to  Mr.  Dayton,  in  which  the 
Secretary,  while  saying  that  ' '  the  resolution  truly  inter 
prets  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  in  regard  to  Mexico,"  added,  that  "it  was  another 
and  distinct  question,  whether  the  United  States  would 
think  it  necessary  or  proper  to  express  themselves  in 
the  form  adopted  by  the  House  of  Representatives  at 
this  time," — "  a  question  whose  decision  rested  with  the 
President,  and  that  the  President  did  not  at  present  con 
template  any  departure  from  the  policy  which  this  Gov 
ernment  has  hitherto  pursued  in  regard  to  the  war 
which  exists  between  France  and  Mexico." 

The  action  of  Congress  during  the  first  of  the  session 
was  not  of  special  interest  or  importance.  Public  atten 
tion  continued  to  be  absorbed  by  military  operations,  and 
Congress,  at  its  previous  session,  had  so  fully  provided 
for  the  emergencies,  present  and  prospective,  of  the  war, 
that  little  in  this  direction  remained  to  be  done.  Resolu 
tions  were  introduced  by  members  of  the  opposing  par 
ties,  some  approving  and  others  condemning  the  policy 
of  the  Administration.  Attempts  were  made  to  amend 
the  Conscription  Bill,  but  the  two  Houses  failing  to  agree 
on  some  of  the  more  important  changes  proposed,  the 
bill,  as  finally  passed,  did  not  vary  essentially  from  the 
original  law.  The  leading  topic  of  discussion  in  this 
connection  was  the  employment  of  colored  men,  free  and 
slave,  as  soldiers.  The  policy  of  thus  employing  them 
had  been  previously  established  by  the  action  of  the 
Government  in  all  departments ;  and  all  that  remained 
was  to  regulate  the  mode  of  their  enlistment.  A  proviso 
was  finally  adopted  by  both  Houses  that  colored  troops, 
' '  while  they  shall  be  credited  in  the  quotas  of  the  sev 
eral  States  or  subdivisions  of  States  wherein  they  are 
respectively  drafted,  enlisted,  or  shall  volunteer,  shall 
not  be  assigned  as  State  troops,  but  shall  be  mustered 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  469 

into  regiments  or  companies  as  'United  States  Colored 
Volunteers.'  " 

The  general  tone  of  the  debates  in  Congress  indicated 
a  growing  conviction  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the 
whole  country,  without  regard  to  party  distinctions,  that 
the  destruction  of  slavery  was  inseparable  from  the  vic 
torious  prosecution  of  the  war.  Men  of  all  parties  acqui 
esced  in  the  position  that  the  days  of  slavery  were 
numbered— that  the  rebellion,  organized  for  the  purpose 
of  strengthening  it,  had  placed  it  at  the  mercy  of  the 
National  force,  and  compelled  the  Government  to  assail 
its  existence  as  the  only  means  of  subduing  the  rebellion 
and  preserving  the  Union.  The  certainty  that  the  pros 
ecution  of  the  war  must  result  in  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves,  led  to  the  proposal  of  measures  suited  to  this 
emergency.  On  the  6th  of  February,  a  bill  was  reported 
in  the  House  for  the  establishment  of  a  Bureau  of  Freed- 
men's  Affairs,  which  should  determine  all  questions  re 
lating  to  persons  of  African  descent,  and  make  regulations 
for  their  employment  and  proper  treatment  on  abandoned 
plantations ;  and,  after  a  sharp  and  discursive  debate,  it 
was  passed  by  a  vote  of  sixty-nine  to  sixty- seven. 

The  bill,  however,  did  not  pass  the  Senate,  and  nothing 
final  was  done  in  this  direction  until  the  next  session. 

The  most  noticeable  of  the  measures  in  reference  to 
slavery  which  were  before  Congress  at  this  session  was 
the  resolution  to  submit  to  the  action  of  the  several  States 
an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
prohibiting  the  existence  of  slavery  within  the  States  and 
Territories  of  the  Union  forever. 

The  opposition  which  this  proposition  met  was  wonder 
fully  little  considering  the  radical  nature  of  the  change 
proposed,  and  showed  that  the  experience  of  the  last 
three  years  had  left  but  little  inclination  in  any  quarter 
to  prolong  the  existence  of  slavery,  and  that  the  political 
necessities  which  formerly  gave  it  strength  and  protection 
had  ceased  to  be  felt.  At  the  commencement  of  the 
session,  resolutions  were  offered  by  several  members  in 
both  Houses,  aiming  at  its  prohibition  by  such  an  amend- 


470  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ment  of  the  Constitution.  This  mode  of  accomplishing 
the  object  sought  was  held  to  be  free  from  the  objections 
to  which  every  other  was  exposed,  as  it  is  unquestion 
ably  competent  for  the  people  to  amend  the  Constitution,  in 
accordance  with  the  forms  prescribed  by  its  own  pro 
visions.  One  or  two  Southern  Senators,  Mr.  Saulsbury, 
of  Delaware,  and  Mr.  Powell,  of  Kentucky,  being  prom 
inent,  urged  that  it  was  a  palpable  violation  of  State 
rights  for  the  people  thus  to  interfere  with  any  thing 
which  State  laws  declare  to  be  property  ;  but  they  were 
answered  by  Eeverdy  Johnson,  of  Maryland,  who  urged 
that  when  the  Constitution  was  originally  framed  this 
prohibition  of  slavery  might  unquestionably  have  been 
embodied  in  it,  and  that  it  was  competent  for  the  people 
to  do  now  whatever  they  might  have  done  then. 

A  prominent  feature  of  the  debate  on  the  resolution  in 
the  Senate  was  a  strong  speech  in  its  favor  by  Senator 
Henderson,  of  Missouri,  whose  advocacy  of  the  measure 
surprised  even  its  friends,  and  was  a  striking  proof  of  the 
progress  of  anti-slavery  sentiment  in  the  Border  States. 
The  resolution  passed  the  Senate  on  the  8th  of  April,  1864, 
by  the  strong  vote  of  thirty-eight  to  six.  It  then  went  to 
the  House,  where  it  was  taken  up  on  the  31st  of  May.  Mr. 
Holman,  of  Indiana,  objected  to  the  second  reading  of  it, 
and  this  brought  the  House  at  once  to  a  vote  on  the  rejec 
tion  of  the  resolution,  which  was  negatived  by  a  vote  of 
seventy-six  to  fifty -five.  It  was  debated  at  a  good  deal  of 
length,  but  without  a  tithe  of  the  excitement  which  the  mere 
mention  of  such  a  change  would  have  aroused  but  a  few 
years  before.  The  vote  on  the  passage  of  the  resolution  was 
taken  on  the  15th  of  June,  and  resulted  in  its  rejection  by  a 
vote  of  ninety-four  in  its  favor  to  sixty-five  against  it,  two- 
thirds  being  necessary.  Mr.  Ashley,  of  Ohio,  changed  his 
vote  to  the  negative,  for  the  purpose  of  moving  a  reconsid 
eration  ;  and  the  motion  to  reconsider  having  been  made, 
the  matter  went  over  in  this  position  to  the  next  session. 

A  more  successful  effort  was  made  to  repeal  the  noto 
rious  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  The  bill  for  the  repeal  was 
introduced  in  the  House,  where  it  was  passed  on  the  13th 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  471 

of  June,  by  a  vote  of  eighty-two  to  fifty-eight.  On  the  15th 
it  was  received  in  the  Senate,  when,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Sum- 
ner,  it  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Slavery  and  Freed- 
nien,  who  immediately  reported  it  favorably,  without 
amendment ;  but  a  vote  on  it  was  not  reached  till  the  23d, 
when  it  passed  by  a  vote  of  twenty-seven  to  twelve. 

The  action  of  Congress  during  the  session,  relating  to 
questions  connected  with  taxation  and  the  currency,  does 
not  call  for  detailed  mention  in  this  connection. 

Some  incidental  matters  which  arose  excited  full  as 
much  controversy  as  more  important  matters  of  legisla 
tion.  One  heated  controversy  was  had  over  a  resolution 
introduced  on  Saturday,  the  9th  of  April,  by  the  Speaker, 
Mr.  Colfax,  for  the  expulsion  from  the  House  of  Alexander 
Long,  a  member  from  Ohio,  for  language  used  by  him  in 
a  speech  before  the  House.  Mr.  Colfax' s  resolution  was 
as  follows : — 

Whereas,  on  the  8th  day  of  April,  1864,  when  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  was  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union, 
Alexander  Long,  a  Representative  in  Congress  from  the  Second  District 
of  Ohio,  declared  himself  in  favor  of  recognizing  the  independent  nation 
ulity  of  the  so-called  Confederacy,  now  in  arms  against  the  Union. 

And  whereas,  the  said  so-called  Confederacy,  thus  sought  to  be  rec 
ognized  and  established  on  the  ruins  of  a  dissolved  or  destroyed  Union, 
has,  as  its  chief  officers,  civil  and  military,  those  who  have  added  perjury 
to  their  treason,  and  who  seek  to  obtain  success  for  their  parricidal  efforts 
by  the  killing  of  the  loyal  soldiers  of  the  nation  who  are  seeking  to  save 
it  from  destruction. 

And  whereas,  the  oath  required  of  all  members,  and  taken  by  the  said 
Alexander  Long  on  the  first  day  of  the  present  Congress,  declares  that  "I 
have  voluntarily  given  no  aid,  countenance,  counsel,  or  encouragement  to 
persons  engaged  in  armed  hostility  to  the  United  States,"  thereby  de 
claring  that  such  conduct  is  regarded  as  inconsistent  with  membership 
in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States : 

Therefore  resolved,  That  Alexander  Long,  Representative  from  the 
Second  District  of  Ohio,  having,  on  the  8th  day  of  April,  1864,  declared 
himself  in  favor  of  recognizing  the  independence  and  nationality  of  the 
so-called  Confederacy,  now  in  arms  against  the  Union,  and  thereby  given 
aid,  countenance,  and  encouragement  to  persons  engaged  in  armed  hostil 
ity  to  the  United  States,  is  hereby  expelled. 

The  resolution  was  followed  by  a  sharp  debate,  in  the 


472  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

course  of  which  Mr.  Benjamin  G.  Harris,  of  Maryland, 
during  a  furious  speech  against  the  resolution,  used  the 
following  words : — 

"The  South  ask  yon  to  leave  them  in  peace,  but  now  you  say  you  will 
bring  them  into  subjection.  That  is  not  done  yet,  and  God  Almighty 
grant  it  never  may  be!" 

These  words  added  fuel  to  the  fire  which  was  already 
raging.  On  motion  of  Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  the 
language  of  Mr.  Harris  was  taken  down  by  the  Clerk  of 
the  House.  The  resolution  for  the  expulsion  of  Mr. 
Long  was  postponed  till  the  following  Monday,  and  a 
resolution  was  immediately  introduced  for  the  expulsion 
of  Mr.  Harris,  which,  under  the  operation  of  the  previous 
question,  was  brought  to  an  immediate  vote.  The  vote 
resulted  in  yeas  eighty-one,  nays  fifty-eight ;  and  the  res 
olution  was  lost,  a  two-thirds  vote  being  requisite  for  the 
expulsion  of  a  member.  A  resolution  was  then  introduced 
that  Mr.  Harris,  "  having  spoken  words  this  day  in  debate 
manifestly  tending  and  designed  to  encourage  the  existing 
rebellion  and  the  public  enemies  of  this  nation,  is  de 
clared  to  be  an  unworthy  member  of  this  House,  and  is 
hereby  severely  censured ;"  and  this  resolution  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  ninety-two  yeas  to  eighteen  nays. 

The  resolution  for  the  expulsion  of  Mr.  Long  was  de 
bated  for  four  days,  when  the  mover,  being  satisfied  that 
a  sufficient  vote  could  not  be  obtained  for  the  expulsion, 
adopted  as  his  own  a  substitute  of  two  resolutions,  intro 
duced  by  Mr.  Broomall,  of  Pennsylvania.  The  first  reso 
lution,  declaring  Mr.  Long  an  unworthy  member  of  the 
House,  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  eighty  yeas  to  seventy 
nays.  The  second,  directing  the  Speaker  to  read  the  first 
resolution  to  Mr.  Long  during  the  session  of  the  House, 
was  also  adopted. 

Considerable  time  was  also  consumed,  and  a  good  deal 
of  ill-feeling  created,  by  a  controversy  between  General 
F.  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  of  Missouri,  whose  seat  in  Congress 
was  contested,  and  other  members  of  the  Missouri  dele 
gation.  General  Blair  was  accused  by  one  of  his  col- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  473 

leagues  of  very  discreditable  transactions  in  granting 
permits  to  trade  within  tlie  limits  of  his  department,  from 
which  he  was,  however,  completely  exonerated  by  the 
investigations  of  a  committee  of  the  House.  After  this 
matter  was  closed,  General  Blair  resigned  his  seat  in  the 
House  and  returned  to  his  post  in  the  army.  The  House, 
by  resolution,  called  upon  the  President  for  information 
as  to  the  circumstances  of  his  restoration  to  command, 
and  received  on  the  28th  of  April  the  following  in  reply  :— 

To  the  House  of  Representatives  : 

In  obedience  to  the  resolution  of  your  honorable  body,  a  copy  of  which 
is  herewith  returned,  I  have  the  honor  to  make  the  following  brief  state 
ment,  which  is  believed  to  contain  tho  information  sought. 

Prior  to  arid  at  the  meeting  of  the  present  Congress,  Robert  C.  Schenck, 
of  Ohio,  and  Frank  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  of  Missouri,  members  elect  thereto,  by 
and  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate  held  commissions  from  the  Execu 
tive  as  major-generals  in  the  volunteer  army.  General  Schenck  tendered 
the  resignation  of  his  said  commission,  and  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  nt  the  assembling  thereof,  upon  the  distinct  verbal  un 
derstanding  with  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  Executive  that  he  might 
at  any  time  during  the  session,  at  his  own  pleasure,  withdraw  said  resig 
nation  and  return  to  the  field. 

General  Blair  was,  by  temporary  agreement  of  General  Sherman,  in 
command  of  a  corps  through  the  battles  in  front  of  Chattanooga,  and  in 
marching  to  the  relief  of  Knoxville,  which  occurred  in  the  latter  days  of 
December  last,  and  of  course  was  not  present  at  the  assembling  of  Con 
gress.  When  he  subsequently  arrived  here,  he  sought  and  was  allowed 
by  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  Executive  the  same  conditions  and 
promise  as  was  allowed  and  made  to  General  Schenck. 

General  Schenck  has  not  applied  to  withdraw  his  resignation;  but, 
when  General  Grant  was  made  Lieutenant-General,  producing  some 
changes  of  commanders,  General  Blair  sought  to  be  assigned  to  the  com 
mand  of  a  corps.  This  was  made  known  to  General  Grant  and  General 
Sherman,  and  assented  to  by  them,  and  the  particular  corps  for  him  was 
designated.  This  was  all  arranged  and  understood,  as  now  remembered, 
so  much  as  a  month  ago ;  but  the  formal  withdrawal  of  General  Blair's 
resignation,  and  the  reissuing  of  the  order  assigning  him  to  the  com 
mand  of  a  corps,  were  not  consummated  at  the  War  Department  until 
last  week,  perhaps  on  the  23d  of  April  instant.  As  a  summary  of  the 
whole,  it  may  be  stated  that  General  Blair  holds  no  military  commission 
or  appointment  other  than  as  herein  stated,  and  that  it  is  believed  he  is 
now  acting  as  major-general  upon  the  assumed  validity  of  the  commis 
sion  herein  stated,  and  not  otherwise. 


474  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

There  are  some  letters,  notes,  telegrams,  orders,  entries,  and  perhaps 
other  documents,  in  connection  with  this  subject,  which  it  is  believed 
would  throw  no  additional  light  upon  it,  but  which  will  be  cheerfully 
furnished  if  desired.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  House  on  the  next  day  passed  a  resolution  calling 
for  all  the  letters  and  documents  haying  reference  to  the 
affair,  and  on  May  3d  the  President  sent  to  Congress  the 
following  message : — 

To  the  Honorable  House  of  Representatives : 

In  compliance  with  the  request  contained  in  your  resolution  of  the 
29th  ultimo,  a  copy  of  which  resolution  is  herewith  returned,  I  have  the 
honor  to  transmit  the  following : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  November  2,  1863. 

Hon.  MONTGOMERY  BLAIR: 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — Some  days  ago  I  understood  you  to  say  that  your 
brother,  General  Frank  Blair,  desires  to  be  guided  by  my  wishes  as  to 
whether  he  will  occupy  his  seat  in  Congress  or  remain  in  the  field.  My 
wish,  then,  is  compounded  of  what  I  believe  will  bo  best  for  the  coun 
try ;  and  it  is  that  he  will  come  here,  put  his  military  commission  in  my 
hands,  take  his  seat,  go  into  caucus  with  our  friends,  abide  the  nomina 
tions,  help  elect  the  nominees,  and  thus  aid  to  organize  a  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  which  will  really  support  the  Government  in  the  war.  If 
the  result  shall  be  the  election  of  himself  as  Speaker,  let  him  serve  in 
that  position.  If  not,  let  him  retake  his  commission  and  return  to  the 
army  for  the  benefit  of  the  country. 

This  will  heal  a  dangerous  schism  for  him.  It  will  relieve  him  from 
a  dangerous  position  or  a  misunderstanding,  as  I  think  he  is  in  danger  of 
being  permanently  separated  from  those  with  whom  only  he  can  ever  have 
a  real  sympathy — the  sincere  opponents  of  slavery. 

It  will  be  a  mistake  if  he  shall  allow  the  provocations  offered  him  by 
insincere  time-servers  to  drive  him  from  the  house  of  his  own  building. 
He  is  young  yet.  He  has  abundant  talents — quite  enough  to  occupy  all 
bis  time  without  devoting  any  to  temper. 

He  is  rising  in  military  skill  and  usefulness.  His  recent  appointment  to 
the  command  of  a  corps,  by  one  so  competent  to  judge  as  General  Sher 
man,  proves  this.  In  that  line  he  can  serve  both  the  country  and  himself 
more  profitably  than  he  could  as  a  member  of  Congress  upon  the  floor. 

The  foregoing  is  what  I  would  say  if  Frank  Blair  was  my  brother  in 
stead  of  yours. 

(Signed)  A.  LINCOLN. 

(After  some  unimportant  documents,  the  resignation  of  General  Blair 
was  annexed,  dated  January  1,  1864,  and  its  acceptance  by  the  Presi 
dent  on  January  12th.  Then  came  the  following  telegram  : — ) 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  March  15. 

Lieutenant-General  GRANT,  Nashville,  Tennessee : 

General  McPherson  having  been  assigned  to  the  command  of  a  depart 
ment,  could  not  General  Frank  Blair,  without  difficulty  or  detriment  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          475 

the  service,  be  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  corps  he  commanded 
awhile  last  autumn  ? 

(Signed)  A.  LINCOLN. 

(Then  came  some  dispatches  showing  that  General  Logan  was  in  com 
mand  of  that  corps,  the  Fifteenth,  and  that  General  Blair  was  to  be  as 
signed  to  the  Seventeenth,  and  General  Blair's  request,  dated  April  20th, 
that  he  be  assigned  to  the  Seventeenth  Corps  at  once.  Then  came  the 
following  note  : — ) 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  April  23, 1864 

HON.  SECRETARY  OF  WAR: 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — According  to  our  understanding  with  Major-General 
Frank  P.  Blair,  at  the  time  he  took  his  seat  in  Congress,  last  winter,  he 
now  asks  to  withdraw  his  resignation,  then  tendered,  and  be  sent  to  the 
field.  Let  this  be  done.  Let  the  order  sending  him  be  such  as  shown 
to-day  by  the  Adjutant-General,  only  dropping  from  it  the  names  of  Ma- 
guire  and  Perkins. 

Youre  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

(After  giving  General  Blair's  request  to  withdraw  his  resignation  and  his 
appointment  to  the  Seventeenth  Corps,  the  Message  closed  as  follows  : — ) 

The  foregoing  constitutes  all  sought  by  the  resolution,  so  far  as  remem 
bered  or  has  been  found  by  diligent  search. 

May  2,  1864.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

On  April  28th,  the  President  sent  to  Congress  the  fol 
lowing  Message,  which  sufficiently  explains  itself : — 

To  the  Honorable  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives : 

1  have  the  honor  to  transmit  herewith  an  address  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  through  him  to  both  Houses  of  Congress,  on  the 
condition  of  the  people  of  East  Tennessee,  and  asking  their  attention  to 
the  necessity  for  some  action  on  the  part  of  the  Government  for  their  re 
lief,  and  which  address  is  presented  by  the  Committee  or  Organization, 
called  "  The  East  Tennessee  Relief  Association."  Deeply  commisera 
ting  the  condition  of  those  most  loyal  people,  I  am  unprepared  to  make 
any  specific  recommendation  for  their  relief.  The  military  is  doing,  and 
will  continue  to  do,  the  best  for  them  within  its  power.  Their  address 
represents  that  the  construction  of  a  direct  railroad  communication 
between  Knoxville  and  Cincinnati,  by  way  of  Central  Kentucky,  would 
be  of  great  consequence  in  the  present  emergency.  It  may  be  remem 
bered  that  in  my  Annual  Message  of  December,  1861,  such  railroad  con 
struction  was  recommended.  I  now  add  that,  with  the  hearty  concur 
rence  of  Congress,  I  would  yet  be  pleased  to  construct  the  road,  both 
for  the  relief  of  those  people  and  for  its  continuing  military  importance. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Other  matters  engrossing  the  attention  of  Congress,  no 
definite  action  was  taken  upon  the  subject  thus  referred  to. 


476  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

A  "bill  was  passed  on  March  2d,  restoring  the  grade  of 
Lieutenant- General,  and  General  Grant  was  appointed  "by 
the  President,  with  the  assent  of  the  Senate,  to  that  office, 
and  invested  with  the  command  of  the  armies  of  the 
United  States. 

The  commission  was  handed  by  the  President  to  Gen 
eral  Grant,  at  the  White  House,  on  the  9th  of  March : 
and  as  he  gave  it,  he  thus  addressed  him  : — 

GENEKAL  GRANT  : — The  expression  of  the  nation's  approbation  of  what 
yon  have  already  done,  and  its  reliance  on  you  for  what  remains  to  do 
in  the  existing  great  struggle,  is  now  presented  with  this  commission,  con 
stituting  you  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States. 

With  this  high  honor,  devolves  on  you  an  additional  responsibility.  As 
the  country  herein  trusts  you,  so,  under  God,  it  will  sustain  you.  I 
scarcely  need  add,  that  with  what  I  here  speak  for  the  country,  goes  my 
own  hearty  personal  concurrence. 

General  Grant  responded  as  follows  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT: — I  accept  this  commission,  with  gratitude  for  the 
high  honor  conferred. 

With  the  aid  of  the  noble  armies  that  hare  fought  on  so  many  fields 
for  our  common  country,  it  will  be  my  earnest  endeavor  not  to  disappoint 
your  expectations. 

I  feel  the  full  weight  of  the  responsibilities  now  devolving  on  me,  and 
I  know  that  if  they  are  met,  it  will  be  due  to  those  armies ;  and  above 
all,  to  the  favor  of  that  Providence  which  leads  both  nations  and  men. 

Gen.  Grant  announced  his  assumption  of  command 
under  this  appointment  by  a  General  Order,  issued  at 
Nashville  on  the  17th  of  March. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1863,  as  the  terms  of 
service  of  many  of  the  volunteer  forces  were  about  to 
expire,  the  President  issued  a  proclamation  for  three 
hundred  thousand  volunteers.  The  military  successes 
of  the  season  had  raised  the  public  courage  and  inspired 
new  confidence  in  the  final  issue  of  the  contest  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Union ;  it  was  believed,  therefore, 
that  an  appeal  for  volunteers  would  be  responded  to 
with  alacrity,  and  save  the  necessity  for  a  resort  to 
another  draft.  The  proclamation  was  as  follows  : — 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  477 

A  PROCLAMATION". 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

Whereas,  the  term  of  service  of  part  of  the  volunteer  forces  of  the 
United  States  will  expire  during  the  coming  year ;  and,  whereas,  in  addi 
tion  to  the  men  by  the  present  draft,  it  is  deemed  expedient  to  call  out 
three  hundred  thousand  volunteers  to  serve  for  three  years  or  during  the 
war,  not,  however,  exceeding  three  years :  Now,  therefore,  I  Abraham 
Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
army  and  navy  thereof,  and  of  the  militia  of  the  several  States  when 
called  into  actual  service,  do  issue  this  my  proclamation,  calling  upon  the 
Governors  of  the  different  States  to  raise,  and  have  enlisted  into  the 
United  States  service,  for  the  various  companies  and  regiments  in  the 
field  from  their  respective  States,  the  quotas  of  three  hundred  thousand 
men. 

I  further  proclaim  that  all  the  volunteers  thus  called  out  and  duly 
enlisted  shall  receive  advance  pay,  premium,  and  bounty,  as  heretofore 
communicated  to  the  Governors  of  States  by  the  War  Department 
through  the  Provost-Marshal  General's  office,  by  special  letters. 

I  further  proclaim  that  all  volunteers  received  under  this  call,  as  well  as 
Jill  others  not  heretofore  credited,  shall  be  duly  credited  and  deducted 
from  the  quotas  established  for  the  next  draft. 

I  further  proclaim  that  if  any  State  shall  fail  to  raise  the  quota  as 
signed  to  it  by  the  War  Department  under  this  call,  then  a  draft  for  the 
deficiency  in  said  quota  shall  be  made  in  said  State,  or  in  the  district? 
of  said  State,  for  their  due  proportion  of  said  quota,  and  the  said  draft 
shall  commence  on  the  5th  day  of  January,  1864. 

And  I  further  proclaim  that  nothing  in  this  proclamation  shall  inter 
fere  with  existing  orders,  or  with  those  which  may  be  issued  for  tho 
present,  draft  in  the  States  where  it  is  now  in  progress,  or  where  it  has 
not  yet  been  commenced. 

The  quotas  of  the  States  and  districts  will  be  assigned  by  the  War  De 
partment  through  the  Provost-Marshal  General's  office  due  regard  being 
had  for  the  men  heretofore  furnished,  whether  by  volunteering  or  draft 
ing;  and  the  recruiting  will  be  conducted  in  accordance  with  such 
instructions  as  have  been  or  may  be  issued  by  that  Department. 

In  issuing  this  proclamation,  I  address  myself  not  only  to  the  Govern 
ors  of  the  several  States,  but  also  to  the  good  and  loyal  people  thereoi. 
invoking  them  to  lend  their  cheerful,  willing,  and  effective  aid  to  tho 
measures  thus  adopted,  with  a  view  to  re-enforce  our  victorious  army 
now  in  the  field,  and  brirg  our  needful  military  operations  to  a  prosper 
ous  end,  thus  closing  forever  the  fountains  of  sedition  and  civil  war. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 


478  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this   17th  day  of  October, 

ited  States  the  eight; 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


r        -I       1863,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty- 
sevrnth. 


By  the  President: 

WILLIAM  II.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

By  the  act  of  1861  for  raising  troops,  a  Government 
bounty  of  one  hundred  dollars  was  paid  to  each  volun 
teer  ;  and  this  amount  had  been  increased  from  time  to 
time,  until  each  soldier  who  had  already  filled  his  term 
of  service  was  entitled  to  receive  four  hundred  dollars 
on  re-enlisting,  and  each  new  volunteer  three  hundred. 
After  the  President's  proclamation  was  issued,  enlist 
ments,  especially  of  men  already  in  the  service,  proceeded 
with  great  rapidity,  and  the  amount  to  be  paid  for  boun 
ties  threatened  to  be  very  large.  Under  these  circum 
stances,  Congress  adopted  an  amendment  to  the  enrol 
ment  act,  by  which  the  payment  of  all  bounties,  except 
those  authorized  by  the  act  of  1861,  was  to  cease  after 
the  5th  day  of  January.  Both  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  the  Provost-Marshal  General  feared  that  the  effect  of 
this,  when  it  came  to  be  generally  understood,  would  be 
to  check  the  volunteering,  which  was  then  proceeding  in 
a  very  satisfactory  manner  ;  and  on  the  5th  of  January, 
the  day  when  the  prohibition  was  to  take  effect,  the 
President  sent  to  Congress  the  following  communica 
tion  : — 

WASHING-TOW,  January  5, 1S64. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  : 

By  a  joint  resolution  of  your  honorable  bodies,  approved  December 
23,  1863,  the  paying  of  bounties  to  veteran  volunteers,  as  now  practised 
by  the  War  Department,  is,  to  the  extent  of  three  hundred  dollars  in 
each  case,  prohibited  after  the  fifth  day  of  the  present  month.  I  trans 
mit  for  your  consideration  a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  War, 
accompanied  by  one  from  the  Provost-Marshal  General  to  him,  both 
relating  to  the  subject  above  mentioned.  I  earnestly  recommend  that 
this  law  be  so  modified  as  to  allow  bounties  to  be  paid  as  they  now  arc 
at  least  to  the  ensuing  1st  day  of  February.  I  am  not  without  anxiety 
lest  I  appear  to  be  importunate  in  thus  recalling  your  attention  to  a 
subject  upon  which  you  have  so  recently  acted,  and  nothing  but  a  deep 
conviction  that  the  public  interest  demands  it  could  induce  me  to  incnr 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  479 

the  hazard  of  being  misunderstood  on  this  point.  The  Executive  ap 
proval  was  given  by  me  to  the  resolution  mentioned,  and  it  is  now  by  a 
closer  attention  and  a  fuller  knowledge  of  facts  that  I  feel  constrained  to 

recommend  a  reconsideration  of  the  subject. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

A  resolution  extending  the  payment  of  bounties,  in 
accordance  with  this  recommendation,  to  the  first  of 
April,  was  at  once  reported  by  the  Military  Committee 
of  the  Senate,  and  passed  by  both  Houses  of  Congress. 

The  volunteering,  however,  did  not  appear  to  supply 
men  with  sufficient  rapidity,  and  on  the  1st  of  February, 
1864,  the  President  made  the  following  order  : 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  February  1,  1864 

Ordered,  that  a  draft  for  five  hundred  thousand  men,  to  serve  for  three 
years  or  during  the  war,  be  made  on  the  10th  day  of  March  next,  for  the 
military  service  of  the  United  States,  crediting  and  deducting  therefrom 
so  many  as  may  have  been  enlisted  or  drafted  into  the  service  prior  to  the 
1st  day  of  March,  and  not  heretofore  credited. 

(Signed)  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  effect  of  this  order  was  not  only  to  stimulate  enlist 
ments,  but  also  to  induce  a  general  application  of  all  cred 
its  that  could  possibly  be  made,  to  reduce  the  quotas  of 
the  different  districts,  and  many  of  them,  before  the  time 
came  round,  were  enabled  to  announce  themselves  en 
tirely  out  of  the  draft.  Partly  on  this  account,  doubtless, 
before  the  10th  of  March  came  the  draft  was  indefinitely 
postponed,  and  on  the  15th  of  March  another  order  was 
made  calling  for  the  additional  number  of  two  hundred 
thousand  men,  "in  order  to  supply  the  force  required  to 
be  drafted  for  the  navy,  and  to  provide  an  adequate  re 
serve  force  for  all  contingencies."  The  various  districts 
were  required  to  fill  their  quotas  by  the  15th  of  April, 
and  it  was  announced  that  where  they  had  not  done  so,  a 
draft  would  be  commenced  as  soon  afte^  that  date  as  prac 
ticable. 

Some  persons  holding  positions  as  consuls  of  foreign 
powers  having  claimed  to  be  exempt  from  the  draft  on 
that  ground,  the  following  order  was  made  on  the  subject 
on  the  19th  of  May  1864,  the  immediate  occasion  of  it 


480  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

being  such  a  claim  on  the  part  of  a  Mr.  Hunt,  a  Consul  of 
Belgium,  at  St.  Louis  :— 

It  is  officially  announced  by  the  State  Department  that  citizens  of  the 
United  States  holding  commissions  and  recognized  as  Consuls  of  foreign 
powers,  are  not  by  law  exempt  from  military  service  if  drafted: 

Therefore  the  mere  enrolment  of  a  citizen  holding  a  foreign  consulate 
will  not  be  held  to  vacate  his  commission,  but  if  he  shall  be  drafted  his 
exequatur  will  be  revoked  unless  he  shall  have  previously  resigned  in 
order  that  another  consul  mar  be  received. 

An  exequatur  bearing  date  the  3d  day  of  Hay,  1858,  having  been  issued 
to  Charles  Hunt,  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  recognizing  him  as  a  Con 
sul  of  Belgium  for  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  declaring  him  free  to  exercise 
and  enjoy  such  functions,  powers,  and  privileges  as  are  allowed  to  the  con 
suls  of  the  most  favored  nations  in  the  United  States,  and  the  said  Hunt 
having  sought  to  screen  himself  from  his  military  duty  to  his  country,  in 
consequence  of  thus  being  invested  with  the  consular  functions  of  a  for 
eign  power  in  the  United  States,  it  is  deemed  advisable  that  the  said 
Charles  Hunt  should  no  longer  be  permitted  to  continue  in  the  exercise 
of  said  functions,  powers,  and  privileges. 

These  are  therefore  to  declare  that  I  no  longer  recognize  the  said  Hunt 
as  Consul  of  Belgium,  for  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  will  not  permit  him  to 
exercise  or  enjoy  any  of  the  functions,  powers,  or  privileges  allowed  to 
consuls  of  that  nation,  and  that  I  do  hereby  wholly  revoke  and  annul  the 
said  exequatur  heretofore  given,  and  do  declare  the  same  to  be  absolutely 
null  and  void  from  this  day  forward. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  caused  these  letters  to  be  made  patent, 
and  the  seal  of  the  United  States  of  America  to  be  hereunto  affixed. 
Given  under  my  hand  at  Washington,  this  19th  day  of  May,  in  the  year  ol 
our  Lord  1864,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  Amer 
ica  the  eighty-eighth.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President : 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

Recruiting  under  the  order  of  March  15th  continued  to 
progress,  but  not  with  sufficient  rapidity.  On  the  23d  of 
April,  the  Governors  of  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Illinois,  In 
diana,  and  Ohio  tendered  to  the  Government  a  force  of 
one  hundred  thousand  men  from  those  States,  to  serve  for 
one  hundred  days.  The  proposition  was  accepted,  and 
on  recommendation  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  Congress 
voted  twenty-five  million  dollars  to  defray  the  expenses — 
the  resolution  being  passed  without  debate,  and  by  almost 
unanimous  consent. 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  481 


CHAPTER     XVI. 


MOVEMENTS  TOWARDS  RECONSTRUCTION. 

STATE  GOVERNMENTS  IN  LOUISIANA  AND  ARKANSAS. — DIFFERENCE  OF  VIEWS 

BETWEEN  THE  PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS. TlIE  REBELLION  AND  LABOR. — 

THE  PRESIDENT  ON  BENEVOLENT  ASSOCIATIONS. — ADVANCING  ACTION 
CONCERING  THE  NEGEO  RACE. FREE  STATE  CONSTITUTIONS. 

THE  proclamation  which  accompanied  the  Annual  Mes 
sage  of  the  President  for  1864  embodied  the  first  sugges 
tions  of  the  Administration  on  the  important  subject  of  re 
constructing  the  Governments  of  those  States  which  had 
"joined  in  the  secession  movement.  The  matter  had  been 
canvassed  somewhat  extensively  by  the  public  press,  and 
by  prominent  politicians,  in  anticipation  of  the  overthrow 
of  the  rebellion,  and  the  view  taken  of  the  subject  had 
been  determined,  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  by  the 
sentiments  and  opinions  of  the  different  parties  as  to  the 
object  and  purpose  of  the  war.  The  supporters  of  the 
Administration  did  not  all  hold  precisely  the  same  ground 
on  this  subject.  As  has  already  been  seen,  in  the  debates 
of  the  Congress  of  1862-3,  a  considerable  number  of  the 
friends  of  the  Government,  in  both  houses,  maintained 
that,  by  the  act  of  secession,  the  revolted  States  had  put 
themselves  outside  the  pale  of  the  Constitution,  and  were 
henceforth  to  be  regarded  and  treated,  not  as  members  of 
the  Union,  but  as  alien  enemies  :  * — that  their  State  organ 

*  President  Lincoln's  view  of  this  position  is  stated  in  the  following  note  ad 
dressed  by  him  to  the  publishers  of  the  North  American  Review,  which  contained 
an  article  upon  his  policy  of  administration : — 

EXKCUTITK  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  January  16,   1864. 
w  MKSSKB.  CROSUT  <fc  NICHOLS  : 

"GENTLEMEN:— The  number  for  this  month  and  year  of  the  Nirth  American  Review  wus 
<lnly  received,  and  for  which  please  accept  my  thanks.     Of  course  I  am  not  the  most  impartis' 
Itui^e  ;  yet,  with  du<3  allowance  foi  this,  I  ronturo  to  hope  that  the  article  entitled  'The  Pre.sl- 
31 


482  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

izations  and  State  boundaries  had  "been  expunged  by  then 
own  act ;  and  that  they  were  to  be  readmitted  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Constitution,  and  to  the  privileges  of 
the  Union,  only  upon  such  terms  and  conditions  as  the 
Federal  Government  of  the  loyal  States  might  prescribe. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  was  held  that  the  acts  of  secession, 
passed  by  the  several  State  Governments,  were  absolutely 
null  and  void,  and  that  while  the  persons  who  passed 
them,  and  those  who  aided  in  giving  them  effect,  by 
taking  up  arms  against  the  United  States,  had  rendered 
themselves  liable  individually  to  the  penalties  of  treason, 
they  had  not,  in  any  respect,  changed  the  relations  of 
their  States,  as  such,  to  the  Federal  Government.  The 
governments  of  those  States  had  been  for  a  time  sub 
verted  ;  but  they  might  at  any  time  be  re-established  upon 
a  republican  basis,  under  the  authority  and  protection  of 
the  United  States.  The  proclamation  proceeded,  in  the 
main,  upon  the  latter  theory.  The  President  had  the 
power,  under  the  Constitution,  and  by  specific  legislation 
of  Congress,  to  grant  pardons  upon  such  conditions  as  he 
might  deem  expedient.  In  the  exercise  of  this  power, 
President  Lincoln  released  from  legal  penalties  and  re 
stored  to  the  rights  of  citizenship  all,  in  each  State,  with 

dent's  Policy'  will  be  of  value  to  the  country.  I  fear  I  am  not  worthy  of  all  which  is  therein 
kindly  said  of  mo  personally. 

•'The  sentence  of  twelve  lines,  commencing  at  the  top  of  page  252, 1  could  wish  to  be  not 
exactly  what  it  is.  In  what  is  there  expressed,  the  writer  has  not  correctly  understood  me.  1 
have  never  had  a  theory  that  secession  could  absolve  States  or  people  from  their  obligations. 
Precisely  the  contrary  is  asserted  in  the  inaugural  address;  and  it  was  because  of  my  belief  in 
the  continuation  of  those  obligations  that  I  was  puzzled,  for  a  time,  as  to  denying  the  legal 
rights  of  those  citizens  who  remained  individually  innocent  of  treason  or  rebellion.  But  I  mean 
no  more  now  than  to  merely  call  attention  to  this  point 

"  Yours  respectfully, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 
X 
The  sentence  referred  to  by  Mr.  Lincoln  is  as  follows : — 

*  Even  so  long  ago  as  when  Mr.  Lincoln,  not  yet  convinced  of  the  danger  and  magnitude  of 
the  crisis,  was  endeavoring  to  persuade  himself  of  Union  majorities  at  the  South,  and  carry  on 
a  war  that  was  half  peace,  in  the  hope  of  a  peace  that  would  have  been  all  war,  while  h«  was 
etill  enforcing  the  Fugitive  Slave  law,  under  some  theory  that  secession,  however  it  might  ab 
solve  States  from  their  obligations,  could  not  escheat  them  of  their  claims  under  the  Constitu 
tion,  ard  that  slaveholders  in  rebellion  had  alone,  among  mortals,  the  privilege  of  having  thoir 
c&ke  {.nd  eating  it  at  the  same  time, — the  enemies  of  free  government  were  striving  to  persuade 
the  people  that  the  war  was  an  abolition  crusade.  To  robe!  without  reason  was  proclaimed  a? 
one  of  the  rights  of  man,  while  it  was  carefully  kept  out  of  sight  that  to  suppress  reUUion  u 
thtt  first  duty  of  government." 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  483 

certain  specified  exceptions,  who  should  take  and  abide 
by  a  prescribed  oath ;  and  then  he  proclaimed  his  pur 
pose  to  recognize  them  as  the  citizens  of  such  State,  and 
as  alone  competent  to  organize  and  carry  on  the  local 
government ;  and  he  pledged  the  power  of  the  General 
Government  to  protect  such  republican  State  Governments 
as  they  might  establish,  "against  invasion,  and  against 
domestic  violence."  By  way  of  precaution  against  a 
usurpation  of  power  by  strangers,  he  insisted  on  the  same 
qualifications  for  voting  as  had  been  required  by  the  con 
stitution  and  laws  of  the  State  previous  to  secession  :— 
and  to  provide  against  usurpation  of  power  by  an  insig 
nificant  minority,  he  also  required  that  the  new  govern 
ment  should  be  elected  by  at  least  one-tenth  as  many 
voters  as  had  voted  in  the  State  at  the  Presidential  elec 
tion  of  1860.  In  the  oath  which  he  imposed  as  essential 
to  citizenship,  the  President  required  a  pledge  to  sustain 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  laws  of  Con 
gress,  and  the  Executive  proclamations  and  acts  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  so  long  and  so  far  as  the  same  should 
not  be  declared  invalid  and  of  no  binding  obligation  by 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  These  were  the 
foundations  of  the  broad  and  substantial  basis  laid  by  the 
President  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union,  and  the  re-es 
tablishment  of  loyal  republican  governments  in  the  sev 
eral  seceded  States. 

Various  indications  in  the  Southern  States  had  satisfied 
the  President  that  the  time  had  come  when  the  work  of  re 
construction  might  safely  and  wisely  be  thus  commenced. 
In  Tennessee,  where  the  rebels  had  never  maintained  any 
permanent  foothold,  but  where  the  Government  at  Wash 
ington  had  found  it  necessary  to  commit  the  local  author 
ity  to  Andrew  Johnson,  as  Provisional  Governor,  there 
had  been  a  very  strong  party  in  favor  of  restoring  the 
State  to  its  former  position  as  a  member  of  the  Federal 
Union.  But  in  Louisiana  the  movements  in  the  same 
direction  had  been  earlier  and  more  decided  than  in  any 
other  Southern  State.  The  occupation  of  New  Orleans 
by  the  National  forces,  and  the  advent  of  General  Butler 


484  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

as  commander  of  that  Military  Department,  on  the  1st  of 
May,  1862,  speedily  satisfied  a  very  considerable  portion 
of  the  inhabitants,  who  had  property  at  stake  in  the  city 
and  State,  that  the  rebel  authority  could  never  be  restored. 
There  were,  however,  even  among  professed  Unionists, 
many  who  devoted  their  time  and  energy  rather  to  carp 
ing  at  the  measures  which  the  Government  felt  itself 
called  upon  to  pursue,  and  to  the  promotion  and  adoption 
of  their  individual  views,  than  to  cordial  co-operation  with 
the  President  in  his  efforts  to  re-establish  the  forms  of 
civil  government  upon  a  proper  basis.  It  was  in  answer 
to  such  a  complaint  that  the  President  wrote  the  follow 
ing  Latter : — 

"WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  28, 1SG2. 
CUTHBEET  BUT.LITT,  Esq.,  New  Orleans,  La. : 

SIR  : — The  copy  of  a  letter  addressed  to  yourself  by  Mr.  Thomas  J.  Dn- 
rant  has  been  shown  to  me.  The  writer  appears  to  be  an  able,  a  dispassion 
ate,  and  an  entirely  sincere  man.  The  first  part  of  the  letter  is  devoted 
to  an  effort  to  show  that  the  secession  ordinance  of  Louisiana  was  adopted 
against  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  people.  This  is  probably  true,  and 
in  that  fact  may  be  found  some  instruction.  Why  did  they  allow  the  or 
dinance  to  go  into  effect?  Why  did  they  not  exert  themselves?  Why 
stand  passive  and  allow  themselves  to  be  trodden  down  by  a  minority? 
Why  did  they  not  hold  popular  meetings,  and  have  a  convention  of  their 
own  to  express  and  enforce  the  true  sentiments  of  the  State?  If  pre-or- 
ganization  was  against  them,  then  why  not  do  this  now  that  the  United 
States  army  is  present  to  protect  them  ?  The  paralyzer — the  dead  palsy 
— of  the  Government  in  the  whole  struggle  is,  that  this  class  of  men  will 
do  nothing  for  the  Government — nothing  for  themselves,  except  demand 
ing  that  the  Government  shall  not  strike  its  enemies,  lest  they  be  struck 
by  accident. 

Mr.  Durant  complains  that,  in  various  ways,  the  relation  of  master  and 
slave  is  disturbed  by  the  presence  of  our  army  ;  and  he  considers  it  par 
ticularly  vexatious  that  this,  in  part,  is  done  under  cover  of  an  act  of  Con 
gress,  while  constitutional  guarantees  are  superseded  on  the  plea  of  mili 
tary  necessity.  The  truth  is,  that  what  is  done  and  omitted  about  slaves 
is  done  and  omitted  on  the  same  military  necessity.  It  is  a  military  necea 
sity  to  have  men  and  money ;  and  we  cannot  get  either,  in  sufficient  num 
bers  or  amounts,  if  we  keep  from  or  drive  from  our  lines  slaves  coming  to 
them. 

Mr.  Durant  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  pressure  in  this  direction,  nor  of 
my  efforts  to  hold  it  within  bounds,  till  he,  and  such  as  he,  shall  have  time 
to  help  themselves. 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  485 

I  am  not  posted  to  speak  understandingly  on  the  public  regulations  of 
which  Mr.  Durant  complains.  If  experience  shows  any  of  them  to  be 
wrong,  let  them  be  set  right.  I  think  I  can  perceive  in  the  freedom  of 
trade  which  Mr.  Durant  urges,  that  he  would  relieve  both  friends  and 
enemies  from  the  pressure  of  the  blockade.  By  this  he  would  serve  the 
enemy  more  effectively  than  the  enemy  is  able  to  serve  himself. 

I  do  not  say  or  believe  that  to  serve  the  enemy  is  the  purpose  of  Mr. 
Durant,  or  that  he  is  conscious  of  any  purposes  other  than  national  and 
patriotic  ones.  Still,  if  there  were  a  class  of  men  who,  having  no  choice 
of  sides  in  the  contest,  were  anxious  only  to  have  quiet  and  comfort  lor 
themselves  while  it  rages,  and  to  fall  in  with  the  victorious  side  at  the 
end  of  it,  without  loss  to  themselves,  their  advice  as  to  the  mode  of  con 
ducting  the  contest  would  be  precisely  such  as  his. 

He  speaks  of  no  duty,  apparently  thinks  of  none,  resting  upon  Union 
men.  He  even  thinks  it  injurious  to  the  Union  cause  that  they  should  be 
restrained  in  trade  and  passage,  without  taking  sides.  They  are  to  touch 
neither  a  sail  nor  a  pump — live  merely  passengers  ("  dead-heads"  at  that) 
— to  be  carried  snug  and  dry  throughout  the  storm  and  safely  landed  right 
side  up.  Nay,  more — even  a  mutineer  is  to  go  untouched,  lest  these  sacred 
passengers  receive  an  accidental  wound. 

Of  course,  the  rebellion  will  never  be  suppressed  in  Louisiana,  if  the 
professed  Union  men  there  will  neither  help  to  do  it,  nor  permit  the  Gov 
ernment  to  do  it  without  their  help. 

Now,  I  think  the  true  remedy  is  very  different  from  what  is  suggested 
by  Mr.  Durant.  It  does  not  lie  in  rounding  the  rough  angles  of  the  war, 
but  in  removing  the  necessity  for  the  war.  The  people  of  Louisiana,  who 
wish  protection  to  person  and  property,  have  but  to  reach  forth  their 
hands  and  take  it.  Let  them  in  good  faith  reinaugurate  the  national  au 
thority  and  set  up  a  State  Government  conforming  thereto  under  the  Con 
stitution.  They  know  how  to  do  it,  and  can  have  the  protection  of  the 
army  while  doing  it.  The  army  will  be  withdrawn  so  soon  as  such  Gov 
ernment  can  dispense  with  its  presence,  and  the  people  of  the  State  call 
then,  upon  the  old  terms,  govern  themselves  to  their  own  liking.  This  is 
very  simple  and  easy. 

If  they  will  not  do  this,  if  they  prefer  to  hazard  all  for  the  sake  of 
dest-oying  the  Government,  it  is  for  them  to  consider  whether  it  is  prob 
able  I  will  surrender  the  Government  to  save  them  from  losing  all.  If 
they  decline  what  I  suggest,  you  will  scarcely  need  to  ask  what  I  will 
do. 

What  would  you  do  in  my  position  ?  Would  you  drop  the  war  where  it 
is,  or  would  you  prosecute  it  in  future  with  elder-stalk  squirts,  charged 
with  rose-water?  Would  you  deal  lighter  blows  rather  than  heavier 
ones  ?  Would  you  give  up  the  contest  leaving  every  available  means  un 
applied  ? 

I  am  in  no  boastful  mood.  I  shall  not  do  more  than  I  can,  but  I  shall 
do  all  I  can  to  save  the  Government,  which  is  my  sworn  duty  as  well  as 


486  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

my  personal  inclination.     I  shall  do  nothing  in  malice.     What  I  deal  with 
is  too  vast  for  malicious  dealing.  Yours  very  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

As  time  went  on,  however,  the  disposition  of  the  citizens 
to  exert  themselves  for  the  re-establishment  of  former 
civil  re]ations  increased,  and  preparations  were  accord 
ingly  made  to  hold  an  election  in  the  fall  of  that  year  for 
members  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  General 
Shepley  had  been  appointed  Military  Governor  of  the 
State,  and  to  him  the  President,  in  November,  addressed 
the  following  letter  on  that  subject  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  November  21, 1862. 

DEAR  SIR  : — Dr.  Kennedy,  bearer  of  this,  has  some  apprehension  that 
Federal  officers,  not  citizens  of  Louisiana,  may  be  set  up  as  candidates  for 
Congress  in  that  State.  In  my  view  there  could  be  no  possible  object  in 
such  an  election.  We  do  not  particularly  need  members  of  Congress  from 
those  States  to  enable  us  to  get  along  with  legislation  here.  What  we  do 
want  is  the  conclusive  evidence  that  respectable  citizens  of  Louisiana  are 
willing  to  be  members  of  Congress  and  to  swear  support  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  that  other  respectable  citizens  there  are  willing  to  vote  for  them 
imd  send  them.  To  send  a  parcel  of  Northern  men  here  as  representa 
tives,  elected,  as  would  be  understood  (and  perhaps  really  so),  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet,  would  be  disgraceful  and  outrageous  ;  and  were  I  a  mem 
ber  of  Congress  here,  I  would  vote  against  admitting  any  such  man  to  a 
seat.  Yours,  very  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Hon.  G.  F.  SHEPLEY. 

The  election  was  held,  and  Messrs.  Flanders  and  Hahn 
were  chosen  and  admitted  to  their  seats  at  the  ensuing 
session,  as  has  been  already  seen. 

On  the  23d  of  May,  1863,  the  various  Union  associations 
of  New  Orleans  applied  to  the  Military  Governor  of  the 
State  for  authority  to  call  a  convention  of  the  loyal  citi 
zens  of  Louisiana,  for  the  purpose  of  framing  a  new  State 
Constitution,  and  of  re-establishing  civil  government 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  What  they 
especially  desired  of  him  was  that  he  should  order  a  regis 
tration  of  the  loyal  voters  of  the  State,  and  appoint  com 
missioners  of  registration  in  each  parish  to  register  the 
names  of  all  citizens  who  should  take  the  oath  of  alle- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  487 

glance  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  repu 
diate  allegiance  to  the  rebel  Confederacy.  General  Shep- 
ley,  in  reply,  recognized  fully  the  great  importance  of  the 
proposed  movement,  but  thought  it  of  the  utmost  conse 
quence  that  it  should  proceed  as  the  spontaneous  act  of 
the  people  of  the  State,  without  the  slightest  appearance 
or  suspicion  of  having  been  in  any  degree  the  result  of 
military  dictation.  He  consented  to  provide  for  the  regis 
tration  of  such  voters  as  might  voluntarily  come  forward 
for  the  purpose  of  being  enrolled,  but  deferred  action 
upon  the  other  points  submitted  to  him  until  he  could  re 
ceive  definite  instructions  on  the  subject  from  the  Govern 
ment  at  Washington. 

In  June,  a  committee  of  planters,  recognizing  the  pro 
priety  of  some  movement  for  the  re-establishment  of  civil 
authority  in  the  State,  and  not  concurring  in  the  policy  of 
those  who  proposed  to  form  a  new  constitution,  applied 
to  the  President,  asking  him  to  grant  a  full  recognition  of 
the  rights  of  the  State  as  they  existed  before  the  act  of 
secession,  so  that  they  might  return  to  their  allegiance 
under  the  old  Constitution  of  the  State,  and  that  he  would 
order  an  election  for  State  officers,  to  be  held  on  the  1st 
Monday  of  November. 

To  this  application  the  President  made  the  following 
reply :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON  June  19, 1863. 

GENTLEMEN: — Since  receiving  your  letter,  reliable  information  has 
reached  roe  that  a  respectable  portion  of  the  Louisiana  people  desire  to 
amend  their  State  Constitution,  and  contemplate  holding  a  convention  for 
that  object.  The  fact  alone,  it  seems  to  me,  is  sufficient  reason  why  tho 
General  Government  should  not  give  the  committee  the  authority  you 
seek  to  act  under  the  existing  State  Constitution.  I  may  add,  that  while 
I  do  not  perceive  how  such  a  committee  could  facilitate  our  military  opera 
tions  in  Louisiana,  I  really  apprehend  it  might  be  so  used  as  to  embarrass 
them. 

As  to  an  election  to  be  held  in  November,  there  is  abundant  time  with 
out  any  order  or  proclamation  from  me  just  now.     The  people  of  Louisi 
ana  shall  not  lack  an  opportunity  for  a  fair  election  for  both  Federal  au<l 
State  officers  by  want  of  any  thing  within  my  power  to  give  them. 
Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  LINCOLN. 


188  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

After  the  appearance  of  the  President' s  proclamation, 
the  movement  towards  reconstruction  in  Louisiana  as 
sumed  greater  consistency,  and  was  carried  forward  with 
greater  steadiness  and  strength.  On  the  8th  of  January 
a  very  large  Free  State  Convention  was  held  at  New 
Orleans,  at  which  resolutions  were  adopted  indorsing  all 
the  acts  and  proclamations  of  the  President,  and  urging 
the  immediate  adoption  of  measures  for  the  restoration  of 
the  State  to  its  old  place  in  the  Union.  On  the  llth,  Gen 
eral  Banks  issued  a  proclamation,  appointing  an  election 
for  State  officers  on  the  22d  of  February,  who  were  to  "be 
installed  on  the  4th  of  March,  and  another  election  for 
delegates  to  a  convention  to  revise  the  Constitution  of  the 
State  on  the  first  Monday  in  April.  The  old  Constitution 
and  laws  of  Louisiana  were  to  be  observed,  except  so  far 
as  they  relate  to  slavery,  "  which,"  said  General  Banks, 
*'  being  inconsistent  with  the  present  condition  of  public 
affairs,  and  plainly  inapplicable  to  any  class  of  persons 
within  the  limits  of  the  State,  must  be  suspended,  and 
they  are  now  declared  inoperative  and  void."  The  oath 
of  allegiance  required  by  the  President  in  his  proclama 
tion,  with  the  condition  affixed  to  the  elective  franchise 
by  the  Constitution  of  Louisiana,  was  prescribed  as  cori 
stituting  the  qualifications  of  voters. 

Under  this  order,  parties  were  organized  for  the  elec 
tion  of  State  officers.  The  friends  of  the  National  Gov 
eminent  were  divided,  and  two  candidates  were  put  in 
nomination  for  Governor,  Hon.  Michael  Hahn  being  the 
regular  nominee,  and  representing  the  supporters  of  the 
policy  of  the  President,  and  Hon.  B.  F.  Flanders  being 
put  in  nomination  by  those  who  desired  a  more  radical 
policy  than  the  President  had  proposed.  Both  took  very 
decided  ground  against  the  continued  existence  of  slavery 
within  the  State.  Hon.  C.  Roselius  was  nominated  by 
that  portion  of  the  people  who  concurred  in  the  wish  for 
the  return  of  Louisiana  to  the  Union,  and  were  willing  to 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  prescribed  by  the  President, 
but  who  nevertheless  disapproved  of  the  general  policy 
of  the  Administration,  especially  on  the  subject  of  sla- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  489 

very.      The  election  resulted   in  the    election    of   Mr. 
Halm. 

The  following  letter  was  written  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
congratulate  him  on  his  election  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  March  18, 1864. 

Hon.  MICHAEL  HAHN  : 

My  Dear  Sir : — I  congratulate  you  on  having  fixed  your  name  in  history 
as  the  first  Free-State  Governor  of  Louisiana.  Now  you  are  about  to  have  a 
convention,  which,  among  other  tilings,  will  probably  define  the  elective 
franchise.  I  barely  suggest,  for  your  private  consideration,  whether  some 
of  the  colored  people  may  not  be  let  in,  as,  for  instance,  the  very  intelli 
gent,  and  especially  those  who  have  fought  gallantly  in  our  ranks.  They 
would  probably  help,  in  some  trying  time  to  come,  to  keep  the  jewel  of 
liberty  in  the  family  of  freedom.  But  this  is  only  a  suggestion,  not  to  the 
public,  but  to  you  alone.  Truly  yours, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Mr.  Hahn  was  inaugurated  as  Governor  on  the  4th  of 
March.  On  the  15th  he  was  clothed  with  the  powers 
previously  exercised  by  General  Banks,  as  military  gov 
ernor,  by  the  following  order  from  the  President  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  March  15, 1S64. 

ITis  Excellency  MICHAEL  HAHN,  Governor  of  Louisiana: 

Until  further  orders,  you  are  hereby  invested  with  the  powers  exercised 
hitherto  by  the  military  governor  of  Louisiana. 

Yours  truly, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

On  March  16th,  Governor  Hahn  issued  a  proclamation, 
notifying  the  electors  of  the  State  of  the  election  for  del 
egates  to  the  convention  previously  ordered  by  General 
Banks. 

The  party  which  elected  Governor  Hahn  succeeded  also 
in  electing  a  large  majority  of  the  delegates  to  the  con 
vention,  which  met  in  New  Orleans  on  the  6th  of  April. 
On  the  llth  of  May  it  adopted,  by  a  vote  of  seventy  to  six 
teen,  a  clause  of  the  new  Constitution,  by  which  slavery 
was  forever  abolished  in  the  State.  The  Constitution  was 
adopted  on  the  5th  of  September,  by  a  vote  of  six  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  thirty- six  to  one  thousand  five  hun 
dred  and  sixty- six. 

Great  umbrage  was  taken  at  these  proceedings  by  some 


490  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

of  the  best  friends  of  the  cause,  as  if  there  had  been  an 
unauthorized  and  unjustifiable  interference  on  the  part  of 
the  President,  so  that  this  Constitution  and  this  State 
Government,  though  nominally  the  work  of  the  people, 
were  in  reality  only  his.  That  this  was  a  mistake,  the 
following  letter,  written  in  August,  1863,  is  sufficient 
proof : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  Augusts,  1868. 

MY  DEAR  GENEKAL  BANKS  : 

"While  I  very  well  know  what  I  would  be  glad  for  Louisiana  to  do,  it 
is  quite  a  different  thing  for  me  to  assume  direction  of  the  matter.  I 
would  be  glad  for  her  to  make  a  new  Constitution,  recognizing  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation,  and  adopting  emancipation  in  those  parts  of  the 
State  to  which  the  proclamation  does  not  apply.  And  while  she  is  at  it, 
I  think  it  would  not  be  objectionable  for  her  to  adopt  some  practical  sys 
tem  by  which  the  two  races  could  gradually  live  themselves  out  of  their 
old  relation  to  each  other,  and  both  come  out  better  prepared  for  the 
new.  Education  for  young  blacks  should  be  included  in  the  plan.  After 
all,  the  power  or  element  of  "  contract "  may  be  sufficient  for  this  proba 
tionary  period,  arid  by  its  simplicity  and  flexibility  may  be  the  better. 

As  an  anti-slavery  man,  I  have  a  motive  to  desire  emancipation  which 
pro-slavery  men  do  not  have ;  but  even  they  have  strong  enough  reason 
to  thus  place  themselves  again  under  the  shield  of  the  Union,  and  to  thus 
perpetually  hedge  against  the  recurrence  of  the  scenes  through  which  we 
are  now  passing. 

Governor  Shepley  has  informed  me  that  Mr.  Durant  is  now  taking  a 
registry,  with  a  view  to  the  election  of  a  Constitutional  Convention  in 
Louisiana.  This,  to  me,  appears  proper.  If  such  convention  were  to 
ask  my  views,  I  could  present  little  else  than  what  I  now  say  to  you.  T 
think  the  thing  should  be  pushed  forward,  so  that,  if  possible,  its  mature 
work  may  reach  here  by  the  meeting  of  Congress. 

For  my  own  part,  I  think  I  shall  not,  in  any  event,  retract  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation;  nor,  as  Executive,  ever  return  to  slavery  any 
person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that  proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the 
acts  of  Congress. 

If  Louisiana  shall  send  members  to  Congress,  their  admission  to  seats 
will  depend,  as  you  know,  upon  the  respective  Houses,  and  not  upon  the 

President.         *        *        *         * 

Yours,  very  truly, 

(Signed)  A.  LINCOLN. 

In  Arkansas,  where  a  decided  Union  feeling  had  exist 
ed  from  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  the  appearance  of 
the  proclamation  was  the  signal  for  a  movement  to  bring 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          491 

the  State  "back  into  the  Union.  On  the  20th  of  January, 
a  delegation  of  citizens  from  that  State  had  an  interview 
with  the  President,  in  which  /they  urged  the  adoption  of 
certain  measures  for  the  re-establishment  of  a  legal  State 
Government,  and  especially  the  ordering  of  an  election  for 
Governor.  In  consequence  of  this  application,  and  in 
substantial  compliance  with  their  request,  the  President 
wrote  the  following  letter  to  General  Steele,  who  com 
manded  in  that  Department :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  January  20, 1SG4. 

Major-General  STEELE: 

Sundry  citizens  of  the  State  of  Arkansas  petition  me  that  an  election 
may  be  held  in  that  State,  at  which  to  elect  a  Governor;  that  it  he  as 
sumed  at  that  election,  and  thenceforward,  that  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  State,  as  before  the  rebellion,  are  in  full  force,  except  that  the  con 
stitution  is  so  modified  as  to  declare  that  there  shall  be  neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  in  the  punishment  of  crimes  whereof 
the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted;  that  the  General  Assembly  may 
make  such  provisions  for  the  freed  people  as  shall  recognize  and  declare 
their  permanent  freedom,  and  provide  for  their  education,  and  which  may 
yet  be  construed  as  a  temporary  arrangement  suitable  to  their  condition 
as  a  laboring,  landless,  and  homeless  class ;  that  said  election  shall  be 
held  on  the  28th  of  March,  1864,  at  all  the  usual  places  of  the  State,  or  all 
such  as  voters  may  attend  for  that  purpose;  that  the  voters  attending  at 
eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  said  day  may  choose  judges  and  clerks  of 
election  for  such  purpose ;  that  all  persons  qualified  by  said  constitution 
and  laws,  and  taking  the  oath  presented  in  the  President's  proclamation 
of  December  8,  1863,  either  before  or  at  the  election,  and  none  others, 
may  be  voters;  that  each  set  of  judges  and  clerks  may  make  returns  di 
rectly  to  you  on  or  before  the  — th  day  of  -  -  next ;  that  in  all  other 
respects  said  election  may  be  conducted  according  to  said  constitution 
and  laws;  that  on  receipt  of  said  returns,  when  five  thousand  four  hun 
dred  and  six  votes  shall  have  been  cast,  you  can  receive  said  votes,  anc 
ascertain  all  who  shall  thereby  appear  to  have  been  elected  ;  that  on  the 

• — th  day  of next,  all  persons  so  appearing  to  have  been  elected, 

who  shall  appear  before  you  at  Little  Eock,  and  take  the  oath,  to  be  by 
you  severally  administered,  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  said  modified  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Arkansas,  may 
be  declared  by  you  qualified  and  empowered  to  enter  immediately 
upon  the  duties  of  the  offices  to  which  they  shall  have  been  respectively 
elected. 

You  will  please  order  an  election  to  take  place  on  the  28th  of  Marclu 

1864,  and  returns  to  be  made  in  fifteen  days  thereafter. 

A.  LINCOLN. 


492  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Upon  the  return  of  the  delegation  to  Arkansas,  they 
issued  an  address  to  the  people  of  the  State,  urging  them 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  thus  aiforded  for 
restoring  their  State  to  its  old  prosperity,  and  assuring 
them,  from  personal  observation,  that  the  people  of  the 
Northern  States  would  most  cordially  welcome  their 
return  to  the  Union.  Meantime,  a  convention  had  as 
sembled  at  Little  Rock,  composed  of  delegates  elected 
without  any  formality,  and  not  under  the  authority  of  the 
General  Government,  and  proceeded  to  form  a  new  State 
Constitution,  and  to  fix  a  day  for  an  election. 

Upon  being  informed  of  this,  the  President  seems  to 
have  sent  orders  to  General  Steele  to  help  on  this  move 
ment,  and  he  telegraphed  to  the  Provisional  Government 
as  follows  : — • 

WASHINGTON,  February  6,  1S84. 

J.  MURPHY  : 

My  order  to  General  Steele,  about  an  election,  was  made  in  ignorance 
of  the  action  your  convention  had  taken  or  would  take.  A  subsequent 
letter  directs  General  Steele  to  aid  you  on  your  own  plan,  and  not  to 

thwart  or  hinder  you.     Show  this  to  him. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

He  also  wrote  the  following  letter  to  one  of  the  most 
prominent  citizens : — 

"   To  WILLIAM  FISHBAOK  : 

When  I  fixed  a  plan  for  an  election  in  Arkansas,  I  did  it  in  ignorance 
that  your  convention  was  at  the  same  work.  Since  I  learned  the  latter 
fact,  I  have  been  constantly  trying  to  yield  my  plan  to  theirs.  I  have 
sent  two  letters  to  General  Steele,  and  three  or  four  dispatches  to  you  and 
others,  saying  that  he  (General  Steele)  must  be  master,  but  that  it  will 
probably  be  best  for  him  to  keep  the  convention  on  its  own  plan.  Some 
single  mind  must  be  master,  else  there  will  be  no  agreement  on  any  thing ; 
and  General  Steele,  commanding  the  military  and  being  on  the  ground, 
is  the  best  man  to  be  that  master.  Even  now  citizens  are  telegraphing 
me  to  postpone  the  election  to  a  later  day  than  either  fixed  by  the  con 
vention  or  me.  This  discord  must  be  silenced. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

The  dispatches  to  General  Steele  reached  him  both 
together,  and  only  a  few  days  before  the  day  fixed  by 
(he  convention  for  the  election.  All  that  he  did,  there- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  493 

tore,  was  to  issue  a  proclamation  calling  on  the  people  to 
come  out  and  vote  at  the  ensuing  election. 

The  convention  framed  a  constitution  abolishing  sla 
very,  which  was  subsequently  adopted  by  a  large  major 
ity  of  the  people. 

It  also  provided  for  the  election  of  State  officers  on  the 
day  appointed  for  the  vote  upon  the  constitution ;  and 
the  legislature  chosen  at  that  election  elected  two  gentle 
men,  Messrs.  Fishback  and  Baxter,  as  United  States 
Senators,  and  also  Representatives.  These  gentlemen 
presented  their  credentials  at  Washington,  whereupon  Mr. 
Sumner  offered  the  following  resolution  in  the  Senate  :— 

Resolved,  That  a  State  pretending  to  secede  from  the  Union,  and  bat 
tling  against  the  General  Government  to  maintain  that  position,  must  be 
regarded  as  a  rebel  State,  subject  to  military  occupation,  and  without 
representation  on  this  floor,  until  it  has  been  readmitted  by  a  vote  of  both 
Houses  of  Congress;  and  the  Senate  will  decline  to  entertain  any  appli 
cation  from  any  such  rebel  State  until  after  such  a  vote  of  both  Houses. 

The  whole  matter  was  referred  to  the  Judiciary  Com 
mittee,  who,  without  adopting  the  views  of  Mr.  Sumner' s 
resolution,  reported  on  the  27th  of  June  that  on  the  facts  it 
did  not  appear  that  the  rebellion  was  so  far  suppressed  in 
Arkansas  as  to  entitle  the  State  to  representation  in  Con 
gress,  and  that  therefore  Messrs.  Fishback  and  Baxter 
were  not  entitled  to  seats  as  Senators  from  the  State  of 
Arkansas.  And  the  Senate  on  the  next  day  adopted  their 
jeport  by  a  vote  of  twenty-seven  to  six. 

Tn  the  House,  meanwhile,  the  Committee  on  Elections,  to 
whom  the  application  of  the  Arkansas  members  had  been 
referred,  reported  to  postpone  their  admission  until  a  com 
mission  could  be  sent  to  inquire  into  and  report  the  facts 
of  the  election,  and  to  create  a  commission  for  the  exami 
nation  of  all  such  cases.  This  proposition  was,  however, 
laid  on  the  table,  and  the  members  were  not  admitted. 
This  action  put  to  rest  all  question  of  the  representation 
of  the  State  in  Congress  till  the  next  session. 

The  cause  of  the  rejection  of  these  Senators  and  Repre 
sentatives  was,  that  a  majority  in  Congress  had  not  agreed 


494  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

with  the  President  in  reference  to  the  plan  of  reconstruc 
tion  which  he  proposed.  A  bill  for  the  reconstruction  of 
the  States  was  introduced  into  the  Senate,  and  finally 
passed  both  Houses  on  the  last  day  of  the  session.  It 
provided  that  the  President  should  appoint,  for  each  of 
the  States  declared  in  rebellion,  a  Provisional  Governor, 
who  should  be  charged  with  the*  civil  administration  of 
the  State  until  a  State  Government  should  be  organized,  and 
such  other  civil  officers  as  were  necessary  for  the  civil  ad 
ministration  of  the  State  ;  that  as  soon  as  military  resist 
ance  to  the  United  States  should  be  suppressed  and  the 
people  had  sufficiently  returned  to  their  obedience,  the 
Governor  should  make  an  enrolment  of  the  white  male 
citizens,  specifying  which  of  them  had  taken  the  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  if  those 
who  had  taken  it  were  a  majority  of  the  persons  enrolled, 
he  should  order  an  election  for  delegates  to  a  Constitu 
tional  Convention,  to  be  elected  by  the  loyal  white  male 
citizens  of  the  United  States  aged  twenty-one  years  and 
resident  in  the  district  for  which  they  voted,  or  absent  in 
the  army  of  the  United  States,  and  who  had  taken  the  oath 
of  allegiance  prescribed  by  the  act  of  Congress  of  July  2, 
1862  ;  that  this  convention  should  declare,  on  behalf  of 
the  people  of  the  State,  their  submission  to  the  Constitution 
and  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  adopt  the  following 
provisions,  prescribed  by  Congress  in  the  execution  of 
its  constitutional  duty  to  guarantee  to  every  State  a  re 
publican  form  of  government,  viz.:— 

First. — No  person  who  has  held  or  exercised  any  office,  civil  or  mili 
tary,  except  offices  merely  ministerial  and  military  offices  below  the  grade 
of  colonel,  State  or  Confederate,  under  the  usurping  power,  shall  voto 
for  or  be  a  member  of  the  Legislature  or  Governor. 

Second. — Involuntary  servitude  is  forever  prohibited,  and  the  freedom 
of  all  persons  is  forever  guaranteed  in  the  State. 

Third. — No  debt,  State  or  Confederate,  created  by  or  under  the  sanc 
tion  of  the  usurping  power,  shall  be  recognized  or  paid  by  the  State. 

The  bill  further  provided  that  when  a  constitution 
containing  these  provisions  should  have  been  framed  by 
the  convention  and  adopted  by  the  popular  vote,  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  495 

Governor  should  certify  that  fact  to  the  President,  who, 
after  obtaining  the  assent  of  Congress,  should  recognize 
this  Government  so  established  as  the  Government  of  the 
State,  and  from  that  date  senators  and  representatives  and 
electors  for  President  and  Yice-President  should  be  elected 
in  the  State.  Further  provisions  were  made  for  the  dis 
solution  of  the  convention  in  case  it  should  refuse  to  frame 
a  constitution  containing  the  above  provisions,  and  the 
calling  of  another  convention  by  order  of  the  President 
whenever  he  should  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  ma 
jority  were  willing  to  adopt  them  ;  and  also  for  the  civil 
administration  of  the  State  in  the  mean  time,  and  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  and  the  disfranchisement  of  rebel  officers. 
This  bill  thus  passed  by  Congress  was  presented  to  the 
President  just  before  the  close  of  the  session,  but  was  not 
signed  by  him.  The  reasons  for  his  refusal  to  sign  it  he 
afterwards  thought  fit  to  make  known,  which  he  did  by 
the  following  proclamation  :— 

Whereas,  at  the  late  session,  Congress  passed  a  bill  to  guarantee  to 
certain  States  whose  Governments  have  been  usurped  or  overthrown,  a 
republican  form  of  government,  a  copy  of  which  is  hereunto  annexed. 
And, 

Whereas,  the  said  bill  was  presented  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  for  his  approval,  less  than  one  hour  before  the  sine  die  adjourn 
ment  of  said  session,  and  was  not  signed  by  him.  And, 

Whereas,  the  said  bill  contains,  among  other  things,  a  plan  for  restoring 
the  States  in  rebellion  to  their  proper  practical  relation  in  the  Union,  which 
plan  expressed  the  sense  of  Congress  upon  that  subject,  and  which  plan 
it  is  now  thought  fit  to  lay  before  the  people  for  their  consideration  : 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do 
proclaim,  declare,  and  make  known  that  while  I  am,  as  I  was  in  December 
last,  when  by  proclamation  I  propounded  a  plan  for -restoration,  unpre 
pared  by  a  formal  approval  of  this  bill  to  be  inflexibly  committed  to  any 
single  plan  of  restoration,  and  while  I  am  also  unprepared  to  declare  that 
the  Free  State  Constitutions  and  Governments  already  adopted  and  in 
stalled  in  Arkansas  and  Louisiana,  shall  be  set  aside  and  held  for  naught, 
thereby  repelling  and  discouraging  the  loyal  citizens  who  have  set  up  the 
same  as  to  further  effort,  or  to  declare  a  constitutional  competency  ii. 
Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  States,  but  am  at  the  same  time  sin 
cerely  hoping  and  expecting  that  a  constitutional  amendment  abolishing 
slavery  throughout  the  nation  may  be  adopted:  nevertheless,  I  am  fillip 
satisfied  with  tli3  system  for  restoration  contained  in  the  bill,  as  one  verv 


496  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

proper  for  the  loyal  people  of  any  State  choosing  to  adopt  it,  and  that  I 
am,  and  at  all  times  shall  be,  prepared  to  give  the  Executive  aid  and  assist 
ance  to  any  such  people,  so  soon  as  the  military  resistance  to  the  United 
States  shall  have  been  suppressed  in  any  such  State,  and  the  people 
thereof  shall  have  sufficiently  returned  to  their  obedience  to  the  Consti 
tution  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States  —  in  which  cases  Military  Gov 
ernors  will  be  appointed,  with  directions  to  proceed  according  to  the  bill. 
In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  eighth  day  of  July,  in  the 
[L.  s.]       year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-four,  and 
of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-ninth. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President  : 

WM.  H.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

The  relations  of  the  war  carried  on  to  maintain  the  repub 
lican  government  of  the  United  States,  against  the  efforts 
of  the  slaveholding  oligarchy  for  its  overthrow,  to  the 
general  interests  of  labor,  from  time  to  time  enlisted  a 
good  deal  of  the  thoughts  of  the  President,  and  elicited 
from  him  expressions  of  his  own  sentiments  on  the  sub 
ject.  On  the  31st  of  December,  1863,  a  very  large  meet 
ing  of  workingmen  was  held  at  Manchester,  England,  to 
express  their  opinion  in  regard  to  the  war  in  the  United 
States.  At  that  meeting  an  address  to  President  Lincoln 
was  adopted,  expressing  the  kindest  sentiments  towards 
this  country,  and  declaring  that,  since  it  had  become  evi 
dent  that  the  destruction  of  slavery  was  involved  in  the 
overthrow  of  the  rebellion,  their  sympathies  had  been 
thoroughly  and  heartily  with  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  This  ad 
dress  was  forwarded  to  the  President  through  the  Amer 
ican  Minister  in  London,  and  elicited  the.  following  re- 


EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  January  19,  1863. 

To  the  Workingmen  of  Manchester  : 

I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  address  and  reso 
lutions  which  you  sent  me  on  the  eve  of  the  new  year.  When  I  camo, 
on  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  through  a  free  and  constitutional  election,  to 
preside  in  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  the  country  was  fount' 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  497 

at  the  verge  of  civil  war.  Whatever  might  have  been  the  cause,  or 
whosesoever  the  fault,  one  duty,  paramount  to  all  others,  was  before  me, 
namely,  to  maintain  and  preserve  at  once  the  Constitution  and  the  integ 
rity  of  the  Federal  Republic.  A  conscientious  purpose  to  perform  this 
duty  is  the  key  to  all  the  measures  of  administration  which  have  been, 
and  to  all  which  will  hereafter  be  pursued.  Under  our  frame  of  govern 
ment  and  my  official  oath,  I  could  not  depart  from  this  purpose  if  I 
would.  It  is  not  always  in  the  power  of  Governments  to  enlarge  or  re 
strict  the  scope  of  moral  results  which  follow  the  policies  that  they 
may  deern  it  necessary,  for  the  public  safety,  from  time  to  time  to 
adopt. 

I  have  understood  well  that  the  duty  of  self-preservation  rests  solely 
with  the  American  people.  But  I  have  at  the  same  time  Kx.n  aware 
that  favor  or  disfavor  of  foreign  nations  might  have  a  material  influence 
in  enlarging  or  prolonging  the  struggle  with  disloyal  men  in  which  the 
country  is  engaged.  A  fair  examination  of  history  has  served  to  author 
ize  a  belief  that  the  past  actions  and  influences  of  the  United  States  were 
generally  regarded  as  having  been  beneficial  towards  mankind.  I  have, 
therefore,  reckoned  upon  the  forbearance  of  nations.  Circumstances — 
to  some  of  which  you  kindly  allude — induced  me  especially  to  expect  that 
if  justice  and  good  faith  should  be  practised  by  the  United  States,  they 
would  encounter  no  hostile  influence  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain.  It  is 
now  a  pleasant  duty  to  acknowledge  the  demonstration  you  have  given 
of  your  desire  that  a  spirit  of  amity  and  peace  towards  this  country  may 
prevail  in  the  councils  of  your  Queen,  who  is  respected  and  esteemed  in 
your  own  country  only  more  than  she  is  by  the  kindred  nation  which  has 
its  home  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

I  know  and  deeply  deplore  the  sufferings  which  the  workingmen  at 
Manchester,  and  in  all  Europe,  are  called  to  endure  in  this  crisis.  It  has 
been  often  and  studiously  represented  that  the  attempt  to  overthrow  this 
Government,  which  was  built  upon  the  foundation  of  human  rig] its,  and 
to  substitute  for  it  one  which  should  rest  exclusively  on  the  basis  of  hu 
man  slavery,  was  likely  to  obtain  the  favor  of  Europe.  Through  the 
action  of  our  disloyal  citizens,  the  workingmen  of  Europe  have  been 
subjected  to  severe  trials,  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  their  sanction  to  that 
attempt.  Under  the  circumstances,  I  cannot  but  regard  your  decisive 
utterances  upon  the  question  as  an  instance  of  sublime  Christian  heroism, 
which  lias  not  been  surpassed  in  any  age  or  in  any  country.  It  is  indeed 
an  energetic  and  reinspiring  assurance  of  the  inherent  power  of  truth, 
and  of  the  ultimate  and  universal  triumph  of  justice,  humanity,  aw1  free 
dom.  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  sentiments  you  have  expressed  will  be 
sustained  by  your  great  nation  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  I  have  no  hesita 
tion  in  assuring  you  that  they  will  excite  admiration,  esteem,  and  tlio 
most  reciprocal  feelings  of  friendship  among  the  American  people.  I 
hail  this  interchange  of  sentiment,  therefore,  as  an  augury  that  whatever 
else  may  happen,  whatever  misfortune  may  befall  your  country  or  my 
32 


498  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

own,  the  peace  and  friendship  which  now  exist  between  the  two  nations 
will  be,  as  it  shall  be  my  desire  to  make  them,  perpetual. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  workingmen  of  London  held  a  similar  meeting  at 
about  the  same  time,  and  took  substantially  the  same 
action.  The  President  made  the  following  response  to 
their  address  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  February  2, 1863. 
To  the  Working-men  of  London  : 

I  have  received  the  New  Year's  Address  which  yon  have  sent  me,  with 
a  sincere  appreciation  of  the  exalted  and  humane  sentiments  by  which  it 
was  inspired. 

As  these  sentiments  are  manifestly  the  enduring  support  jf  the  free 
institutions  of  England,  so  I  am  sure  also  that  they  constitute  the  only 
reliable  basis  for  free  institutions  throughout  the  world. 

The  resources,  advantages,  and  powers  of  the  American  people  are 
verv  great,  and  they  have  consequently  succeeded  to  equally  great  respon 
sibilities.  It  seems  to  have  devolved  upon  them  to  test  whether  a  go^ 
driiment  established  on  the  principles  of  human  freedom  can  be  main 
tained  against  an  effort  to  build  one  upon  the  exclusive  foundation  of 
human  bondage.  They  will  rejoice  with  me  in  the  new  evidences  which 
your  proceedings  furnish,  that  the  magnanimity  they  are  exhibiting  is 
justly  estimated  by  the  true  friends  of  freedom  and  humanity  in  foreign 
countries. 

Accept  my  best  wishes  for  your  individual  welfare,  and  for  the  welfare 

and  happiness  of  the  whole  British  people. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

On  the  21st  of  March,  1864,  a  committee  from  the  Work- 
ingmen's  Association  of  the  City  of  New  York  waited 
upon  the  President  and  delivered  an  address,  stating  the 
general  objects  and  purposes  of  the  Association,  and  re 
questing  that  he  would  allow  his  name  to  be  enrolled 
among  its  honorary  members.  To  this  address  the  Pres 
ident  made  the  following  reply  :— 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  COMMITTEE: — The  honorary  membership  in  your 
association,  as  generously  tendered,  is  gratefully  accepted. 

You  comprehend,  as  your  address  shows,  that  the  existing  rebellion 
means  more  and  tends  to  do  more  than  the  perpetuation  of  African  sla 
very—  that  it  is,  in  fact,  a  war  upon  the  rights  of  all  working  people, 
fartly  to  show  that  this  view  has  not  escaped  my  attention,  and  partly 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  499 

that  I  cannot  better  express  myself,  I  read  a  passage  from  the  message  to 
Congress  in  December,  1861  : — 

"It  continues  to  develop  that  the  insurrection  is  largely,  if  not  ex 
clusively,  a  war  upon  the  first  principle  of  popular  government,  the  rights 
of  the  people.  Conclusive  evidence  of  this  is  found  in  the  most  grave 
and  maturely  considered  public  documents,  as  well  as  in  the  general  tone 
of  the  insurgents.  In  those  documents  we  tind  the  abridgment  of  the 
existing  right  of  suffrage,  and  the  denial  to  the  people  of  all  right  to  par 
ticipate  in  the  selection  of  public  officers,  except  the  legislative,  boldly 
advocated,  with  labored  argument  to  prove  that  large  control  of  the 
people  in  government  is  the  source  of  all  political  evil.  Monarchy  itself 
is  sometimes  hinted  at  as  a  possible  refuge  from  the  power  of  the  people. 

"In  my  present  position  I  could  scarcely  be  justified  were  I  to  omit 
raising  a  warning  voice  against  this  approach  of  returning  despotism. 

"  It  is  not  needed,  nor  fitting  here,  that  a  general  argument  should  be 
made  in  favor  of  popular  institutions;  but  there  is  one  point,  with  its 
connections,  not  so  hackneyed  as  most  others,  to  which  I  ask  a  brief  at 
tention.  It  is  the  effort  to  place  capital  on  an  equal  footing,  if  not  above 
l<>?>o>\  in  the  structure  of  government.  It  is  assumed  that  labor  is  avail 
able  only  in  connection  with  capital;  that  nobody  labors  unless  some 
body  else,  owning  capital,  somehow  by  the  use  of  it  induces  him  to  labor. 
This  assumed,  it  is  next  considered  whether  it  is  best  that  capital  s  lall 
hire  laborers,  and  thus  induce  them  to  work  by  their  own  consent,  or  <>uy 
them,  and  drive  them  to  it  without  their  consent.  Having  proceeded  so 
far,  it  is  naturally  concluded  that  all  laborers  are  either  hired  laborers,  or 
what  we  call  slaves.  And,  further,  it  is  assumed  that  whoever  is  once  a 
hired  laborer,  is  fixed  in  that  condition  for  life.  Now  there  is  no  such 
relation  between  capital  and  labor  as  assumed,  nor  is  there  any  such 
thing  as  a  free  man  being  fixed  for  life  in  the  condition  of  a  hired  laborer. 
Both  these  assumptions  are  false,  and  all  inferences  from  them  are 
groundless. 

"Labor  is  prior  to,  and  independent  of,  capital.  Capital  is  only  the 
fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have  existed  if  labor  had  not  first  existed. 
Labor  is  the  superior  of  capital,  and  deserves  much  the  higher  considera 
tion.  Capital  has  its  rights,  which  are  as  worthy  of  protection  as  any 
other  rights.  Nor  is  it  denied  that  there  is,  and  probably  always  will  be, 
a  relation  between  capital  and  labor,  producing  mutual  benefits.  The 
error  is  in  assuming  that  the  whole  labor  of  a  community  exists  within 
that  relation.  A  few  men  own  capital,  and  that  few  avoid  labor  them 
selves,  and,  with  their  capital,  hire  or  buy  another  few  to  labor  for  them. 
A  large  majority  belong  to  neither  class — neither  work  for  others,  nor 
have  others  working  for  them.  In  most  of  the  Southern  States,  a  major 
ity  of  the  whole  people,  of  all  colors,  are  neither  slaves  nor  masters ;  while 
in  the  Northern,  a  large  majority  are  neither  hirers  nor  hired.  Men  with 
their  families — wives,  sons,  and  daughters — work  for  themselves,  on  their 
farms,  in  their  houses,  and  in  their  shops,  taking  the  whole  product  to 
themselves,  and  asking  no  favors  of  capital  on  the  one  hand,  nor  of  hired 
laborers  or  slaves  on  the  other.  It  is  not  forgotten  tthat  a  considerable 
number  of  persons  mingle  their  own  labor  with  capital ;  that  is,  they 
labor  with  their  own  hands,  and  also  buy  or  hire  others  to  labor  for  them, 
but  this  is  only  a  mixed  and  not  a  distinct  class.  No  principle  stated  is 
disturbed  by  the  existence  of  this  mixed  class. 

"  Again,  as  has  already  been  said,  there  is  not,  of  necessity,  any  such 
thing  as  the  free  hired  laborer  being  fixed  to  that  condition  for  life. 
Many  independent  men  everywhere  in  these  States,  a  few  years  back  in 


000  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

their  lives,  were  hired  laborers.  The  prudent  penniless  beginner  in  the 
world  labors  for  wages  a  while,  saves  a  surplus  with  which  to  buy  tools 
or  hind  for  himself,  then  labors  on  his  own  account  another  while,  and  at 
length  hires  another  new  beginner  to  help  him.  This  is  the  just  and 
generous  and  prosperous  system  which  opens  the  way  to  all — gives  hope 
to  all,  arid  consequent  energy  and  progress,  and  improvement  of  condi 
tion  to  all.  No  men  living  are  more  worthy  to  be  trusted  than  those 
who  toil  up  from  poverty — none  less  inclined  to  touch  or  take  aught 
which  they  have  not  honestly  earned.  Let  them  beware  of  surrendering 
a  political  power  they  already  possess,  and  which,  if  surrendered,  will 
surely  be  used  to  close  the  door  of  advancement  against  such  as  they,  and 
to  fix  new  disabilities  and  burdens  upon  them,  till  all  of  liberty  shall  be 
lost." 

* 

The  views  then  expressed  remain  unchanged,  nor  have  I  much  to  add. 
None  are  so  deeply  interested  to  resist  the  present  rebellion  as  the  work 
ing  people.  Let  them  beware  of  prejudices,  working  division  and  hos 
tility  among  thmselves.  The  most  notable  feature  of  a  disturbance  in 
your  city  last  summer  was  the  hanging  of  some  working  people  by  other 
working  people.  It  should  never  be  so.  The  strongest  bond  of  human 
sympathy,  outside  of  the  family  relation,  should  be  one  uniting  all  work 
ing  people,  of  all  nations,  and  tongues,  and  kindreds.  Nor  should  this 
lead  to  a  war  upon  property,  or  the  owners  of  property.  Property  is  the 
fruit  of  labor;  property  is  desirable;  is  a  positive  good  in  the  world. 
That  some  should  be  rich  shows  that  others  may  become  rich,  and,  hence, 
is  just  encouragement  to  industry  and  enterprise.  Let  not  him  who  is 
houseless  pull  down  the  house  of  another,  but  let  him  labor  diligently 
and  build  one  for  himself,  thus  by  example  assuring  that  his  own  shall  be 
safe  from  violence  when  built. 

The  President  had  always  taken  a  deep  interest  in  the 
volunteer  movements  of  benevolent  people  throughout 
the  country,  for  relieving  the  sufferings  of  the  sick  and 
wounded  among  our  soldiers.  A  meeting  of  one  of  these 
organizations,  the  Christian  Commission,  was  held  at 
Washington,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1863,  to  which 
President  Lincoln,  unable  to  attend  and  preside,  ad 
dressed  the  following  letter : — 

EXKCITTIVB  MANSION,  February  22,  18f>8. 
Rev.  ALEXANDER  REED  : 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — Your  note,  by  which  you,  as  General  Superintendent 
of  the  United  States  Christian  Commission,  invite  me  to  preside  at  a 
meeting  to  be  held  this  day,  at  the  hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  this  city,  is  received. 

"W.Uiie,  for  reasons  which  I  deem  sufficient,  I  must  decline  to  preside, 

1  cawnot  withhold  my  approval  of  the  meeting,  and  its  worthy  objects. 
Whatever  shall  be,  sincerely  and  in  God's  name,  devised  for  the  good 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  501 

of  the  soldiers  and  seamen  in  their  hard  spheres  of  duty,  can  scarcely 
fail  to  be  blessed.  And  whatever  shall  tend  to  turn  our  thoughts  from 
the  unreasoning  and  uncharitable  passions,  prejudices,  and  jealousies 
incident  to  a  great  national  trouble  such  as  ours,  and  to  fix  them  on  the 
vast  and  long-enduring  consequences,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  which  are  to 
result  from  the  struggle,  and  especially  to  strengthen  our  reliance  on  the 
Supreme  Being  for  the  final  triumph  of  the  right,  cannot  but  be  well  for 
us  all. 

The  birthday  of  Washington  and  the  Christian  Sabbath  coinciding  this 
year,  and  suggesting  together  the  highest  interests  of  this  life  and  of  that 
to  come,  is  most  propitious  for  the  meeting  proposed. 

Your  obedient  servant,  A.  LINCOLN. 

On  the  16th  of  March,  1864,  at  the  close  of  a  fair  in 
Washington,  given  at  the  Patent  Office,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  sick  and  "wounded  soldiers  of  the  army,  President 
Lincoln,  happening  to  "be  present,  in  response  to  loud  and 
continuous  calls,  made  the  following  remarks  :— 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — I  appear  to  say  but  a  word.  This  extraoi 
dinary  war  in  which  we  are  engaged  falls  heavily  upon  all  clases  of  peo 
ple,  but  the  most  heavily  upon  the  soldier.  For  it  has  been  said,  all  that  a 
man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life;  and  while  all  contribute  of  their 
substance,  the  soldier  puts  his  life  at  stake,  and  often  yields  it  up  in  his 
country's  cause.  The  highest  merit,  then,  is  due  to  the  soldier. 

In  this  extraordinary  war,  extraordinary  developments  have  manifested 
themselves,  such  as  have  not  been  seen  in  former  wars;  and  among  these 
manifestations  nothing  has  been  more  remarkable  than  these  fairs  for  the 
relief  of  suffering  soldiers  and  their  families.  And  the  chief  agents  in 
these  fairs  are  the  women  of  America. 

I  am  not  accustomed  to  the  use  of  language  of  eulogy ;  I  have  never 
studied  the  art  of  paying  compliments  to  women ;  but  I  must  say,  that 
if  all  that  has  been  said  by  orators  and  poets  since  the  creation  of  the 
world  in  praise  of  women  were  applied  to  the  women  of  America,  it 
would  not  do  them  justice  for  their  conduct  during  this  war.  I  will 
close  by  saying,  God  bless  the  women  of  America! 

Still  another  occasion  of  a  similar  character  occurred 
at  Baltimore  on  the  18th  of  April,  at  the  opening  of  a 
fair  for  the  benefit  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  The 
President  accepted  an  invitation  to  attend  the  opening 
exercises,  and  made  the  following  remarks  :— 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — Calling  to  mind  that  we  are  in  Baltimore, 
we  cannot  fail  to  note  that  the  world  moves.  Looking  upon  these  many 
people  assembled  here  to  serve,  as  they  best  may,  the  soldiers  of  tl»e 


502  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Union,  it  occurs  at  once  that  three  years  ago  the  same  soldiers  could 
not  so  much  as  pass  through  Baltimore.  The  change  from  then  till  now 
is  both  great  and  gratifying.  Blessings  on  the  brave  men  who  have 
wrought  the  change,  and  the  fair  women  who  strive  to  reward  them 
for  it ! 

But  Baltimore  suggests  more  than  could  happen  within  Baltimore. 
The  change  within  Baltimore  is  part  only  of  a  far  wider  change.  When 
the  war  began,  three  years  ago,  neither  party,  nor  any  man,  expected  it 
would  last  till  now.  Each  looked  for  the  end,  in  some  way,  long  ere  to 
day.  Neither  did  any  anticipate  that  domestic  slavery  would  be  much 
affected  by  the  war.  But  here  we  are  ;  the  war  has  not  ended,  and 
slavery  has  been  much  affected — how  much  needs  not  now  to  be  re 
counted.  So  true  is  it  that  man  proposes  and  God  disposes. 

But  we  can  see  the  past,  though  we  may  not  claim  to  have  directed 
it ;  and  seeing  it,  in  this  case,  we  feel  more  hopeful  and  confident  for  the 
future. 

The  world  has  never  had  a  good  definition  of  the  word  liberty,  and 
the  American  people,  just  now,  are  much  in  want  of  one.  We  all  de 
clare  for  liberty;  but  in  using  the  same  icord  we  do  not  all  mean  the 
same  thing.  With  some  the  word  liberty  may  mean  for  each  man  to  do 
as  he  pleases  with  himself,  and  the  product  of  his  labor ;  while  with 
others  the  same  word  may  mean  for  some  men  to  do  as  they  please  with 
other  men,  and  the  product  of  other  men's  labor.  Here  are  two,  not 
only  different,  but  incompatible  things,  called  by  the  same  name,  liberty. 
And  it  follows  that  each  of  the  things  is,  by  the  respective  parties,  called 
by  two  different  and  incompatible  names — liberty  and  tyranny. 

The  shepherd  drives  the  wolf  from  the  sheep's  throat,  for  which  the 
sheep  thanks  the  shepherd  as  his  liberator,  while  the  wolf  denounces  him 
for  the  same  act,  as  the  destroyer  of  liberty,  especially  as  the  sheep  was 
a  black  one.  Plainly,  the  sheep  and  the  wolf  are  not  agreed  upon  a 
definition  of  the  word  liberty;  and  precisely  the  same  difference  prevails 
to-day  among  us  human  creatures,  even  in  the  North,  and  all  professing 
to  love  liberty.  Hence  we  behold  the  process  by  which  thousands  are 
daily  passing  from  under  the  yoke  of  bondage  hailed  by  some  as  the 
advance  of  liberty,  and  bewailed  by  others  as  the  destruction  of  all 
liberty.  Recently,  as  it  seems,  the  people  of  Maryland  have  been  doing 
something  to  define  liberty,  and  thanks  to  them  that,  in  what  they  Lave 
done,  the  wolf 's  dictionary  has  been  repudiated. 

It  is  not  very  becoming  for  one  in  my  position  to  make  speeches  at 
great  length;  but  there  is  another  subject  upon  which  I  feel  that  I 
ought  to  say  a  word.  A  painful  rumor,  true,  I  fear,  has  reached  us,  of 
the  massacre,  by  the  rebel  forces  at  Fort  Pillow,  in  the  west  end  of 
Tenne»see,  on  the  Mississippi  River,  of  some  three  hundred  colored  sol 
diers  and  white  officers,  who  had  just  been  overpowered  by  their  assail 
ants.  There  seems  to  be  some  anxiety  in  the  public  mind  whether  the 
Government  is  doing  its  duty  to  the  colored  soldier,  and  to  the  service, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  f,03 

at  this  point.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  for  some  time,  Jie  use 
of  colored  troops  was  not  contemplated ;  and  how  the  change  of  purpose 
was  wrought,  I  will  not  now  take  time  to  explain.  Upon  a  clear  con 
viction  of  duty,  I  resolved  to  turn  that  element  of  strength  to  account ; 
and  I  am  responsible  for  it  to  the  American  people,  to  the  Christian 
world,  to  history,  and  on  rny  final  account  to  God.  Having  determined 
to  use  the  negro  as  a  soldier,  there  is  no  way  but  to  give  him  all  the 
protection  given  to  any  other  soldier.  The  difficulty  is  not  in  stating 
the  principle,  but  in  practically  applying  it.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose 
the  Government  is  indifferent  to  this  matter,  or  is  not  doing  the  best  it 
can  in  regard  to  it.  We  do  not  to-day  know  that  a  colored  soldier,  or 
white  officer  commanding  colored  soldiers,  has  been  massacred  by  the 
rebels  when  made  a  prisoner.  We  fear  it,  believe  it,  I  may  say,  but  we 
do  aot  Icnow  it.  To  take  the  life  of  one  of  their  prisoners  on  the  assump 
tion  that  they  murder  ours,  when  it  is  short  of  certainty  that  they  do 
murder  ours,  might  be  too  serious,  too  cruel  a  mistake.  We  are  having 
the  Fort  Pillow  affair  thoroughly  investigated ;  and  such  investigation 
will  probably  show  conclusively  how  the  truth  is.  If,  after  all  that  has 
been  said,  it  shall  turn  out  that  there  has  been  no  massacre  at  Fort 
Pillow,  it  will  be  almost  safe  to  say  there  has  been  none,  and  will  be 
nme  elsewhere.  If  there  has  been  the  massacre  of  three  hundred  there, 
or  even  the  tenth  part  of  three  hundred,  it  will  be  conclusively  proven  ; 
and  being  so  proven,  the  retribution  shall  as  surely  come.  It  will  be 
matter  of  grave  consideration  in  what  exact  course  to  apply  the  retribu 
tion  ;  but  in  he  supposed  case,  it  must  come. 

In  June,  the  President  attended  a  similar  fair  at  Phila 
delphia,  one  of  the  largest  that  was  held  in  all  the  coun 
ty.  At  a  supper  given  to  him  there,  the  health  of  the 
Iresident  having  "been  proposed  as  a  toast,  the  President 
sad  in  acknowledgment : — 

1  suppose  that  this  toast  is  intended  to  open  the  way  for  me  to  say 
sonething.  War  at  the  best  is  terrible,  and  this  of  ours  in  its  magnitude 
andduration  is  one  of  the  most  terrible  the  world  has  ever  known.  It 
hasleranged  business  totally  in  many  places,  and  perhaps  in  all.  It  has 
destoyed  property,  destroyed  life,  and  ruined  homes.  It  has  produced  a 
natonal  debt  and  a  degree  of  taxation  unprecedented  in  the  history  of 
thiscountry.  It  has  caused  mourning  among  us  until  the  heavens  m.-iy 
almct  be  said  to  be  hung  in  black.  And  yet  it  continues.  It  has  had 
acconpaniments  not  before  known  in  the  history  of  the  world.  I  mean 
the  Unitary  and  Christian  Commissions,  with  their  labors  for  the  relief  of 
the  sddiers,  and  the  Volunteer  Refreshment  Saloons,  understood  better  by 
thosewho  hear  me  than  by  myself — (applause) — and  these  fairs,  first  begun  at 
Chicago  and  next  held  in  Boston,  Cincinnati,  and  other  cities.  The  motive 


504  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

and  objv  nA,  that  lie  .it  the  bottom  of  them  is  worthy  of  the  most  that  \vo 
can  do  for  the  soldier  who  goes  to  fight  the  battles  of  his  country.  From 
the  fair  and  tender  hand  of  women  is  much,  very  much  done  for  tho 
soldier,  continually  reminding  him  of  the  care  and  thought  for  him  at 
home.  The  knowledge  that  he  is  not  forgotten  is  grateful  to  his  heart. 
(Applause.)  Another  view  of  these  institutions  is  worthy  of  thought. 
They  are  voluntary  contributions,  giving  proof  that  the  national  resources 
are  not  at  all  exhausted,  and  that  the  national  patriotism  will  sustain  us 
through  all.  It  is  a  pertinent  question.  When  is  this  war  to  end  ?  I  do 
not  wish  to  name  a  day  when  it  will  end,  lest  the  end  should  not  come  at 
the  given  time.  We  accepted  this  war,  and  did  not  begin  it.  (Deafening 
applause.)  We  accepted  it  for  an  object,  and  when  that  object  is  accom 
plished  the  war  will  end,  and  I  hope  to  God  that  it  will  never  end  until 
that  object  is  accomplished.  (Great  applause.)  We  are  going  through 
with  our  task,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  if  it  takes  us  three  years  longer. 
I  have  not  been  in  the  habit  of  making  predictions,  but  I  am  almost 
tempted  now  to  hazard  one.  I  will.  It  is,  that  Grant  is  this  evening  in  a 
position,  with  Meade  and  Hancock,  of  Pennsylvania,  whence  he  can  never 
be  dislodged  by  the  enemy  until  Richmond  is  taken.  If  I  shall  discovsr 
that  General  Grant  may  be  greatly  facilitated  in  the  capture  of  Richmond, 
by  rapidly  pouring  to  him  a  large  number  of  armed  men  at  the  briefest 
notice,  will  yon  go?  (Cries  of  "Yes.")  Will  you  march  on  with  him  ?  (Oriw 
of  "  Yes,  yes.1')  Then  I  shall  call  upon  you  when  it  is  necessary.  (Laughter 
and  applause,  during  which  the  President  retired  from  the  table.) 

It  became  manifest,  soon  after  the  commencement  of 
the  war,  that  its  progress  would  inevitably  have  the  effect 
of  freeing  very  many,  if  not  all,  the  slaves  of  the  South 
era  States.  The  President's  attention  was  therefore 
directed  at  an  early  day  to  the  proper  disposition  of  those 
who  should  thus  be  freed.  As  his  messages  show,  le 
was  strongly  in  favor  of  colonizing  them,  with  their  ovn 
consent,  in  some  country  where  they  could  be  relieved 
from  the  embarrassments  occasioned  by  the  hostile  prqu- 
dices  of  the  whites,  and  enter  upon  a  career  of  their  orn. 
In  consequence  of  his  urgent  representations  upon  ;his 
subject,  Congress  at  its  session  of  1862  passed  an  act  pla 
cing  at  his  disposal  the  sum  of  six  hundred  thousand  col 
lars,  to  be  expended,  in  his  discretion,  in  removing,  rith 
their  own  consent,  free  persons  of  African  descent  to  g>me 
country  which  they  might  select  as  adapted  to  their  :on- 
dition  and  necessities. 

On  the  14th  of  August,  1862,  the  President  received  n 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  505 

deputation  of  colored  persons,  with  whom  he  had  an  inter 
view  on  the  subject,  of  which  one  of  the  parties  interested 
has  made  the  following  record  :— 

WASHINGTON,  Thursday,  August  14,  1662. 

This  afternoon  the  President  of  the  United  States  gave  an  audience  to 
a  committee  of  colored  men  at  the  White  House.  They  were  introduced 
by  Rev.  J.  Mitchell,  Commissioner-  of  Emigration.  E.  M.  Thomas,  the 
chairman,  remarked  that  they  were  there  by  invitation  to  hear  what  the 
Executive  had  to  say  to  them. 

Having  all  been  seated,  the  President,  after  a  few  preliminary  observa 
tions,  informed  them  that  a  sum  of  money  had  been  appropriated  by  Con 
gress,  and  placed  at  his  disposition,  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  coloniza 
tion  in  some  country,  of  the  people,  or  a  portion  of  them,  of  African 
descent,  thereby  making  it  his  duty,  as  it  had  for  a  long  time  been  his  in 
clination,  to  favor  that  cause.  And  why,  he  asked,  should  the  people  of 
your  race  be  colonized,  and  where?  Why  should  they  leave  this  country? 
This  is,  perhaps,  the  first  question  for  proper  consideration.  You  and  we 
are  different  races.  We  have  between  us  a  broader  difference  than  exists 
between  almost  any  other  two  races.  Whether  it  is  right  or  wrong  I  need 
not  discuss;  but  this  physical  difference  is  a  great  disadvantage  to  us 
both,  as  I  think.  Your  race  suffer  very  greatly,  many  of  them  by  living 
smong  us,  while  ours  suffer  from  your  presence.  In  a  word,  we  suffer  on 
each  side.  If  this  is  admitted,  it  affords  a  reason,  at  least,  why  we  should 
be  separated.  You  here  are  freemen,  I  suppose. 

A  voice — Yes,  sir. 

The  President — Perhaps  you  have  long  been  free,  or  all  your  lives. 
Your  race  are  suffering,  in  my  judgment,  the  greatest  wrong  inflicted  on 
any  people.  But  even  when  you  cease  to  be  slaves,  you  are  yet  far  re 
moved  from  being  placed  on  an  equality  with  the  white  race.  You  are 
cut  off  from  many  of  the  advantages  which  the  other  race  enjoys.  The 
aspiration  of  men  is  to  enjoy  equality  with  the  best  when  free,  but  on  this 
broad  continent  not  a  single  man  of  your  race  is  made  the  equal  of  a 
single  man  of  ours.  Go  where  you  are  treated  the  best,  and  the  ban  is 
still  upon  you.  I  do  not  propose  to  discuss  this,  but  to  present  it  as  a  fact, 
with  which  we  have  to  deal.  I  cannot  alter  it  if  I  would.  It  is  a  fact 
about  which  we  all  think  and  feel  alike,  I  and  you.  We  look  to  our  con 
dition.  Owing  to  the  existence  of  the  two  races  on  this  continent,  I  need 
not  recount  to  you  the  effects  upon  white  men,  growing  out  of  the  insti 
tution  of  shivery.  I  believe  in  its  general  evil  effects  on  the  white  race. 
See  our  present  condition — the  country  engaged  in  war!  our  white  men 
cutting  one  another's  throats — none  knowing  howr  far  it  will  extend — and 
then  consider  Avhat  we  know  to  be  the  truth.  But  for  your  race  among 
us  there  could  not  be  war,  although  many  men  engaged  on  either  side  (Jo 
not  care  for  you  one  way  or  the  other.  Nevertheless,  I  repeat,  without 


506  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  institution  of  slavery,  and  the  colored  race  as  a  basis,  the  war  could 
not  have  an  existence.  It  is  better  for  us  both,  therefore,  to  be  separated. 
I  know  that  there  are  free  men  among  you  who,  even  if  they  could  better 
their  condition,  are  not  as  much  inclined  to  go  out  of  the  country  as  those 
who,  being  slaves,  could  obtain  their  freedom  on  this  condition.  I  suppose 
one  of  the  principal  difficulties  in  the  way  of  colonization  is,  that  the  free 
colored  man  cannot  see  that  his  comfort  would  be  advanced  by  it.  You 
may  believe  that  you  can  live  in  Washington,  or  elsewhere  in  the  United 
States,  the  remainder  of  your  life;  perhaps  more  so  than  you  can  in  any 
foreign  country;  and  hence  you  may  come  to  the  conclusion  that  you  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  idea  of  going  to  a  foreign  country.  This  is  (I 
speak  in  no  unkind  sense)  an  extremely  selfish  view  of  the  case.  But  you 
ought  to  do  something  to  help  those  who  are  not  so  fortunate  as  your 
selves.  There  is  an  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  our  people,  harsh  as  it 
may  be,  for  you  free  colored  people  to  remain  with  us.  Now  if  you  could 
give  a  start  to  the  white  people,  you  would  open  a  wide  door  for  many  to 
be  made  free.  If  we  deal  with  those  who  are  not  free  at  the  beginning, 
tind  whose  intellects  are  clouded  by  slavery,  we  have  very  poor  material 
to  start  with.  If  intelligent  colored  men,  such  as  are  before  me,  would 
move  in  this  matter,  much  might  be  accomplished.  It  is  exceedingly  im 
portant  that  we  have  men  at  the  beginning  capable  of  thinking  as  white 
men,  and  not  those  who  have  been  systematically  oppressed.  There  is 
much  to  encourage  you.  For  the  sake  of  your  race  you  should  sacrifice 
something  of  your  present  comfort  for  the  purpose  of  being  as  grand  in 
that  respect  as  the  white  people.  It  is  a  cheering  thought  throughout 
life,  that  something  can  be  done  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  those  who 
have  been  subject  to  the  hard  usages  of  the  world.  It  is  difficult  to  make 
a  man  miserable  while  he  feels  he  is  worthy  of  himself  and  claims  kindred 
to  the  great  God  who  made  him.  In  the  American  Revolutionary  War 
sacrifices  were  made  by  men  engaged  in  it,  but  they  were  cheered  by  the 
future.  General  Washington  himself  endured  greater  physical  hardships 
than  if  he  had  remained  a  British  subject,  yet  he  was  a  happy  man,  be 
cause  he  was  engaged  in  benefiting  his  race  ;  in  doing  something  for  the 
children  of  his  neighbors,  having  none  of  his  own. 

The  colony  of  Liberia  has  been  in  existence  a  long  time.  In  a  certain 
sense,  it  is  a  success.  The  old  President  of  Liberia,  Roberts,  has  just  been 
with  me,  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  him.  lie  says  they  have  within  the 
bounds  of  that  colony  between  three  and  four  hundred  thousand  people, 
or  more  than  in  some  of  our  old  States,  such  as  Rhode  Island  or  Delaware, 
or  in  some  of  our  newer  States,  and  less  than  in  some  of  our  larger  ones. 
They  are  not  all  American  colonists  or  their  descendants.  Something  less 
than  twelve  thousand  have  been  sent  thither  fron^this  country.  Many  of 
the  original  settlers  have  died,  yet,  like  people  elsewhere,  their  offspring 
outnumber  those  deceased.  The  question  is,  if  the  colored  people  are 
persuaded  to  go  anywhere,  why  not  there?  One  reason  for  unwillingness 
to  do  so  is,  that  some  of  you  would  rather  remain  within  reach  of  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  507 

country  of  your  nativity.  I  do  not  know  how  mucli  attachment  you  may 
have  towards  our  race.  It  does  not  strike  me  that  you  have  the  greatest 
reason  to  love  them.  But  still  you  are  attached  to  them  at  all  events. 
The  place  I  am  thinking  ahout  having  for  a  colony,  is  in  Central  America. 
It  is  nearer  to  us  than  Liberia — not  much  more  than  one-fourth  as  far  as 
Liberia,  and  within  seven  days'  run  by  steamers.  Unlike  Liberia,  it  is  a 
great  line  of  travel — it  is  a  highway.  The  country  is  a  very  excellent  one 
for  any  people,  and  with  great  natural  resources  and  advantages,  and  espe 
cially  because  of  the  similarity  of  climate  with  your  native  soil,  thus  being 
suited  to  your  physical  condition.  The  particular  place  I  have  in  view  is 
to  be  a  great  highway  from  the  Atlantic  or  Caribbean  Sea  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  this  particular  place  has  all  the  advantages  for  a  colony.  On 
both  sides  there  are  harbors  among  the  finest  in  the  world.  Again,  there 
is  evidence  of  very  rich  coal  mines.  A  certain  amount  of  coal  is  valuable 
in  any  country,  and  there  may  be  more  than  enough  for  the  wants  of  any 
country.  Why  I  attach  so  much  importance  to  coal  is,  it  will  afford  an 
opportunity  to  the  inhabitants  for  immediate  employment  till  they  get 
ready  to  settle  permanently  in  their  homes.  If  you  take  colonists  where 
there  is  no  good  landing,  there  is  a  bad  show ;  and  so  where  there  is  noth 
ing  to  cultivate,  and  of  which  to  make  a  farm.  But  if  something  is 
started  so  that  you  can  get  your  daily  bread  as  soon  as  you  reach  there,  it 
is  a  great  advantage.  Coal  land  is  the  best  thing  I  know  of  with  which 
to  commence  an  enterprise.  To  return — you  have  been  talked  to  upon 
this  subject,  and  told  that  a  speculation  is  intended  by  gentlemen  who 
have  an  interest  in  the  country,  including  the  coal  mines.  We  have  been 
mistaken  all  our  lives  if  we  do  not  know  whites,  as  well  as  blacks,  look 
to  their  self-interest.  Unless  among  those  deficient  of  intellect,  everybody 
you  trade  with  makes  something.  You  meet  with  these  things  here  and 
everywhere.  If  such  persons  have  what  will  be  an  advantage  to  them, 
the  question  is,  whether  it  cannot  be  made  of  advantage  to  you  ?  You 
are  intelligent,  and  know  that  success  does  not  as  much  depend  on  external 
help  as  on  self-reliance.  Much,  therefore,  depends  upon  yourselves.  As 
to  the  coal  mines,  I  think  I  see  the  means  available  for  your  self-reliance. 
I  shall,  if  I  get  a  sufficient  number  of  you  engaged,  have  provision  made 
that  you  shall  not  be  wronged.  If  you  will  engage  in  the  enterprise,  1 
will  spend  some  of  the  money  intrusted  to  me.  I  am  not  sure  you  will 
succeed.  The  Government  may  lose  the  money,  but  we  cannot  succeed 
unless  we  try  ;  but  we  think  with  care  we  can  succeed.  The  political 
affairs  in  Central  America  are  not  in  quite  as  satisfactory  condition  as  j 
wish.  There  are  contending  factions  in  that  quarter ;  but  it  is  true,  all 
the  factions  are  agreed  alike  on  the  subject  of  colonization,  and  want  it, 
and  are  more  generous  than  we  are  here.  To  your  colored  race  they  have 
10  objection.  Besides,  I  would  endeavor  to  have  you  made  equals,  and 
have  the  best  assurance  that  you  should  be  the  equals  of  the  best.  The 
practical  thing  I  want  to  ascertain  is,  whether  I  can  get  a  number  of  able- 
oodied  men,  with  their  wives  and  children,  who  are  willing  to  go,  when 


508  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

I  present  evidence  of  encouragement  and  protection.  Could  I  get  a  hun 
dred  tolerably  intelligent  men,  with  their  wives  and  children,  and  able  to 
"cut  their  own  fodder,"  so  to  speak  ?  Can  I  have  fifty?  If  I  could  find 
twenty-five  able-bodied  men,  with  a  mixture  of  women  and  children — 
good  things  in  the  family  relation,  I  think— I  could  make  a  successful 
commencement.  I  want  you  to  let  me  know  whether  this  can  be  done  or 
not.  This  is  the  practical  part  of  my  wish  to  see  you.  These  are  sub 
jects  of  very  great  importance — worthy  of  a  month's  study,  of  a  speech 
delivered  in  an  hour.  I  ask  you,  then,  to  consider  seriously,  not  pertain 
ing  to  yourselves  merely,  nor  for  your  race  and  ours  for  the  present  time, 
but  as  one  of  the  things,  if  successfully  managed,  for  the  good  of  mankind 
— not  confined  to  the  present  generation,  but  as 

"  From  age  to  age  descends  the  lay 

To  millions  yet  to  be, 
Till  far  its  echoes  roll  away 
Into  eternity." 

The  above  is  merely  given  as  the  substance  of  the  President's  remarks. 

The  chairman  of  the  delegation  briefly  replied,  that  "they  would  hold 
a  consultation,  and  in  a  short  time  give  an  answer."  The  President  said, 
"Take  your  full  time — no  hurry  at  all." 

The  delegation  then  withdrew. 

In  pursuance  of  his  plans  of  colonization,  an  agreement 
was  ertered  into  by  the  President,  September  12,  1862, 
with  A.  W.  Thompson,  for  the  setlement,  by  free  colored 
emigrants  from  the  United  States,  of  a  tract  of  country 
within  the  Republic  of  New  Grenada — the  region  referred 
to  by  the  President  in  his  remarks  quoted  above  ;  and  the 
Hon.  S.  E.  Pomeroy,  a  senator  from  Kansas,  proposed  to 
accompany  and  superintend  the  expedition.  The  sum  of 
twenty-live  thousand  dollars  was  advanced  to  him  from 
the  colonization  fund,  but  it  was  soon  after  discovered 
that  the  Government  of  New  Grenada  objected  to  the 
landing  of  these  emigrants  upon  its  territory,  and  the 
project  was  abandoned. 

In  April,  1863,  an  agreement  was  made  with  responsible 
and  highly  respectable  parties  in  New  York  for  the  colo 
nization  of  He  a  Vache,  within  the  Republic  of  Hayti,  of 
which  a  favorable  grant  had  been  made  by  the  Govern 
ment — and  which  was  represented  in  the  published  report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Emigration  in  the  Department  of 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  509 

the  Interior,  as  being  in  every  way  adapted  to  the  culture 
of  cotton  and  other  tropical  products,  and  as  eminently 
favorable  for  such  an  experiment.  The  Government 
agreed  to  pay  fifty  dollars  each  for  the  removal  of  the 
consenting  emigrants  thither — payment  to  be  made  on 
official  certificate  of  their  arrival.  The  contractors  fulfilled 
their  portion  of  the  agreement"  with  fidelity,  and  to  the 
utmost  extent  of  their  ability  ;  but  after  an  expenditure 
of  about  eighty  thousand  dollars,  it  was  discovered  that 
the  representations  of  the  fertility  of  the  island  had  been 
utterly  unfounded,  and  that  the  enterprise  was  hopeless. 
The  agent  of  the  company,  moreover,  through  whom  the 
Government  had  made  the  original  contract,  proved  to  be 
utterly  untrustworthy  and  incapable,  and  was  removed. 
The  Government  at  last  brought  the  negroes  back  to  the 
United  States,  but  incurred  no  additional  expense,  as  it 
declined  to  pay  the  contractors  the  stipulated  sum  for  the 
removal  of  the  emigrants,  or  to  reimburse  them  any  por 
tion  of  the  moneys  expended  in  the  enterprise. 

No  further  experiments  were  made  in  the  matter  of  col 
onization  ;  but  the  disposition  and  employment  of  the 
negroes  engaged  a  good  deal  of  the  attention  and  solicitude 
of  the  Government.  When  the  rebellion  first  broke  out 
there  were  many  persons  who  insisted  upon  the  instant 
emancipation  of  the  slaves,  and  their  employment  in  arms 
against  the  rebels  of  the  Southern  States.  Public  senti 
ment,  however,  was  by  no  means  prepared  for  the  adop 
tion  of  such  a  measure.  The  Administration,  upon  its 
advent  to  power,  was  compelled  to  encounter  a  wide 
spread  distrust  of  its  general  purposes  in  regard  to  slavery, 
and  especial  pains  were  taken  by  the  agents  and  allies  of 
the  rebellion  to  alarm  the  sensitive  apprehensions  of  the 
Border  States  upon  this  subject.  The  President,  there 
fore,  deemed  it  necessary,  in  order  to  secure  that  unity 
of  sentiment  without  which  united  and  effective  action 
against  the  rebellion  was  felt  to  be  impossible,  to  exclude 
from  the  contest  all  issues  of  a  secondary  nature,  and  to 
fasten  the  attention  and  thought  of  the  whole  country 
upon  the  paramount  end  and  aim  of  the  war — the  restora- 


510  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

tion  of  the  Union  and  the  authority  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.  How  steadily  and  carefully  this  policy 
was  pursued,  the  preceding  pages  of  this  record  will  show. 
But  as  the  war  went  on,  and  the  desperate  tenacity  of 
the  rebel  resistance  became  more  manifest — as  the  field 
of  operations,  both  military  and  political,  became  enlarged, 
and  the  elements  of  the  rebel  strength  were  better  under 
stood,  the  necessity  of  dealing  with  the  question  of  slavery 
forced  itself  upon  the  people  arid  the  Government.  The 
legislation  of  Congress,  from  time  to  time,  represented  and 
embodied  these  advancing  phases  of  public  opinion.  At 
the  extra  session  of  1861  a  law  was  passed,  discharging 
from  slavery  every  slave  who  should  be  required  or  per 
mitted  by  his  master  to  take  up  arms  against  the  United 
States,  or  to  be  employed  in  any  military  capacity  in  the 
rebel  service.  At  the  next  session  the  President  was 
authorized  to  employ  persons  of  African  descent  in  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion,  "in  such  manner  as  he  should 
judge  best  for  the  public  welfare,"  and  also  to  issue  a 
proclamation  commanding  all  persons  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  return  to 
their  allegiance  ;  and  if  any  persons  so  warned  should  be 
found  in  rebellion  thirty  days  after  the  date  of  such  proc 
lamation,  the  President  was  authorized  to  set  free  their 
slaves.  Under  these  comprehensive  acts  the  President 
took  such  steps  on  the  subject  as  he  believed  the  necessities 
of  the  country  required,  and  as  the  public  sentiment  of 
the  country  would  sustain.  The  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  was  issued  on  the  1st  of  January,  1863,  and  measures 
were  adopted  soon  afterwards  to  provide  for  the  changes 
which  it  made  inevitable.  On  the  20th  of  January,  the 
Secretary  of  War  authorized  Governor  Andrew,  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  to  enlist  volunteers  for  three  years,  and  to  in 
clude  persons  of  African  descent,  organized  into  a  separate 
corps.  In  April,  negro  troops  were  enlisted  by  Adjutant- 
General  Thomas  for  service  in  Arkansas,  and  on  the  15th 
of  that  month  he  issued  an  order  appointing  commissioners 
to  superintend  the  execution  of  a  policy  which  the  Gov 
ernment  had  adopted  for  committing  the  protection  of  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  511 

banks  of  the  Mississippi  to  a  negro  force.  On  the  22d 
of  May,  orders  were  issued  by  the  Secretary  of  War 
creating  a  Bureau  of  the  War  Department  for  all  matters 
relating  to  the  organization  of  colored  troops,  and  estab 
lishing  rules  for  their  enlistment,  and  for  the  appoint 
ment  of  officers  to  command  them.  And  on  the  20th  of 
August,  Hon.  J.  Holt,  Judge-Advocate  General,  sent  to 
the  President  an  official  opinion,  to  the  effect  that,  under 
the  laws  of  Congress  on  the  subject,  he  had  full  authority 
to  enlist  slaves  for  service  in  the  army  precisely  as  he 
might  enlist  any  other  persons— providing  for  compensa 
tion  to  loyal  owners  whose  property  might  thus  be  taken 
for  the  public  service. 

These  were  the  initial  steps  of  a  movement  for  the 
employment  of  negro  troops,  which  has  gone  forward 
steadily  ever  since,  until,  as  has  been  seen  from  the 
President's  Message,  over  one  hundred  thousand  negro 
soldiers  were  already  in  the  army  of  the  United  States, 
contributing  largely,  by  their  courage  and  good  conduct, 
to  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  which  sought  the 
perpetual  enslavement  of  their  race.  The  popular  preju 
dice  against  their  employment  in  the  army,  which  was 
so  potent  at  the  beginning,  gradually  gave  way,  even  in 
the  slaveholding  States,  to  a  more  just  estimate  of  the 
necessities  of  the  emergency  and  the  capacities  of  the 
negro  race,  And  what  was  of  still  more  importance  to 
the  welfare  of  the  country,  the  people  of  the  slavehold 
ing  States  took  up  the  question  of  slavery  for  discussion 
and  practical  action,  as  one  in  which  their  own  well- 
being,  present  and  prospective,  was  deeply  involved. 
The  Union  party  in  every  Southern  State  favored  the 
abolition  of  slavery,  and  in  Missouri,  Maryland,  Louisi 
ana,  and  Arkansas,  measures  were  speedily  taken  for  the 
overthrow  of  an  institution  which  had  proved  so  detri 
mental  to  their  interests,  and  so  menacing  to  the  unity  of 
the  nation  and  the  stability  of  republican  institutions. 

In  all  of  them  Constitutional  Conventions  were  held, 
and  clauses  inserted  in  the  constitutions  which  were 
adopted,  utterly  abolishing  slavery  ;  and  these  constitu- 


512  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

tions  were  all  submitted  to  the  popular  vote,  with  the 
following  results  : — 

For.  Against. 

Maryland 30,174  29,799 

Louisiana 6,836  1,506 

Arkansas 12,177  226 

Missouri 43,670  41,808 

In  the  latter  State,  the  Constitution  adopted  in  1864 
was,  by  a  new  Convention,  held  in  January,  1865,  revised 
and  amended,  and  submitted  to  the  popular  vote  on  June 
6,  186*5,  and  ratih'ed  as  above. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  513 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

MILITARY  EVENTS  OF  THE   SPRING   AND   SUMMER   OF    1801. 

BATTLE  OF  OLUSTEE.  — KII.PATRICK'S  RAU>  ON  RICHMOND. — THE  RED  RIVEB 
EXPEDITION. — THE  FORT  PILLOW  MASSACRE. — REBEL  ATROCITIES. — GEN 
ERAL  GRANT'S  ADVANCE  TTPON  RICHMOND. — BATTLES  IN  MAY. — SHER 
MAN'S  MARCH  TO  ATLANTA. — REBEL  RAIDS  is  MARYLAND  AND  KEN 
TUCKY. — SIEGE  OF  PETERSBURG. — MARTIAL  LAW  IN  KENTUCKY. — DRAFT 
FOR  500,000  MEN. — CAPTURE  OF  MOBILE  AND  ATLANTA. 

THE  position  of  the  two  great  armies  of  the  United 
States  at  the  opening  of  the  year  1864  plainly  indicated 
that  the  main  interest  of  the  military  movements  of  the 
year  was  to  be  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  which  lay 
around  Culpepper  Court-tlouse,  still  looking  towards 
Richmond  with  unfaltering  determination  ;  and  with  the 
great  Army  of  the  West,  which  was  gathering  around 
Chattanooga  for  its  long  and  perilous  southward  march. 
During  the  month  of  January  little  was  done  anywhere 
except  to  prepare  for  the  coming  campaign.  Neither  of 
the  grand  armies  made  any  movement  during  February 
or  March,  but  some  smaller  expeditions  were  set  on 
foot. 

As  early  as  the  15th  of  December,  1863,  General  Gill- 
more,  commanding  the  Department  of  the  South,  had 
applied  to  the  Government  for  permission  to  send  an 
expedition  into  Florida,  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  off 
supplies  of  the  enemy ;  and  in  January,  in  urging  the 
matter  still  further  upon  the  attention  of  General  Halleck, 
he  suggested  that  measures  might  be  also  inaugurated  fox- 
restoring  the  State  of  Florida  to  her  allegiance  under  the 
terms  of  the  President's  Proclamation.  General  Gillmore 
was  authorized  to  take  such  action  in  the  matter  as  he 
should  deem  proper  ;  and  he  accordingly  organized  am 
expedition,  which  left  Port  Eoyal  on 'the  5th  of  Feb 
ruary,  under  General  Seymour,  and  was  followed  soon 
afterwards  by  General  Gillmore  himself— to  whom,  on 


315 


514  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  13th  of  January,  the  President  had  addressed  tl.e 
following  letter : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  January  18,  1 864. 

Major- General  GILLMOEE  : 

I  understand  an  effort  is  being  made  by  some  worthy  gentlemen  to 
reconstruct  a  legal  State  Government  in  Florida.  Florida  is  in  your 
Department,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  you  may  be  there  in  person.  I  have 
given  Mr.  Hay  a  commission  of  major,  and  sent  him  to  you,  with  some 
.ank-books  and  other  blanks,  to  aid  in  the  reconstruction.  He  will  ex 
plain  as  to  the  manner  of  using  the  blanks,  and  also  my  general  views  on 
the  subject.  It  is  desirable  for  all  to  co-operate,  but  if  irreconcilable 
differences  of  opinion  shall  arise,  you  are  master.  I  wish  the  thing  done 
in  the  most  speedy  way,  so  tli.it  when  done  it  be  within  the  range  of  the 
late  proclamation  on  the  subject.  The  detail  labor  will,  of  course,  have 
to  be  done  by  others ;  but  I  will  be  greatly  obliged  if  you  will  give  it 
such  general  supervision  as  you  can  find  consistent  with  your  more 
strictly  military  duties. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  advance  portion  of  the  expedition  reached  Jack 
sonville  on  the  8th  of  February.  General  Gillmore  re 
turned  to  Port  Royal  on  the  16th,  leaving  the  command 
of  the  expedition  to  General  Seymour.  The  first  opera 
tions  were  successful.  Near  Jacksonville  one  hundred 
prisoners,  with  eight  pieces  of  serviceable  artillery,  fell 
into  our  hands,  and  expeditions  were  pushed  forward 
into  the  interior,  by  which  large  amounts  of  stores  and 
supplies  were  destroyed.  On  the  17th,  General  Seymour, 
with  five  thousand  men,  was  on  the  Florida  Central 
Railroad,  about  forty -five  miles  from  Jacksonville.  Here 
they  remained  until  the  20th,  when  the  preparations  for 
a  movement  towards  Lake  City  were  completed.  The 
enemy  was  found  in  force,  a  little  before  reaching  Lake 
City,  at  Olustee,  a  small  station  on  the  railroad.  The 
engagement  was  commenced  between  the  enemy' s  skir 
mishers  and  our  advance.  The  fire  directed  against  our 
men  was  so  hot  that  they  were  compelled  to  fall  back ; 
then  we  brought  two  batteries  to  bear  on  the  enemy,  and 
our  whole  force  became  engaged  with  more  than  twice 
.  their  number  of  the  rebels,  Avho  occupied  a  strong  posi 
tion,  flanked  bv  a  marsh.  Again  we  retreated,  taking 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  515 

another  position  ;  but  it  was  impossible  to  contend  with 
a  force  so  greatly  superior,  and,  after  a  battle  of  three 
hours  and  a  half,  General  Seymour  retired,  leaving 
his  dead  and  severely  wounded  on  the  field.  Five  guns 
were  lost,  and  about  a  thousand  men  killed,  wounded, 
and  missing. 

On  the  3d  of  February,  General  Sherman,  with  a  strong 
force,  set  out  from  Vicksburg,  in  light  marching  order, 
and  moved  eastward.  Shortly  after,  a  cavalry  expedi 
tion,  under  General  Smith,  set  out  from  Memphis,  to 
work  its  way  southeastward,  and  join  Sherman  some 
where  on  the  borders  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama.  By 
the  18th,  Smith  had  accomplished  nearly  one-half  of  his 
proposed  march,  but  soon  after  found  the  enemy  concen 
trated  in  superior  force  in  his  front.  Finding  it  impossi 
ble  to  proceed,  he  fell  back,  destroying  the  bridges  on 
the  Memphis  and  Ohio  Railroad  in  his  retreat.  There 
was  continual  skirmishing,  but  no  decisive  battle,  during 
the  retreat,  which  lasted  until  the  25th,  when  the  expe 
dition  accomplished  its  return  to  Memphis.  Much  dam 
age  was  done  to  the  enemy  by  the  destruction  of  property, 
but  the  main  object  of  making  a  junction  with  Sherman 
failed.  Sherman  went  as  far  east  as  Meridian,  almost  on 
the  borders  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  and  after  de 
stroying  large  quantities  of  rebel  stores,  and  breaking 
their  lines  of  communication,  he  returned  to  Vicksburg. 

Another  enterprise  was  a  raid  upon  Richmond,  made 
by  a  large  cavalry  force  under  General  Kilpatrick. 
Leaving  his  camp  on  the  28th  of  February,  he  crossed 
the  Rapidan,  gained  the  rear  of  Lee' s  army  without  being 
discovered,  and  pushed  rapidly  on  in  the  direction  of 
Richmond.  A  detachment  under  Colonel  Dahlgren  was 
sent  from  the  main  body  to  Frederick's  Hall,  on  the 
Virginia  Central  Railroad.  The  road  was  torn  up  for 
some  distance  ;  then  the  James  River  Canal  was  struck, 
and  six  grist-mills,  which  formed  one  of  the  main  sources 
of  supply  for  the  Confederate  army,  were  destroyed.  Sev 
eral  locks  on  the  canal  were  blown  up,  and  other  dam 
age  done.  Dahlgren' s  main  body  then  pressed  onward  to 


516  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

wards  Richmond,  and  came  within  three  miles  of  the  city, 
when,  encountering  a  Confederate  force,  it  was  compelled 
to  withdraw,  Dahlgren  himself  being  killed,  and  a  large 
part  of  his  force  captured.  Kilpatrick,  meanwhile, 
pressed  onward  to  Spottsylvania  Court-House,  and  thence 
to  Beaver  Dam,  near  where  the  two  lines  of  railway  from 
Richmond,  those  running  to  Gordonsville  and  Freder- 
icksburg,  cross.  Here  the  railway  was  torn  up,  and  the 
telegraph  line  cut,  and  the  cavalry  pushed  straight  on 
towards  Richmond.  They  reached  the  outer  line  of 
fortifications  at  a  little  past  ten  on  the  morning  of  the  1st 
of  March,  about  three  and  a  half  miles  from  the  city. 
These  were  fairly  passed,  and  the  second  line,  a  mile 
nearer,  was  reached,  and  a  desultory  fire  was  kept  up  for 
pome  hours.  Towards  evening  Kilpatrick  withdrew,  and 
encamped  six  miles  from  the  city.  In  the  night  an 
artillery  attack  was  made  upon  the  camp,  and  our  troops 
retired  still  farther,  and  on  the  following  morning  took 
up  their  line  of  march  down  the  Peninsula  towards 
Williamsburg.  Several  miles  of  railway  connection  of 
great  importance  to  the  enemy  were  interrupted,  stores  to 
the  value  of  several  millions  of  dollars  were  destroyed, 
and  some  hundreds  of  prisoners  were  captured,  as  the 
result  of  this  expedition. 

In  the  early  part  of  March,  General  Banks  organized 
an  expedition  with  all  the  available  force  of  the  army  and 
navy  in  his  department,  to  move  tip  the  Red  River  as 
far  as  Shreveport,  where  the  rebels  had  large  supplies, 
and  where  it  was  intended  that  he  should  be  joined  by 
General  Steele,  with  the  forces  which  he  could  collect  in 
Arkansas,  when  the  combined  armies  would  be  power 
ful  enough  to  sweep  away  all  rebel  opposition  in  that 
part  of  the  State,  if  not  in  Texas. 

A  force  of  about  ten  thousand  men,  under  command  of 
General  A.  J.  Smith,  left  Vicksburg  on  the  10th  of 
March  in  twenty  transports,  and,  having  joined  the  fleet, 
proceeded  up  the  Red  River.  This  portion  of  the  expe 
dition  met  with  a  decided  success  in  the  capture  of  Fort 
De  Russey  by  storm,  with  but  little  loss,  by  which  cap- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  517 

ture  the  river  was  opened  to  tlie  fleet  as  far  as  Alexan 
dria,  where  the  whole  expedition  was  united  under  com 
mand  of  General  Banks.  On  the  26th  of  March  they 
moved  forward,  meeting  with  uninterrupted  success,  as  far 
as  Natchitoches,  some  eighty  miles  above  Alexandria.  But 
at  Sabine  Cross-Roads,  about  twenty  miles  farther  up, 
they  found  the  rebel  army  posted,  under  the  command  of 
General  Dick  Taylor.  This  resistance  had  not  been  anti 
cipated  :  the  army  was  not  marching  compactly,  nor  could 
the  gunboats  be  of  any  assistance,  on  account  of  the  dis 
tance  of  the  river  from  the  road. 

The  consequence  was,  that  the  Thirteenth  Corps  of  our 
army,  being  too  far  in  advance  to  receive  proper  support, 
was  attacked  by  the  rebels  in  superior  force  and  driven 
back  upon  the  Nineteenth  Corps,  which  had  formed  in  line 
of  battle,  and  which  repulsed  the  advancing  enemy  with 
great  slaughter.  This  battle  was  fought  on  the  8th  of 
April.  That  night  General  Banks  determined  to  fall 
back  to  Pleasant  Hill,  at  which  point  two  other  divisions, 
under  General  A.  J.  Smith,  had  arrived.  Here  our 
forces  were  attacked,  about  five  o'  clock  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  next  day.  The  rebels  at  first  gained  some  advan 
tage,  pressing  the  Nineteenth  Corps  back  up  a  hill, 
behind  the  crest  of  which  lay  General  Smith's  troops,  by 
whose  unexpected  and  destructive  fire  the  rebel  lines  of 
battle,  as  they  came  over  the  crest,  were  suddenly  ar 
rested.  A  rapid  charge  of  the  Union  troops  put  the  rebels 
entirely  to  flight,  with  a  loss  of  several  thousand  killed 
and  wounded,  many  hundred  prisoners,  and  some  guns, 
most  of  which,  however,  had  been  taken  from  us  by  the 
rebels  the  day  before. 

Our  own  army,  however,  was  so  shattered  in  the  two 
battles,  that  General  Banks  ordered  a  retreat  of  the  entire 
force  to  Grand  Ecore,  some  forty  miles  below.  The 
water  in  the  Red  River  being  unusually  low,  and  falling, 
it  was  found  necessary  to  remove  the  fleet,  and  with  it 
the  army,  still  farther  down  the  river  to  Alexandria.  On 
the  way  down,  the  gunboat  East/port  having  got  aground, 
had  to  be  abandoned,  and  w^as  blown  up. 


518  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

General  Steele,  in  consequence  of  the  retreat  of  Gen 
eral  Banks,  was  himself  compelled  to  fall  back  to  Little 
Rock,  which  he  reached  without  much  fighting,  "but  with 
the  loss  of  a  good  deal  of  material. 

The  water  in  the  Red  River  continued  to  fall  until  it 
was  found  that  there  was  not  water  enough  on  the  falls 
at  Alexandria  to  allow  the  gunboats  to  pass  over.  The 
rebels  were  enabled  to  throw  forces  below,  so  as  to  impede 
the  communication  with  the  army  by  the  river,  and  as 
it  became  evident  that  the  army  must  retreat  still  far 
ther,  the  gravest  apprehensions  were  felt  lest  the  whole 
fleet  of  twelve  gunboats  should  be  of  necessity,  aban 
doned  to  the  rebels,  or  bloAvn  up.  In  this  extremity,  a 
plan  was  devised  by  Lieutenant- Colonel  Bailey,  of  the 
Fourth  Wisconsin  Cavalry,  Acting  Engineer  of  the  Nine 
teenth  Corps,  of  building  a  series  of  dams  on  the  falls, 
by  which  to  raise  the  water  sufficiently  to  allow  the  gun 
boats  to  pass  over.  The  plan  was  ridiculed  by  some  of 
the  best  engineers  ;  but  under  the  approval  of  Commo 
dore  Porter,  who  commanded  the  fleet,  and  General 
Banks,  it  was  tried  with  perfect  success.  The  dams  were 
built  within  ten  days,  and  all  the  gunboats  brought  safely 
over.  Commodore  Porter,  in  his  report,  says,  "  Words 
are  inadequate  to  express  the  admiration  I  feel  for  Col 
onel  Bailey.  *  *  *  Leaving  out  his  ability  as  an  engineer 
and  the  credit  he  has  conferred  upon  the  country,  he  has 
saved  the  Union  a  valuable  fleet,  worth  nearly  $2,000,000, 
and  has  deprived  the  enemy  of  a  triumph  which  would 
have  emboldened  them  to  carry  on  this  war  a  year  or 
two  longer."  Colonel  Bailey  was  at  once  appointed  by 
the  President  a  brigadier-general  for  these  distinguished 
services. 

After  this  escape,  the  fleet  and  the  army  retreated 
down  the  river.  The  fleet  lost  two  small  gunboats  by 
rebel  batteries  on  the  way  down ;  but  the  army,  though 
attacked  several  times,  repulsed  the  rebels  with  consider 
able  loss,  and  crossed  the  Atchafalaya  in  safety,  on  the 
19th  of  May. 

About  the  time  of  the  check  which  General  Banks  re- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  519 

ceived  at  Sabine  Cross-Roads,  the  arms  of  the  Union 
met  with  reverses  in  two  other  quarters.  One  of  these 
was  the  capture  of  Fort  Pillow,  on  the  Mississippi,  on 
the  12th  of  April,  by  a  rebel  force  under  General  Forrest, 
a  capture  marked  in  the  history  of  the  war  by  the  atro 
cious  butchery  of  the  garrison  after  the  surrender  of  the 
place.  The  garrison  was  composed  of  about  six  hun 
dred  men  under  command  of  Major  Boyd,  who  was 
killed  near  the  close  of  the  light.  Of  these  six  hundred 
about  three  hundred  and  fifty  were  colored  troops.  The 
attack  was  commenced  in  the  early  morning,  and  the  gar 
rison  were  driven  from  some  outworks  into  the  fort 
itself,  which  they  defended  with  the  assistance  of  a  gun 
boat,  till  about  four  P.  M.,  when  the  rebels  made  a  final 
charge  upon  the  fort  from  positions  which  they  had  occu 
pied  by  taking  advantage  of  a  flag  of  truce  sent  to  the 
fort  to  demand  its  surrender,  and  carried  its  defences  by 
storm.  The  garrison  thereupon  threw  down  their  arms 
and  surrendered,  but  were  shot  down  in  cold  blood  until 
but  few  were  left  alive.  Some  were  forced  to  stand  up 
in  line  and  were  then  shot.  Some  were  shot  when  lying 
wounded  on  the  ground.  Women  and  children  were 
shot  or  cut  to  pieces.  The  huts  in  which  the  sick  and 
wounded  had  taken  refuge  were  fired  over  their  heads, 
and  there  were  stories  of  even  darker  cruelties  than  these. 
Of  the  white  officers  who  commanded  the  colored  troops, 
but  two  were  left  alive,  and  these  were  wounded.  Of  the 
garrison  there  were  left  thirty-six  white  men  and  twenty- 
one  negroes,  and  forty  were  carried  off  as  prisoners.  Some 
of  the  negroes  saved  their  lives  by  feigning  death  and 
digging  out  from  the  thin  covering  of  earth  which  the 
rebels  had  thrown  over  their  victims. 

The  news  of  this  atrocity  excited  the  deepest  horror 
throughout  the  country,  and  there  was  a  general  call  for 
retaliation.     In  order  to  have  an  authentic  statement  of 
the  facts,  Congress  passed  resolutions  directing  the  Com 
mittee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War  to  investigate  the  mat 
ter.      The  committee  sent  two   of  its  members,  Senator 
Wade  and  Mr.  Gooch,  to  the  spot.     They  examined  many 


520  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

witnesses,  and  on  the  5th  of  May  made  their  report,  with 
the  testimony  which  they  had  taken.  The  report  showed 
that  this  proceeding  of  the  rebels  was  in  pursuance  of  a 
policy  deliberately  adopted,  in  the  expectation  of  driving 
from  the  ranks  of  the  Union  armies  not  only  the  negroes, 
but  also  the  "home-made  Yankees,"  as  they  termed  the 
loyal  Southerners. 

The  massacre  was  referred  to  by  the  President  in  his 
speech  at  the  opening  of  the  Sanitary  Commission  Fair, 
in  Baltimore,  while  it  was  still  under  investigation,  and 
he  then  said  that  if  the  massacre  was  proved  to  have  been 
committed,  retribution  should  surely  come  ;  nor  was  this 
the  first  time  that  the  question  of  retaliation  had  been 
brought  to  his  attention.  In  fact,  as  early  as  July,  1863, 
the  subject  had  been  considered,  and  the  conclusion 
which  was  then  arrived  at  was  announced  in  the  follow 
ing  General  Order  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  July  30,  1S63. 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  Government  to  give  protection  to  its  citizens,  of 
whatever  class,  color,  or  condition,  and  especially  to  those  who  are  duly 
organized  as  soldiers  in  the  public  service.  The  law  of  nations  and  the 
usages  and  customs  of  war,  as  carried  on  by  civilized  powers,  permit  no 
distinction  as  to  color  in  the  treatment  of  prisoners  of  war  as  public 
enemies.  To  sell  or  enslave  any  captured  person,  on  account  of  his  color 
and  for  no  offence  against  the  laws  of  war,  is  a  relapse  into  barbarism,  and 
a  crime  against  the  civilization  of  the  age. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  will  give  the  same  protection  to 
all  its  soldiers ;  and  if  the  enemy  shall  sell  or  enslave  any  one  because  of 
his  color,  the  offence  shall  be  punished  by  retaliation  upon  the  enemy's 
prisoners  in  our  possession. 

It  is  therefore  ordered  that  for  every  soldier  of  the  United  States  killed 
in  violation  of  the  laws  of  war,  a  rebel  soldier  shall  be  executed  ;  and  for 
every  one  enslaved  by  the  enemy  or  sold  into  slavery,  a  rebel  soldier  shall 
be  placed  at  hard  labor  on  the  public  works,  and  coutinued  at  such  labor 
until  the  other  shall  be  released  and  receive  the  treatment  due  to  a  pris 
oner  of  war.  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN. 

But  whether  from  the  President's  tenderness  of  heart, 
which  made  it  very  hard  for  him  to  order  the  execution 
of  a  rebel  soldier  who  had  himself  done  nc  special  wrong, 
even  in  retaliation  for  such  barbarities  as  this  at  Fort  Pil 
low,  or  from  some  other  cause,  the  first  part  of  this  order 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  521 

was  never  executed.  The  latter  part  of  it  was  once  carried 
into  effect  with  excellent  results  by  General  Butler  during 
the  siege  of  Petersburg.  Having  learned  that  some  of  our 
colored  troops,  who  had  been  taken  prisoners,  were  not 
treated  as  prisoners  of  war,  but  were  made  to  work  by  the 
rebels  on  their  fortifications,  he  at  once  took  a  number  of 
rebel  officers  and  set  them  at  work  upon  the  canal,  which 
he  was  digging  at  Dutch  Gap,  where  they  were  constantly 
exposed  to  the  heavy  fire  which  the  rebels  kept  up  to 
check  the  progress  of  the  work.  This  treatment  proved 
speedily  effectual.  Our  colored  soldiers  were  relieved 
from  their  work  on  the  fortifications,  and  the  rebel  officers 
were  withdrawn  from  their  exposed  position  and  their 
weary  labors. 

Another  similar  action  led  to  a  similar  result.  The 
rebels  at  Charleston,  desirous  of  checking  the  fire  of  the 
"  swamp  angel "  and  other  guns,  which  were  making  the 
city  uninhabitable,  placed  some  of  our  officers  within 
reach  of  the  shells,  and  notified  our  forces  that  they  had 
done  so.  On  our  part  a  number  of  rebel  officers  of  equal 
rank  were  immediately  taken  thither  and  also  placed  un 
der  fire.  The  only  result  was  the  exchange  of  the  officers, 
and  the  rebels  did  not  undertake  again  to  defend  them 
selves  in  that  way. 

Fort  Pillow  was  not  the  only  case  of  such  atrocities  on 
the  part  of  the  rebels.  A  somewhat  similar  affair  took  place 
on  the  20th  of  April  in  North  Carolina,  on  the  capture  of 
Plymouth  on  the  Roanoke  River,  where  a  company  of  loyal 
North  Carolinians  and  some  negro  troops  were  also  mur 
dered  in  cold  blood  after  the  surrender.  The  capture  was 
mainly  effected  by  the  success  of  a  rebel  iron-clad,  the  Albe- 
marle,  which  was  able  to  destroy  some  of  our  gunboats, 
and  drive  others  down  the  river,  the  commander  of  the 
Miami,  Lieutenant  Flusser,  being  killed  by  the  rebound  of 
a  shell,  which  he  had  himself  fired  against  the  iron  sides 
of  the  rebel  vessel.  Our  fleet  being  driven  down  the 
river,  communication  with  our  garrison  in  Plymouth  yvas 
cut  off,  and  the  place,  being  attacked  by  a  heavy  rebel 
force,  was  surrendered,  after  a  gallant  defence  for  four  days, 


522  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

by  its  commander,  General  Wessels,  with  its  garrison  of 
fifteen  hundred  men  and  twenty-five  guns.  The  effect  of 
this  success  was  to  render  the  withdrawal  of  our  troops 
from  other  places  in  North  Carolina  inevitable.  The 
Albemarle  had  for  a  time  complete  control  of  the  river, 
but  coming  down  into  the  Sound,  she  was  attacked  by 
three  of  our  wooden  gunboats,  and  in  a  gallant  fight  was 
so  injured  as  to  be  compelled  to  betake  herself  up  the 
river  again  to  Plymouth,  which  she  never  left  afterwards, 
being  sunk  at  her  moorings,  on  the  night  of  the  27th  of 
October  following,  by  a  torpedo-boat,  commanded  by 
Lieutenant  Gushing. 

In  these  smaller  affairs,  the  rebels  had  been  able  to  gain 
some  successes,  owing  to  the  policy  adopted  by  General 
Grant,  of  concentrating  our  forces  from  all  quarters  to 
strengthen  the  two  great  armies  whose  movements  were 
to  grind  the  Confederacy  to  powder. 

General  Grant,  having  been  appointed  to  the  command 
of  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  went  to  Nashville, 
where  he  issued  an  order  announcing  his  assumption  of 
the  command.  After  making  what  arrangements  were 
necessary  with  reference  to  the  Western  army,  which  he 
left  under  the  command  of  General  Sherman,  he  came 
eastward,  to  conduct  in  person  the  campaign  against 
General  Lee.  The  preparations  for  the  coming  cam 
paign  took  time,  and  it  was  not  till  the  third  day  of  May 
that  all  things  were  ready  for  the  forward  movement. 
The  Army  of  the  Potomac  remained  under  the  special 
command  of  General  Meade,  and  lay  about  Culpepper 
Court-House.  General  Burnside  had  been  collecting  a 
strong  force,  in  good  part  colored  troops,  at  Annapolis. 
Another  strong  force  was  under  the  command  of  Gen 
eral  Butler  and  General  Smith,  at  "Yorktown,  and  yet  an 
other,  not  so  strong,  under  General  Sigel,  at  Winchester. 
Burnside' s  troops  were  put  in  motion,  and  passed  through 
Washington  on  the  23d  of  April  to  a  position  whence 
they  could  follow  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  at  a  short 
distance  —  and  all  things  were  thus  now  ready  for 
the  great  advance.  At  this  time  the  following  cor- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  523 

respondence  passed  between  the  President  and  General 
Grant :- 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  April  30, 1S64. 

Lieut.-General  GEANT: 

Not  expecting  to  see  yon  before  the  spring  campaign  oper.s,  I  wish  to 
express  in  this  way  my  entire  satisfaction  with  what  you  have  done  up  to 
this  time,  so  far  as  I  understand  it. 

The  particulars  of  your  plans  I  neither  know  nor  seek  to  know.  You 
are  vigilant  and  self-reliant ;  and,  pleased  with  this,  I  wish  not  to  obtrude 
any  restraints  or  constraints  upon  you.  While  I  am  very  anxious  that 
any  great  disaster  or  capture  of  our  men  in  great  number  shall  be  avoided, 
I  know  that  these  points  are  less  likely  to  escape  your  attention  than  they 
would  be  mine.  If  there  be  any  thing  wanting  which  is  within  my  power 
to  give,  do  not  fail  to  let  me  know  it. 

And  now,  with  a  brave  army  and  a  just  cause,  may  God  sustain  you. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

GRANT'S  REPLY. 

HEAP-QUARTERS  ARMIES  OF  THE  UNITED  STAGES,  ) 
CULPEPPER  COUKT-HOUSE,  May  1,  1864.  f 

THE  PRESIDENT: 

Your  very  kind  letter  of  yesterday  is  just  received.  The  confidence 
you  express  for  the  future  and  satisfaction  for  the  past,  in  my  military 
administration,  is  acknowledged  with  pride.  It  shall  be  my  earnest 
endeavor  that  you  and  the  country  shall  not  be  disappointed.  From  my 
first  entrance  into  the  volunteer  service  of  the  country  to  the  present  day, 
I  have  never  had  cause  of  complaint;  have  never  expressed  or  implied  a 
complaint  against  the  Administration,  or  the  Secretary  of  War,  for  throw 
ing  any  embarrassment  in  the  way  of  my  vigorously  prosecuting  what 
appeared  to  be  my  duty. 

Indeed,  since  the  promotion  which  placed  me  in  command  of  all  the 
armies,  and  in  view  of  the  great  responsibility  and  importance  of  success, 
I  have  been  astonished  at  the  readiness  with  which  every  thing  asked  for 
has  been  yielded,  without  even  an  explanation  being  asked.  Should  my 
success  be  less  than  I  deserve  and  expect,  the  least  I  can  say  is,  the  fault 
is  not  with  you. 

Very  truly,  your  obedient  servant, 

U.  S.  GKANT,  A^ieut.- General. 

The  interest  and  anxiety  with  which  the  people  watched 
for  the  approaching  movement  of  the  army  was  very  deep. 
Nor  did  it  content  itself  with  mere  watchfulness.  It  took 
the  right  direction  of  work,  and  from  every  quarter  the 


524  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

hands  of  the  Government  were  stayed  up  by  the  willing 
hearts  of  the  people. 

As  one  instance  of  the  desire  to  help,  which  was  uni 
versally  felt,  we  may  mention  the  offer  of  Colonel  F.  B. 
Loomis,  of  New  London,  to  garrison  Fort  Trumbull  with 
citizen  soldiers  for  one  hundred  days,  at  his  own  expense, 
thus  releasing  the  veterans,  by  whom  it  was  garrisoned,  to 
go  to  the  front. 

The  President  replied  to  this  offer  as  follows  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  May  12,  1S64. 

MY  DEAR  Sm: 

I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  communication  of 
the  28th  April,  in  which  you  offer  to  replace  the  present  garrison  at  Fort 
Trumbull  with  volunteers,  which  you  propose  to  raise  at  your  own  ex 
pense.    While  it  seems  inexpedient  at  this  time  to  accept  this  proposition, 
on  account  of  the  special  duties  now  devolving  upon  the  garrison  men 
tioned,  I  cannot  pass  unnoticed  such  a  meritorious  instance  of  individual 
patriotism.     Permit  me,  for  the  Government,  to  express  my  cordial  thanks 
to  you  for  this  generous  and  public-spirited  oifer,  which  is  worthy  of  note 
among  the  many  called  forth  in  these  times  of  national  trial. 
I  am,  very  truly,  your  obedient  servant, 

A.  LIXCOLN. 

F.  B.  LOOMIS,  Esq. 

It  was  on  Monday,  the  2d  of  May,  that  the  forward 
march  of  the  army  began,  and  the  Rapidan  was  crossed 
without  opposition  on  Tuesday  and  Wednesday,  by  the 
fords  lying  to  the  east  of  Lee' s  position.  General  Grant, 
recognizing  the  fact  that  the  strength  of  the  rebellion  lay 
not  in  the  fortifications  of  Richmond,  but  in  the  ranks  of 
Lee's  army,  aimed  to  place  himself  upon  the  southern 
communications  of  that  army,  and  by  heavy  blows  to 
destroy  it.  And  with  the  very  commencement  of  this 
movement  he  forced  Lee  to  leave  the  intrenched  line  be 
hind  which  he  had  so  long  faced  the  gathering  storm,  and 
make  haste  to  attack  his  foe  before  he  had  reached  his 
rear.  This  he  at  once  did,  and  on  Thursday  the  battles 
of  the  Wilderness  began.  The  character  of  the  ground 
gave  every  advantage  to  the  rebels.  It  was  all  overgrown 
with  scrub  pines,  with  but  few  roads  leading  through  it 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  525 

They  knew  the  ground  thoroughly,  and  their  movements 
could  be  made  unseen,  while  the  dense  woods  made  cav 
alry  and  artillery  almost  useless.  Lee's  first  effort  was  to 
break  through  our  lines  between  our  centre  under  War 
ren  and  our  left  under  Hancock,  but  by  great  exertions 
this  was  prevented,  and  night  came  without  any  sub 
stantial  result.  With  the  morning  of  Friday,  General 
Grant  assumed  the  offensive,  and  the  tide  of  battle  ebbed 
and  flowed  throughout  the  day.  On  our  left,  Hancock's 
successes  in  the  morning  were  lost  again  by  noon,  but  a 
hea^y  attack  of  the  rebels  upon  him  in  the  afternoon  was 
successfully  repulsed.  On  our  right  no  material  advan 
tage  of  position  was  gained  during  the  day  ;  but  the  death 
of  General  Wadsworth,  who  fell  at  the  head  of  his  men, 
was  a  heavy  loss  to  us,  and  by  a  furious  assault,  just 
before  night,  the  rebels  succeeded  in  breaking  our  lines, 
capturing  General  Thomas  Seymour,  and  many  of  his 
men.  The  lines  were,  however,  speedily  re-established. 
The  result  was  on  the  whole  favorable  to  General  Grant, 
as  the  rebels  had  failed  to  thoroughly  break  his  lines  or 
disable  him  for  the  forward  movement  which,  on  Satur 
day  night,  after  a  day  of  skirmishing  without  any  general 
engagement,  he  undertook,  aiming  at  Spottsylvania  Court- 
House.  The  rebels,  however,  becoming  aware  of  his 
movement,  moved  likewise,  and,  having  the  shorter  line, 
gained  the  position  first,  and  held  it  against  our  attack 
during  the  hours  of  Sunday,  our  lines  being  formed  about 
two  miles  and  a  half  north  of  Spottsylvania.  Monday  was 
a  day  of  skirmishing,  sadly  marked  for  us,  however,  by 
the  death  of  General  Sedgwick,  who  was  in  command  of 
the  Sixth  Corps.  .Night  found  the  two  armies  facing  each 
other,  each  behind  temporary  breastworks,  each  watchful, 
each  determined. 

The  news  of  the  movement  of  the  army  was  not  made 
public  until  Friday  morning.  The  vital  importance  of 
its  results  vas  everywhere  felt.  All  eyes  were  at  once 
intent  upon  those  bloody  fields,  all  ears  eager  for  informa 
tion  of  what  was  going  on  there  ;  and  the  prayers  of  the 
whole  people  of  the  North  went  up  to  God,  earnest,  fer 


526  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

vent,  full  of  faith,  that  He  would  "bless  the  righteous 
cause. 

Official  bulletins  were  given  to  the  public  of  the  results 
of  the  different  days'  operations  as  they  slowly  became 
known.  And  on  Tuesday  morning  all  hearts  were  thrilled 
with  joy  by  the  following  official  announcement  from  the 
President  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  May  9, 1S64. 

To  the  Friends  of  Union  and  Liberty : 

Enough  is  known  of  army  operations,  within  the  last  five  days,  to 
claim  our  special  gratitude  to  God.  "While  what  remains  undone  de 
mands  our  most  sii  ",ere  prayers  to  and  reliance  upon  Him  (without  whom 
all  effort  is  vain),  1  recommend  that  all  patriots  at  their  homes,  in  their 
places  of  public  worship,  and  wherever  they  may  be,  unite  in  common 

thanksgiving  and  prayer  to  Almighty  God. 

ABKAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Accompanying  this  recommendation  were  published 
bulletins  of  the  results  up  to  Saturday,  the  retiring  of 
the  rebels  from  General  Grant's  front,  and  the  march  of 
our  army  towards  Spottsylvania.  The  news  spread  great 
joy  everywhere,  and  that  night  a  crowd  of  several  thou 
sand  people  marched  to  the  White  House  to  serenade  the 
President,  who,  being  called  for,  came  out  and  spoke  as 
follows : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  compliment 
of  this  call,  though  I  apprehend  it  is  owing  more  to  the  good  news 
received  to-day  from  the  army,  than  to  a  desire  to  see  me.  I  am  indeed 
very  grateful  to  the  brave  men  who  have  been  struggling  with  the  enemy 
in  the  field,  to  their  noble  commanders  who  have  directed  them,  and 
especially  to  our  Maker.  Our  commanders  are  following  up  their  victo 
rics  resolutely  and  successfully.  I  think,  without  knowing  the  particu 
lars  of  the  plans  of  General  Grant,  that  what  has  been  accomplished  is 
of  more  importance  than  at  first  appears.  1  believe,  I  know  (and  am 
especially  grateful  to  know)  that  General  Grant  has  not  been  jostled  in 
his  purposes,  that  he  has  made  all  his  points,  and  to-day  he  is  on  his  line 
as  he  purposed  before  he  moved  his  armies.  I  will  volunteer  to  say  that 
I  ain  very  glad  at  what  has  happened,  but  there  is  a  great  deal  still  to  be 
done.  While  we  are  grateful  to  all  the  brave  men  and  officers  for  the 
events  of  the  past  few  days,  we  should,  above  all,  be  very  grateful  to 
Almighty  God,  who  gives  us  victory. 

There  is  enough  yet  before  us  requiring  all  loyal  men  and  patriots  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  527 

perform  their  share  of  the  labor  and  follow  the  example  of  the  modest 
General  at  the  head  of  our  armies,  and  sink  all  personal  consideration 
for  the  sake  of  the  country.  I  commend  you  to  keep  yourselves  in  the 
same  tranquil  mood  that  is  characteristic  of  that  brave  and  loyal  man. 
I  have  said  more  than  I  expected  when  I  came  before  you.  Repeating  my 
thanks  for  this  call,  I  bid  you  good-by. 

While  the  movement  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
was  the  chief  point  of  interest,  it  was  not  the  only 
one.  On  Wednesday,  May  4th,  General  Butler  having 
put  his  troops  on  "board  a  fleet  of  transports,  made  a  rapid 
move  up  the  James  River  and  occupied  City  Point  and 
Bermuda  Hundred,  on  both  sides  of  the  Appomattox 
River,  across  which  pontoons  were  thrown — while  Gen 
eral  Kautz,  at  the  head  of  a  strong  force  of  cavalry,  left 
Suffolk  upon  a  raid  on  the  Petersburg  and  Weldon  Rail 
road — which  he  succeeded  in  cutting  by  destroying  some 
bridges.  General  Butler  also  succeeded  in  cutting  the 
railroad  between  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  so  as  to  pre 
vent  for  a  time  the  sending  of  re-enforcements  to  General 
Lee  from  the  forces  that  were  south  of  Richmond  under 
Beauregard. 

General  Grant,  meantime,  had  not  been  content  with 
merely  pounding  against  Lee' s  front  with  men  and  with 
guns,  of  which  he  was  now  able  to  employ  more  than  in 
the  battles  of  the  Wilderness.  He  also  dispatched  his  cav 
alry  under  General  Sheridan  round  the  right  flank  of  the 
rebels,  on  the  10th  of  May,  which,  reaching  the  railroads, 
made  an  immense  destruction  of  supplies  prepared  for 
Lee's  army,  and  of  locomotives  and  cars  for  their  trans 
portation,  and  which,  on  the  llth,  routed  the  rebel  cav 
alry  under  General  Stuart,  at  Yellow  Tavern,  in  which 
engagement  Stuart  was  killed ;  and,  pressing  on  yet  nearer 
Richmond  and  over  the  first  line  of  the  works  around  the 
city,  turned  off  to  the  east,  and  crossing  the  Chickahom- 
iny,  reached  Fortress  Monroe  with  little  loss,  having  in 
flicted  great  damage  on  the  enemy. 

The  10th  and  llth  of  May  were  days  of  hard  fighting 
for  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  of  heavy  losses  and  par 
tial  successes  for  both  sides,  and  of  attacks  met  and  re- 


528  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

pulsed,  with  the  employment  of  all  the  resources  of  both 
armies  ;  and  the  dispatches  which  General  Grant  sent  to 
Washington  on  the  night  of  the  llth  summed  up  the 
results  as  follows : — 

We  have  now  ended  the  sixth  day  of  very  heavy  fighting.  The  result 
to  this  time  is  much  in  our  favor.  Our  losses  have  heen  heavy,  as  well 
as  those  of  the  enemy.  I  think  the  loss  of  the  enemy  must  be  greater. 
We  have  taken  over  five  thousand  prisoners  in  battle,  while  he  has  taken 
from  us  but  few,  except  stragglers.  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  this  line, 
if  it  takes  all  summer. 

The  early  light  of  the  next  morning  brought  results 
yet  more  in  our  favor ;  for  with  the  break  of  day,  Han 
cock,  now  on  our  right,  fell  like  a  thunderbolt  upon  the 
rebel  intrenchments,  and  stormed  over  them,  capturing 
several  thousand  prisoners,  including  two  generals,  to 
gether  with  thirty  or  forty  cannon,  only  eighteen  of  which, 
however,  he  was  able  to  hold.  For  Lee,  stung  to  the 
quick  by  this  deadly  blow,  gathered  all  his  forces  to  re 
take  the  position,  and  five  desperate  charges  upon  it  du 
ring  the  day  covered  the  ground  with  dead  and  wounded, 
until,  when  the  battle  was  over,  nearly  a  thousand  rebel 
dead  lay  within  an  acre  or  two  of  ground  in  front  of  the 
works.  The  utmost  exertions  of  the  rebels  were  in  vain, 
however,  and  they  sullenly  withdrew  to  another  posi 
tion.  A  storm  now  set  in  and  enforced  quiet  on  both 
armies  for  several  days.  During  this  time  General  But 
ler  moved  forward  towards  Fort  Darling,  but  on  the  16th 
day  of  May  he  met  with  a  heavy  blow  from  the  rebels, 
who  took  advantage  of  a  fog  to  make  a  successful  attack, 
driving  him  from  the  railroad  and  forcing  him  to  return 
to  his  lines  at  Bermuda  Hundred.  General  Sigel,  too,  who 
had  marched  down  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  was  met  by  a 
superior  force  under  General  Imbden,  and  driven  back 
with  a  loss  of  five  guns.  General  Kautz,  however,  with 
his  cavalry,  having  returned  from  his  first  successful  raid, 
set  out  upon  a  second  one  towards  the  Danville  road, 
which  he  also  succeeded  in  injuring  to  some  extent. 

The  Government  strained  every  nerve  to  send  forward 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  529 

re-enforcements  to  General  Grant,  and  on  the  18th  the 
fighting  in  front  of  Spottsylvania  was  renewed.  On  the 
19th  the  rebels  inflicted  a  heavy  loss  upon  our  right  by 
making  an  unexpected  attack,  in  which  some  of  our  newly 
arrived  regiments  suffered  severely.  This  was  an  attempt 
of  the  rebels  to  cut  our  communications,  but  they  failed 
entirely  in  doing  so. 

They  had,  however,  by  this  time  thrown  up  intrench- 
ments  of  so  formidable  a  character  that  General  Grant 
determined  again  to  make  a  flanking  movement  by  the 
left. 

The  movement  was  at  once  perceived  by  General  Lee, 
and  when  our  forces  arrived  at  the  North  Anna  river,  the 
rebels  were  already  there.  They  were  not,  however, 
able  to  prevent  our  forces  from  crossing  the  river,  and 
inflicting  a  severe  blow  upon  the  enemy  in  the  crossing. 
After  crossing,  however,  the  main  body  of  Lee's  army 
was  discovered  to  have  taken  so  strong  a  position  be 
tween  the  North  and  South  Anna  rivers,  that  General 
Grant  again  deemed  it  wise  not  to  make  a  direct  attack, 
but  to  repeat  his  flanking  movement. 

The  army  was  accordingly  withdrawn  without  loss 
from  Lee's  front  on  the  night  of  Thursday,  May  26th,  and, 
moving  again  by  the  left,  crossed  the  Pamunkey,  but 
was  again  confronted  by  the  rebel  army,  which,  after 
some  severe  fighting,  again  made  a  stand  at  Coal  Harbor. 
While  here,  one  corps  of  General  Butler's  army,  under 
General  Smith,  was  transferred  to  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac.  Thus  re-enforced,  a  violent  but  unsuccessful  attack 
was  made  upon  the  rebel  intrenchments  on  the  3d  of 
June,  and,  after  heavy  losses,  the  attack  was  abandoned. 
Repeated  efforts,  however,  on  the  part  of  the  rebels,  to 
turn  our  left,  and  to  break  up  the  communication  which 
had  been  formed  with  the  White  House,  on  the  Pamun 
key  river,  also  failed  as  signally.  And  both  armies  thus 
remained  for  several  days,  watching  each  other  sleep- 
lessly,  and  each  preferring  to  receive  rather  than  to  make 
an  attack. 

Other  co-operative  movements  went  on  during  all  this 

34 


530  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

time.  In  Western  Virginia,  General  Averill  had  made 
quite  a  successful  raid  upon  the  railroads.  In  the  Shen- 
andoah  Valley,  where  General  Hunter  had  taken  com 
mand  in  place  of  General  Sigel,  our  forces  won  a  "brilliant 
victory  at  Piedmont  over  the  rebels  under  Generals 
Jones  and  Imboden,  the  former  of  whom  was  killed. 
Hunter  captured  one  thousand  five  hundred  prisoners 
and  three  guns  ;  and,  forming  a  junction  with  Crook  and 
Averill,  pushed  on  towards  Lynchburg,  which  however 
he  was  unable  to  reach.  An  unsuccessful  attack  was 
made  by  General  Butler's  forces  upon  Petersburg  on  the 
10th  of  June. 

On  the  12th  of  June,  General  Grant,  having  become 
convinced  that  nothing  could  be  gained  by  a  direct  attack 
upon  General  Lee,  followed  up  his  plan  of  aiming  to 
strike  Lee's  southern  communications  by  leaving  his 
front  and  again  marching  by  the  left  to  the  James  river, 
which  he  crossed  upon  a  pontoon  bridge  below  City 
Point,  and  immediately  moved  forward  to  the  attack 
upon  Petersburg.  Again,  however,  General  Lee,  having 
the  inside  lines  to  move  upon,  was  a  few  hours  in  advance 
of  our  troops,  and,  while  several  forts  were  taken  on  the 
outer  lines  of  defences,  with  thirteen  cannon  and  some 
prisoners,  in  which  the  colored  troops  especially  distin 
guished  themselves,  the  inner  lines  were  found  to  be  too 
strong,  and  our  army  settled  itself  down  to  the  siege  of 
Petersburg. 

General  Sherman' s  movement  upon  Atlanta  was  made  at 
the  same  time  as  that  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  His  army 
was  superior  in  numbers  to  that  which  was  opposed  to  it, 
but  the  rocky  heights  which  were  held  by  General  John 
ston  were  so  strong  that  General  Sherman  did  not  waste 
its  strength  by  attacking  them  in  front,  but  by  a  series  of 
masterly  Hank  movements  he  compelled  the  rebel  army 
to  retreat  successively  from  Buzzard' s  Roost,  from  Dai- 
ton,  and  from  Resaca,  at  which  latter  place  there  were, 
however,  two  days  of  heavy  fighting  on  the  14th  and 
15th  of  May,  resulting  in  the  capture  of  both  guns  and 
prisoners  by  our  troops,  the  retreat  of  Johnston  across 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  531 

the  Oostenaula  river,  and  the  capture  without  serious 
opposition  of  Rome  and  Kingston,  some  sixty  miles  fur 
ther  on  towards  Atlanta.  At  Rome,  large  quantities  of 
provisions  were  captured,  and  large  machine-shops  were 
destroyed.  Johnston's  retreat  had  been  too  rapid  to 
allow  of  his  doing  much  damage  to  the  railroad  along 
which  his  army  was  falling  back  towards  Atlanta ;  and 
whatever  damage  he  was  enabled  to  do  was  at  once 
repaired,  and  the  railroad  was  put  in  use  to  supply  our 
armies  in  their  advance. 

The  Altoona  Mountains  were  the  scene  of  the  next 
stand  made  by  the  rebels.  General  Sherman  continued 
the  flanking  system,  and  moved  towards  Dallas,  where, 
however,  he  was  met  by  the  rebels,  who  attacked  Mc- 
Pherson's  Corps  on  the  28th  of  May,  and  met  a  disastrous 
repulse,  losing  some  two  thousand  five  hundred  killed 
and  wounded  and  eight  hundred  prisoners  This  move 
ment  having  drawn  the  rebels  from  their  position  at  the 
pass  of  the  Altoona  Mountains,  it  was  occupied  and  held  by 
our  cavalry,  becoming  at  once,  as  General  Sherman  said, 
"as  useful  to  us  as  it  was  to  the  enemy,"  and  the  rebels 
took  up  a  new  position  at  Kenesaw  and  Lost  Mountain. 
Efforts  were  made  by  them,  while  Sherman  was  advanc 
ing  towards  this  position,  to  interfere  with  his  communi 
cations,  and  some  damage  was  done  to  the  railroad  by 
rebel  cavalry,  which  was,  however,  speedily  driven  off. 
A  more  discouraging  affair,  however,  was  the  defeat  of  a 
heavy  expedition,  which  set  out  from  Memphis  under 
command  of  General  Sturges,  by  the  rebel  General  For 
rest,  on  the  10th  of  June.  The  requirements  of  General 
Sherman's  position  were  not,  however,  so  great  but  that 
he  was  able  at  once  to  make  arrangements  to  repair  this 
disaster.  Like  General  Grant,  he  was  not  "jostled  from 
his  plans"  by  these  outside  manoeuvres  any  more  than 
by  the  direct  blows  of  the  rebel  army,  and  by  the  IStfc. 
of  June,  when  Grant  stationed  himself  before  the  works 
of  Petersburg  after  his  march  of  a  hundred  miles  and 
his  many  battles,  Sherman  had  arrived  before  the  rebel 
works  at  Kenesaw  Mountain  after  a  similar  march  of 


532  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

fighting  and  flanking  the  enemy  over  something  more 
than  a  hundred  miles  of  territory. 

Both  of  these  movements  are  now  recognized  as  having 
been  splendid  successes.  But  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that 
from  the  time  of  the  commencement  of  the  siege  of  Peters 
burg  there  was  a  growing  feeling  of  doubt  and  anxiety  in 
the  country  in  reference  to  the  operations  of  the  army  of 
the  Potomac.  It  had  been  often  announced  that  Lee's 
army  was  cut  to  pieces  and  fleeing  in  disorder,  and  yet 
that  army  had  thus  far,  by  repeated  stands,  been  able  to 
prevent  Grant  from  breaking  through  its  lines.  Even 
Petersburg  was  declared  to  have  been  taken  by  assault 
on  the  first  attack  ;  and  yet  it  was  found  that,  instead  of 
this,  our  army  was  not  able  at  once  to  draw  its  lines 
around  the  place  far  enough  to  cut  off  the  Weldon  Rail 
road.  The  losses  of  the  army  were  greatly  exaggerated 
by  the  opposition,  the  difficulties  of  its  position  magnified, 
the  lack  of  water  and  the  dust  and  heat  were  dilated 
upon,  and  even  the  visit  which  the  President  paid  to  the 
army  on  the  22d  of  June  was  dwelt  upon  as  an  event 
showing  that  the  difficulties  of  the  situation  were  great, 
if  not  insuperable. 

The  army,  however,  did  not  look  at  it  in  that  light. 
The  President's  visit  was  for  them  a  gratification,  not  a 
cause  for  anxiety,  and  they  cheered  him,  as  he  rode  along 
the  lines,  with  a  heartiness  which  expressed  their  confi 
dence  in  him  and  in  the  leaders  whom  he  had  given  them. 
The  President's  confident  expressions  as  to  the  state  of 
affairs  on  his  return  went  far  to  encourage  the  country ; 
for  the  people  had  already  come  in  great  measure  to 
have  that  abounding  confidence  in  Mr.  Lincoln  which 
displayed  itself  so  wonderfully  during  the  rest  of  his  life. 
He  appreciated  in  his  turn  the  confidence  which  the 
people  felt  in  him.  "  I  do  my  best  to  deserve  this,"  said 
he  to  a  friend,  "  but  I  tremble  at  the  responsibility  that 
devolves  upon  me,  a  weak,  mortal  man,  to  serve  such  a 
great  and  generous  people  in  such  a  place  as  I  hold,  in 
such  an  awful  crisis  as  this.  It  is  a  terrible  responsibility ; 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  533 

"but  it  has  been  imposed  upon  me  without  my  seeking, 
and  I  trust  Providence  has  a  wise  purpose  for  me  to 
fulfil  by  appointing  me  to  this  charge,  which  is  almost 
too  much  for  a  weak  mortal  to  hold." 

He  appreciated  not  only  this  confidence  in  him,  but  the 
whole  character  of  the  people.  "Such  a  people,"  said 
he,  "can  never  fail ;  and  they  deserve,  and  will  receive, 
the  proudest  place  in  the  history  of  nations."  It  seems 
sad  to  think  that  he  could  not  have  lived  to  see  how 
speedily  the  fulfilment  of  his  prophecy  approached. 

General  Grant' s  purpose  was  to  extend  his  lines  south 
ward,  cutting  off  as  speedily  as  possible  the  railroads 
which  led  from  Petersburg  to  the  south;  and  by  the 
cavalry  arm  destroying  the  other  railroads  leading  to 
Richmond,  thus  isolating  it  from  the  South.  In  pursu 
ance  of  this  plan  Sheridan  with  his  cavalry  destroyed  a 
large  portion  of  the  railroads  between  Richmond  and 
Gordonsville,  returning  to  the  White  House,  and  there 
opening  communications  again  with  General  Grant ;  and 
Wilson,  on  the  south,  cut  the  Weldon  Railroad,  and, 
reaching  Burkesville,  did  serious  damage  also  to  the 
Danville  road.  The  first  move  of  the  army,  however, 
towards  the  Weldon  road  resulted  disastrously  ;  and 
Wilson,  on  his  return  from  his  raid,  was  set  upon  at 
Ream's  Station,  and  had  to  cut  his  way  through  with 
heavy  loss,  by  the  aid  of  a  diversion  effected  by  the 
Sixth  Corps,  which  was  sent  to  his  relief.  General  Hun 
ter,  too,  was  unable  to  capture  Lynchburg,  and,  fall 
ing  short  of  ammunition,  was  compelled  to  retreat  into 
Western  Virginia  by  the  Yalley  of  the  Kanawha. 

Amid  these  various  movements,  Congress  adjourned  on 
the  4th  of  July. 

The  feeling  at  its  adjournment  was  not  buoyant,  but 
tending  to  depression ;  and,  just  before  it  separated,  a 
resolution  was  passed,  requesting  the  President  to  ap 
point  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer.  Accordingly,  on  the 
7th  of  July,  he  issued  the  following  proclamation :— 


534  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

PROCLAMATION. 
By  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

WHEKEAS,  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  at  their  last  session 
adopted  a  concurrent  resolution,  which  was  approved  on  the  second  day 
of  July  instant,  and  which  was  in  the  words  following,  namely : 

That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  requested  to  appoint  a  day 
of  humiliation  and  prayer  by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  that  he  re 
quest  his  constitutional  advisers  at  the  head  of  the  Executive  Departments 
to  unite  with  him,  as  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation,  at  the  City  of  Wash 
ington,  and  the  members  of  Congress,  and  all  magistrates,  all  civil,  mili 
tary,  and  naval  officers,  all  soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines,  with  all  loyal 
and  law-abiding  people,  to  convene  at  their  usual  places  of  worship,  or 
wherever  they  may  be,  to  confess  and  to  repent  of  their  manifold  sins,  to 
implore  the  compassion  and  forgiveness  of  the  Almighty,  that  if  consistent 
with  His  will,  the  existing  rebellion  may  be  speedily  suppressed,  and  the 
supremacy  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  may  be 
established  throughout  all  the  States;  to  implore  Him,  as  the  Supreme 
Ruler  of  the  world,  not  to  destroy  us  as  a  people,  nor  suffer  us  to  be  de 
stroyed  by  the  hostility  or  connivance  of  other  nations,  or  by  obstinate 
adhesion  to  our  own  counsels  which  may  be  in  conflict  with  His  eternal 
purposes,  and  to  implore  Him  to  enlighten  the  mind  of  the  nation  to  know 
and  do  His  will,  humbly  believing  that  it  is  in  accordance  with  His  will 
that  our  place  should  be  maintained  as  a  united  people  among  the  family 
of  nations ;  to  implore  Him  to  grant  to  our  armed  defenders,  and  the 
masses  of  the  people,  that  courage,  power  of  resistance,  and  endurance 
necessary  to  secure  that  result;  to  implore  Him  in  His  infinite  goodness 
to  soften  the  hearts,  enlighten  the  minds,  and  quicken  the  conscience  of 
those  in  rebellion,  that  they  may  lay  down  their  arms,  and  speedily  return 
to  their  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  that  they  may  not  be  utterly  de 
stroyed,  that  the  effusion  of  blood  may  be  stayed,  and  that  unity  and  fra 
ternity  may  be  restored,  and  peace  established  throughout  all  our  borders. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
cordially  concurring  with  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  in  the  peni 
tential  and  pious  sentiments  expressed  in  the  aforesaid  resolutions,  and 
heartily  approving  of  the  devotional  design  and  purpose  thereof,  do  here  • 
by  appoint  the  first  Thursday  of  August  next  to  be  observed  by  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  as  a  day  of  national  humiliation  and  prayer. 

I  do  hereby  further  invite  and  request  the  heads  of  the  Executive  De 
partments  of  this  Government,  together  with  all  legislators,  all  judges 
and  magistrates,  and  all  other  persons  exercising  authority  in  the  land, 
whether  civil,  military,  or  naval,  and  all  soldiers,  seamen,  and  marines  in 
the  national  service,  and  all  the  other  loyal  and  law-abiding  people  of  the 
United  States,  to  assemble  in  their  preferred  places  of  public  worship  on 
that  day,  and  there  to  render  to  the  Almighty  and  merciful  Ruler  of  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  535 

Universe,  such  homage  and  such  confessions,  and  to  offer  to  Him  such 
supplications  as  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  have,  in  their  aforesaid 
resolution,  so  solemnly,  so  earnestly,  and  so  reverently  recommended. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington  this  seventh  day  of  July,  in  the  year  of 

r       -|     our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-four,  and  of  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty -ninth. 

By  the  President :  ABKAHAM  LINCOLN. 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

The  depressing  effect  of  the  apparent  check  in  the  on 
ward  movement  of  the  work  of  suppressing  the  rebellion 
was,  however,  much  alleviated  by  the  news  which  ar 
rived  on  the  6th  of  July,  of  the  sinking  of  the  rebel 
cruiser  Alabama,  on  the  19th  of  June,  off'  Cherbourg,  by 
the  Kearsarge,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Winslow. 
Opportunities  for  our  navy  to  distinguish  itself  in  battle, 
except  with  forts,  had  been  rare,  and  great  rejoicing  was 
felt  that  Semmes,  the  commander  of  the  Alabama,  had  at 
last  given  to  the  Kearsarge  an  opportunity  to  prove,  in 
sight  of  France  and  England,  that  Yankee  ships  and  gun& 
and  men  were,  as  of  old,  dangerous  enemies  in  an  encounter. 

The  Shenandoah  Valley  had  been  laid  open  by  Hun 
ter'  s  movement  into  West  Virginia,  and  the  rebels  took 
advantage  of  it  to  make  a  push  northward.  They  crossed 
the  Potomac  in  considerable  force,  commanded  by  Gen 
eral  Early,  and  on  the  9th  of  July  defeated  our  troops 
under  General  Wallace,  at  Monocacy.  The  President 
called  for  twelve  thousand  militia  from  each  of  the  States 
of  Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  arid  New  York,  to  meet  this 
invasion,  from  which  both  Baltimore  and  Washington 
were  felt  to  be  in  some  danger.  A  bold  company  of  raiders 
even  burned  the  house  of  Governor  Bradford,  only  four 
miles  from  Baltimore,  and,  passing  north  of  Baltimore,  cut 
the  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  Railroad,  capturing  two 
trains  of  cars.  One  of  the  passengers  on  the  cars  was 
Major-General  Franklin,  who  was  taken  prisoner,  but 
afterwards  succeeded  in  making  his  escape  near  Reisters- 
town.  The  raiders  met  little  opposition  through  the  coun- 


536  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

try,  one  striking  exception  being  the  conduct  of  old 
Ishmael  Day,  a  man  of  eighty -three  years,  who,  when  a 
couple  of  rebels  undertook  to  pull  down  a  flag  which  was 
dying  over  his  gate,  shot  one  of  them  and  forced  the  other 
to  retreat.  A  larger  company  of  them,  however,  came 
and  burned  the  old  man' s  house,  but  did  not  succeed  in 
finding  him.  Extensive  preparations  were  made  at  Bal 
timore  to  resist  an  attack,  and  the  general  loyalty  of  the 
city  was  in  marked  contrast  with  its  attitude  at  the  outset 
of  the  rebellion.  The  militia  gathered  fast  from  the  loyal 
States.  General  Grant  had  also  sent  up  the  Sixth  Corps 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to  aid  in  the  defence  of 
Washington.  The  Nineteenth  Corps,  which  had  just  ar 
rived  from  New  Orleans,  was  also  sent  thither  ;  and  on  the 
13th  of  July,  the  rebel  forces,  which  had  for  the  two  days 
previous  skirmished  smartly  in  front  of  Fort  Stevens,  near 
Washington,  determined  to  retreat ;  and  by  the  end  of  that 
week  they  were  all  south  of  the  Potomac,  having  carried  off 
great  quantities  of  plunder  and  spread  great  consternation 
through  Maryland  and  the  lower  part  of  Pennsylvania, 
but  not  having  succeeded  at  all  in  compelling  General 
Grant  to  loosen  his  hold  upon  Petersburg. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  raid  which  the  rebels  undertook. 
In  Kentucky  they  had  made  great  disturbances  under 
John  Morgan,  which,  though  checked  by  his  rout  by  Gen 
eral  Burbridge,  at  Cynthiana,  continued,  and  were  receiv 
ing  so  much  countenance  from  rebel  sympathizers  in  the 
State,  that  the  President  deemed  it  wise  to  declare  martial 
law  throughout  the  State,  which  was  done  by  the  follow 
ing  proclamation : — 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
PROCLAMATION. 

WASHINGTON,  Tuesday,  July  5. 

WHEREAS,  by  a  proclamation  which  was  issued  on  the  15th  clay  of  April, 
1861,  the  President  of  the  United  States  announced  and  declared  that  the 
laws  of  the  United  States  had  been  for  some  time  past,  and  then  were  op 
posed,  and  the  execution  thereof  obstructed  in  certain  States  therein  men 
tioned,  by  combinations  too  powerful  to  be  suppressed  by  the  ordinary 
course  of  judicial  proceedings  or  by  the  power  vested  in  the  marshals  by 
law  ;  and 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  537 

Whereas,  immediately  after  the  issuing  of  the  said  proclamation  the 
land  and  naval  forces  of  the  United  States  were  put  into  activity  to  sup 
press  the  said  insurrections  and  rebellion  ;  and 

Whereas,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  by  an  act  approved  on  the 
third  day  of  March,  1863,  did  enact  that  during  the  said  rebellion  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  whenever  in  his  judgment  the  public 
safety  may  require  it,  is  authorized  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  in  any  case  throughout  the  United  States,  or  any  part 
thereof;  and 

Whereas,  the  said  insurrection  and  rebellion  still  continue,  endangering 
the  existence  of  the  Constitution  and  Government  of  the  United  States ;  and 

Whereas,  the  military  forces  of  the  United  States  arc  now  actively  en 
gaged  in  suppressing  the  said  insurrection  and  rebellion  in  various  parts 
of  the  States  where  the  said  rebellion  has  been  successful  in  obstructing 
the  laws  and  public  authorities,  especially  in  the  States  of  Virginia  and 
Georgia  ;  and 

Whereas,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  September  last,  the  President  of  the 
United  States  duly  issued  his  proclamation,  wherein  he  declared  that  the 
privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  should  be  suspended  throughout 
the  United  States,  in  cases  where  by  the  authority  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  military,  naval,  and  civil  officers  of  the  United  States, 
or  any  of  them,  hold  persons  under  their  command  or  in  their  custody, 
either  as  prisoners  of  war,  spies,  or  aiders  or  abettors  of  the  enemy,  or 
officers,  soldiers,  or  seamen  enrolled  or  drafted,  or  mustered,  or  enlisted  in, 
or  belonging  to  the  land  or  naval  forces  of  the  United  States,  or  as  desert 
ers  therefrom,  or  otherwise  amenable  to  military  law,  or  the  rules  aud 
articles  of  war,  or  the  rules  and  regulations  prescribed  for  the  military 
and  naval  service  by  authority  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  or 
for  resisting  a  draft,  or  for  any  other  offence  against  the  military  or  naval 
service ;  and 

Whereas,  many  citizens  of  the  State  of  Kentucky  have  joined  the  forces 
of  the  insurgents,  who  have  on  several  occasions  entered  the  said  State  of 
Kentucky  in  large  force  and  not  without  aid  and  comfort  furnished  by  disaf 
fected  and  disloyal  citizens  of  the  United  States  residing  therein,  have 
not  only  greatly  disturbed  the  public  peace  but  have  overborne  the  civil 
authorities  and  made  flagrant  civil  war,  destroying  property  and  life  in 
various  parts  of  the  State  ;  and 

Whereas,  it  has  been  made  known  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
by  the  officers  commanding  the. National  armies,  that  combinations  havo 
been  formed  in  the  said  State  of  Kentucky,  with  a  purpose  of  inciting  tho 
rebel  forces  to  renew  the  said  operations  of  civil  war  within  the  said  State, 
and  thereby  to  embarrass  the  United  States  armies  now  operating  in  the 
said  States  of  Virginia  and  Georgia,  and  even  to  endanger  their  safety. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  by 
virtue  of  the  authority  vested  in  me  by  the  Constitution  and  laws,  do 
hereby  declare  that  in  my  judgment  the  public  safety  especially  requires 


538  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

that  the  suspension  of  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  so  pro 
claimed  in  the  said  proclamation  of  the  15th  of  September,  1863,  be  niado 
effectual  and  be  duly  enforced  in  and  throughout  the  said  State  of  Ken- 
mcky,  and  that  martial  law  be  for  the  present  declared  therein.  I  do 
therefore  hereby  require  of  the  military  officers  in  the  said  State  that  the 
privilege  of  the  habeas  corpus  be  effectually  suspended  within  the  said 
State,  according  to  the  aforesaid  proclamation,  and  that  martial  law  be 
established  therein  to  take  effect  from  the  date  of  this  proclamation,  the 
said  suspension  and  establishment  of  martial  law  to  continue  until  this 
proclamation  shall  be  revoked  or  modified,  but  not  beyond  the  period 
when  the  said  rebellion  shall  have  been  suppressed  or  come  to  an  end. 
And  I  do  hereby  require  and  command,  as  well  as  military  officers,  all 
civil  officers  and  authorities  existing  or  found  within  the  said  State  of  Ken 
tucky,  to  take  notice  of  this  proclamation  and  to  give  full  effect  to  the 
same.  The  martial  laws  herein  proclaimed  and  the  things  in  that  respect 
herein  ordered  will  not  be  deemed  or  taken  to  interfere  with  the  holding 
of  lawful  elections,  or  with  the  proceedings  of  the  constitutional  Legisla 
ture  of  Kentucky,  or  with  the  administration  of  justice  in  the  courts  of 
law  existing  therein  between  citizens  of  the  United  States  in  suits  or  pro 
ceedings  which  do  not  affect  the  military  operations  or  the  constituted 
authorities  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 

In  testimony  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington  this  5th  day  of  July,  in  the  year 
[L.  s.]     of  our  Lord  1864,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States 
the  eighty-eighth.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President : 

WILLIAM  II.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

While  the  loyal  States  were  thus  engaged  in  repelling 
re~bel  raids  and  strengthening  the  armies,  General  Sher 
man  continued  his  victorious  campaign.  His  assault  upon 
Kenesaw  was  a  failure,  "because  of  the  strength  of  the  rebel 
works ;  but  a  repetition  of  the  flanking  system  drove 
Johnston  out  of  them  across  the  Chattahoochee,  which 
our  army  crossed  on  the  llth  of  July.  By  a  movement 
of  his  left  wing,  General  Sherman  at  once  seized  Decatur, 
only  six  miles  from  Atlanta,  and  severed  the  railroad  be 
tween  Atlanta  and  Augusta,  by  which  time  the  dissatis 
faction,  which  had  been  felt  in  rebeldom  with  Johnston's 
continued  falling  back,  culminated  in  his  removal  on  the 
17th  of  J  uly,  and  the  appointment  of  General  Hood  in  his 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  539 

place.  Hood  signalized  his  appointment  "by  attacking 
Sherman  instead  of  remaining  on  the  defensive,  and  was 
defeated  with  heavy  loss  on  the  20th  of  July,  and  again  on 
the  22d,  when  our  army,  though  victorious,  met  with  a 
very  severe  loss  in  the  death  of  Major-General  McPher- 
son,  one  of  the  choicest  of  the  gallant  leaders  who  had 
stood  around  Sherman  through  all  that  long,  laborious, 
and  bloody  march.  A  raid  of  our  cavalry,  under  General 
Rousseau,  had  destroyed  the  railroad  between  Atlanta 
and  Montgomery,  for  thirty  miles,  with  but  little  loss. 
Another,  under  General  Stoneman,  though  partially  suc 
cessful  in  what  it  accomplished  on  the  Macon  road,  was 
cut  off  on  its  return,  and  General  Stoneman  and  most  of 
his  command  were  captured,  on  the  30th  of  July.  Still, 
the  month  closed  prosperously  upon  Sherman's  opera 
tions.  Another  rebel  attack  was  bloodily  repulsed  on 
the  28th,  und  his  lines  were  drawn  closely  around  At 
lanta,  while  the  rebel  strength  had  been  more  weakened 
by  Hood's  assaults  than  by  Johnston's  successive  retreats. 
At  the  North  the  month  did  not  close  so  favorably. 
The  hundred-days  men  offered  by  the  Northwestern  States 
had  come  promptly  forward  and  been  assigned  to  the  posts 
where  they  were  needed.  On  the  llth  of  June  the  Presi 
dent  made  the  following  brief  speech  to  a  regiment  of  them 
from  Ohio,  which  passed  through  Washington  :— 

Soldiers!  I  understand  you  have  just  come  from  Ohio;  come  to  help 
us  in  this  the  nation's  day  of  trial,  and  also  of  its  hopes.  I  thank  you  for 
your  promptness  in  responding  to  the  call  for  troops.  Your  services  were 
never  needed  more  than  now.  I  know  not  where  you  are  going.  You 
may  stay  here  and  take  the  places  of  those  who  will  be  sent  to  the  front, 
or  you  may  go  there  yourselves.  Wherever  you  go  I  know  you  will  do 
your  best.  Again  I  thank  you.  Good-by. 

But  notwithstanding  the  aid  which  they  furnished  in 
order  to  make  up  the  re-enforcements  needed  for  Sher 
man  to  keep  up  his  line  of  communication,  for  Grant 
to  make  the  necessary  extension  of  his  lines,  and  for 
the  meeting  of  rebel  raids  in  various  parts  of  the  coun 
try,  the  President  had  deemed  it  wise,  on  the  18th  of 


540  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

July,  to  issue  the  following  Proclamation,  ordering  a 
draft  of  five  hundred  thousand  men  : — 

PROCLAMATION. 
By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

WASHINGTON,  July  18, 1864. 

WHEREAS,  By  the  act  approved  July  4,  1864,  entitled  an  act  further  to 
regulate  and  provide  for  the  enrolling  and  calling  out  the  national  forces, 
and  for  other  purposes,  it  is  provided  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  may,  at  his  discretion,  at  any  time  hereafter,  call  for  any  number 
of  men  as  volunteers  for  the  respective  terms  of  one,  two,  and  three 
years  for  military  service ;  and  that  in  case  the  quota,  or  any  part  thereof, 
of  any  town,  township,  ward  of  a  city,  precinct,  or  election  district,  or 
of  a  county  not  so  subdivided,  shall  not  be  filled  within  the  space  of  fifty 
days  after  such  call,  then  the  President  shall  immediately  order  a  draft 
for  one  year,  to  fill  such  quota,  or  any  part  thereof  which  may  be  un 
filled. 

And,  whereas,  the  new  enrolment  heretofore  ordered  is  so  far  com 
pleted  as  that  the  afore-mentioned  act  of  Congress  may  now  be  put  in 
operation,  for  recruiting  and  keeping  up  the  strength  of  the  armies  in 
the  field,  for  garrisons,  and  such  military  operations  as  may  be  required 
for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  the  rebellion  and  restoring  the  authority 
of  the  United  States  Government  in  the  insurgent  States. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
do  issue  this  my  call  for  five  hundred  thousand  volunteers  for  the  mili 
tary  service  ;  provided,  nevertheless,  that  all  credits  which  may  be  estab 
lished  under  section  eight  of  the  aforesaid  act,  on  account  of  persons  who 
have  entered  the  naval  service  during  the  present  rebellion,  and  by  cred 
its  for  men  furnished  to  the  military  service  in  excess  of  calls  heretofore 
made  for  volunteers,  will  be  accepted  under  this  call  for  one,  two,  or 
three  years,  as  they  may  elect,  and  will  be  entitled  to  the  bounty  pro 
vided  by  law  for  the  period  of  service  for  which  they  enlist. 

And  I  hereby  proclaim,  order,  and  direct,  that  after  the  fifth  day  of  Sep 
tember,  1864,  being  fifty  days  from  the  date  of  this  call,  a  draft  for  troops  to 
sen  e  for  one  year,  shall  be  held  in  every  town,  township,  ward  of  a  city, 
precinct,  election  district,  or  county  not  so  subdivided,  to  fill  the  quota 
which  shall  be  assigned  to  it  under  this  call,  or  any  part  thereof  which 
may  be  unfilled  by  volunteers,  on  the  said  fifth  day  of  September,  1864. 

Done  at  Washington  this  18th  day  of  July,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord, 
1864,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-ninth. 

In  testimony  wherof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
[L.  s.]     seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President . 

WM.  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          541 

Towards  the  last  of  the  month  the  rebels  made  another 
raid  into  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  and  on  the  30th 
of  July  the  town  of  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  was 
occupied  by  their  cavalry  under  General  McCausland.  A 
written  demand,  signed  by  General  Early,  was  presented 
for  $100,000  in  gold,  or  $500,000  in  currency,  with  a  threat 
of  burning  the  town  if  the  demand  was  not  complied 
with.  As  it  was  not  complied  with,  they  fulfilled  their 
threat  and  laid  the  town  in  ashes,  without  giving  the  citi 
zens  time  to  remove  their  property. 

The  rebel  forces  remained  north  of  the  Potomac  till 
about  the  7th  of  August,  but  accomplished  nothing  else  of 
importance.  On  that  day  several  of  our  commands  which 
had  been  acting  against  them  somewhat  independently 
of  each  other  were  consolidated  into  one,  at  the  head  of 
which  was  placed  General  Sheridan.  The  benefit  of  this 
change  was  speedily  seen.  The  rebels  fell  back  south 
of  the  Potomac,  and  were  so  pressed  by  Sheridan  that 
General  Lee  deemed  it  advisable  to  re-enforce  Early  from 
his  own  lines,  when  Sheridan  in  his  turn  fell  back,  and 
for  some  weeks  there  was  active  manoeuvring  on  both 
sides  and  several  small  battles  were  fought,  in  which  we 
gained  more  than  the  rebels,  who  were  never  able  to  cross 
the  Potomac  in  force  again. 

Two  days  before  the  burning  of  Chambersburg,  Gen 
eral  Grant  had  made  a  movement  on  the  north  side  of  the 
James  River,  across  which,  by  means  of  pontoon  bridges. 
he  threw  a  force  which  was  attacked  before  it  had  time 
to  strengthen  its  position,  but  repulsed  the  rebels  with  a 
loss  of  four  guns.  This  movement,  though  only  a  feint, 
was  heavy  enough  to  induce  General  Lee  to  throw  a 
strong  force  to  the  north  side  also,  when  our  men  were 
in  the  night  drawn  back  for  an  attack  on  the  Peters 
burg  works,  which  was  made  on  the  30th.  The  attack 
was  begun  in  front  of  General  Burnside'  s  lines,  by  the 
explosion  of  a  mine  under  one  of  the  rebel  forts,  destroy 
ing  it  at  once.  Instantly  every  gun  in  our  ranks 
opened  upon  Petersburg  and  its  defences,  and  an  assault 
was  made  upon  the  gap  in  the  rebel  lines  caused  by  the 


542  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

explosion  of  the  mine.  The  attack  was  successful  in 
piercing  the  lines,  but  not  in  carrying  a  height  just  within 
them,  called  Cemetery  Hill,  from  which,  if  we  had  sue 
ceeded  in  carrying  it,  our  guns  would  have  commanded 
Petersburg  and  its  defences.  The  rebels  gathered  here 
in  force,  and  poured  so  heavy  a  fire  upon  our  forces  that 
the  assault  conld  not  be  maintained,  and  while  part  of 
our  troops  were  driven  back,  a  large  number  of  them, 
who  had  entered  the  blown-up  fort,  were  unable  to  re 
turn  and  were  compelled  to  surrender.  Our  loss  in  the 
whole  affair  was  between  two  and  three  thousand  men. 
Charges  were  made  that  the  colored  troops,  who  formed 
a  part  of  the  assaulting  column,  had  failed  to  do  their 
duty ;  but  the  evidence  did  not  sustain  this  charge,  but 
showed  that  the  failure  was  due  mainly  to  that  lack  of 
cordial  co-operation  among  the  generals  in  command, 
which  has  so  often  defeated  the  most  skilful  and  promis 
ing  plans. 

It  was  supposed  that  this  repulse  would  put  an  end  to 
active  operations  in  front  of  Petersburg  for  a  long  time  ; 
but  this  was  not  giving  due  credit  to  Grant's  unyielding 
pertinacity.  An  important  position  on  the  north  side  of 
the  James  was  captured  on  the  15th  of  August,  by  a  ruse, 
Hancock' s  Corps  having  been  shipped  on  transports  down 
the  river,  as  if  on  their  way  to  Washington,  but  returning 
under  cover  of  night  to  join  the  Tenth  Corps  in  taking  and 
holding  a  position  only  ten  miles  from  Richmond,  capturing 
some  five  hundred  prisoners  and  ten  guns.  This  position 
was  important  to  cover  the  work  of  our  men  in  digging 
the  Dutch  Gap  Canal,  through  which  it  was  hoped  our 
iron-clads  might  go  up  the  river  to  flank  the  rebel  defences. 

Not  satisfied  with  this  success,  but  taking  advantage  of 
the  fact  that  Lee,  encouraged  by  the  ill  success  of  our 
assault  on  the  30th  of  July,  had  sent  a  portion  of  his 
troops  to  re-enforce  Early,  General  Grant,  on  the  17th, 
struck  a  blow  at  the  other  end  of  his  lines,  upon  the  Wei- 
don  Railroad,  which  was  seized  by  our  forces.  A  furi 
ous  attack  was  made  upon  them  by  the  rebels,  which  at 
one  time  met  with  a  partial  success,  but  our  lines  were 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  543 

re-established,  and  a  subsequent  attack  was  repulsed  with 
heavy  loss.  Two  rebel  generals  were  killed  and  three 
wounded.  Another  and  more  determined  assault  was 
made  on  the  26th,  but,  after  tremendous  fighting,  was  also 
repulsed.  Our  loss  was  severe,  but  that  of  the  rebels 
was  far  more  so.  The  substantial  prize  of  the  struggle, 
the  railroad,  remained  in  our  possession,  and  thus  another 
of  the  sources  of  supply  for  the  army  of  General  Lee  was 
cut  off. 

Thus  the  month  of  August  gave  us  a  decided  advan 
tage  in  Virginia.  In  the  South  it  gave  us  brilliant  suc 
cess.  In  the  early  part  of  the  month  the  preparations 
were  completed  for  an  attack  upon  Mobile,  by  the  fleet 
under  Commodore  Farragut,  aided  by  a  small  land  force 
under  General  Granger.  The  passage  of  the  fleet  into  the 
bay  past  the  rebel  forts,  and  the  destruction  of  the 
rebel  fleet,  were  accomplished  in  about  three  hours,  on 
the  morning  of  the  5th  of  August.  Our  fleet  consisted 
of  fourteen  gunboats  and  three  monitors.  The  gunboats 
were  lashed  together,  two  by  two,  that  one  might  help 
the  other,  and  the  monitors  were  on  the  starboard  side  of 
the  fleet.  The  Brooklyn  led  the  way,  followed  by  the 
flagship  Hartford  and  the  rest.  One  of  our  monitors, 
the  Tecumseli,  commanded  by  the  gallant  Craven,  was 
struck  by  a  torpedo  and  sunk  with  all  on  board,  except 
her  pilot  and  eight  or  ten  of  her  crew.  This  disaster 
momentarily  checked  the  advance,  when  Farragut,  in  the 
flag-ship,  rushed  forward  to  the  head  of  the  fleet  and  led 
the  way  past  the  forts,  followed  by  the  rest  of  the  gun 
boats,  each  one  as  she  went  by  pouring  her  broadsides 
into  the  rebel  forts.  Within  the  harbor  the  rebel  iron 
clad  Tennessee  made  desperate  battle.  The  rest  of  the 
rebel  fleet,  except  one  vessel,  having  been  captured  or 
destroyed,  she  was  attacked  by  several  of  our  vessels 
at  once,  who  rammed  her  severely  whenever  they  could 
get  a  chance  at  her,  and,  seeing  the  rest  of  the  fleet  and 
the  monitors  bearing  down  upon  her,  she  surrendered. 
She  was  commanded  by  Buchanan,  who  commanded  the 
Merrimac  in  her  famous  battle  with  the  Monitor. 


544  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  conquest  of  the  relbel  fleet  was  followed  by  the 
immediate  surrender  of  Forts  Gaines  and  Powell.  Fort 
Morgan  still  held  out,  Ibut  was  immediately  invested  "by 
General  Granger.  On  the  22d  an  assault  of  the  fort  was 
commenced,  and  on  the  23d,  after  a  "bombardment  of 
twelve  hours,  in  which  about  three  thousand  shells  were 
thrown  into  it,  this  last  of  the  rebel  defences  of  the  har 
bor  of  Mobile  was  surrendered  unconditionally  to  our 
forces. 

ISTor  was  this  the  only  success.  General  Sherman  had 
been  drawing  his  lines  more  closely  around  Atlanta,  and 
Hood  having  made  the  mistake  of  sending  off  all  his  cav 
alry  upon  a  fruitless  effort  to  destroy  the  communications 
between  our  army  and  Chattanooga,  General  Sherman 
took  advantage  of  it  to  make  a  movement  on  the  west  of 
Atlanta  towards  the  rear  of  Hood' s  army.  Leaving  one 
corps  to  defend  our  intrenched  lines  in  front  of  the  city, 
he  threw  the  rest  of  his  army  upon  the  railroad  to  Macon, 
near  West  Point,  upon  the  30th  of  August,  and  thus  cut 
Hood's  army  in  two  and  defeated  one  portion  of  it  at 
Jonesboro.  Hood,  finding  that  he  was  in  danger  of  being 
cut  off,  blew  up  his  magazines  in  Atlanta  on  the  night  of 
the  1st  of  September  and  retreated  to  the  southeast,  and 
on  the  2d  the  Twentieth  Corps,  which  had  been  left  in  our 
intrenchments,  marched  into  the  city  and  took  possession, 
and  General  Sherman  sent  the  message  to  Washington — 
"  Atlanta  is  ours  and  fairly  won." 

Before  receiving  General  Sherman's  official  report,  the 
War  Department  had  received  news  of  the  fall  of  Atlanta, 
and  on  the  2d,  at  eight  P.  M.,  Mr.  Stanton  telegraphed  to 
General  Dix,  at  New  York,  as  follows  :— 

This  department  has  received  intelligence  this  evening  that  General 
Sherman's  advance  entered  Atlanta  about  noon  to-day.  The  particulars 
have  not  yet  been  received,  but  telegraphic  communication  during  the 
night  with  Atlanta  direct  is  expected. 

It  is  ascertained  with  reasonable  certainty  that  the  naval  and  other 
credits  required  by  the  act  of  Congress  will  amount  to  about  two  hundred 
thousand,  including  New  York,  which  has  not  yet  been  reported  to  this 
department;  so  that  the  President's  call  of  July  10  is  practically  reduced 
to  three  hundred  thousand  men,  to  meet  and  take  the  place  of 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          545 

First — The  new  enlistments  in  the  navy  ; 

Second— The  casualties  of  battle,  sickness,  prisoners,  and  desertion  ;  and 

Third— The  hundred-days  troops  and  all  others  going  out  by  expira 
tion  of  service  this  fall. 

One  hundred  thousand  new  troops  promptly  furnished  are  all  that 
General  Grant  asks  for  the  capture  of  Richmond  and  to  give  a  finishing 
blow  to  the  rebel  armies  yet  in  the  field.  The  residue  of  the  call  would 
be  adequate  for  garrisons  in  forts  and  to  guard  all  the  lines  of  communi 
cation  and  supply,  free  the  country  from  guerrillas,  give  security  to  trade, 
protect  commerce  and  travel,  and  re-establish  peace,  order,  and  tranquillity 
in  every  State.  EDWIN  M.  STANTO^T, 

Secretary  of  War. 

This  close  of  General  Sherman's  campaign  was  greeted 
with  the  greatest  exultation  by  all  the  people,  and  they 
heartily  responded  to  the  recommendations  of  the  Thanks 
giving  Proclamation,  which  the  President  at  once  issued, 
and  joined  heartily  in  the  thanks  which  he  gave  in  the 
name  of  the  nation  to  officers  and  men,  and  rejoiced  in  the 
salutes  of  one  hundred  guns  which  he  ordered  to  be  fired 
everywhere. 

This  proclamation  and  the  orders  issued  were  as  fol 
lows  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON  CITY,  September  8,  1864. 

The  signal  success  that  Divine  Providence  has  recently  vouchsafed  to 
the  operations  of  the  United  States  fleet  and  army  in  the  harbor  of  Mo 
bile,  and  the  reduction  of  Fort  Powell,  Fort  Gaines,  and  Fort  Morgan,  and 
the  glorious  achievements  of  the  army  under  Major-General  Sherman,  in 
the  State  of  Georgia,  resulting  in  the  capture  of  the  city  of  Atlanta,  call 
for  devout  acknowledgment  to  the  Supreme  Being  in  whose  hands  are 
the  destinies  of  nations.  It  is  therefore  requested  that  on  next  Sunday,  in 
all  places  of  worship  in  the  United  States,  thanksgivings  be  offered  to  Him 
for  His  mercy  in  preserving  our  national  existence  against  the  insurgent 
rebels  who  have  been  waging  a  cruel  war  against  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  for  its  overthrow,  and  also  that  prayer  be  made  for  Divine 
protection  to  our  brave  soldiers  and  their  leaders  in  the  field  who  have 
so  often  and  so  gallantly  perilled  their  lives  in  battling  with  the  enemy, 
and  for  blessings  and  comfort  from  the  Father  of  mercies  to  the  sick,' 
wounded,  and  prisoners,  and  to  the  orphans  and  widows  of  those  who 
have  fallen  in  the  service  of  their  country,  and  that  He  will  continue  u. 
uphold  the  Government  of  the  United  .States  against  all  the  efforts  of 
public  enemies  arid  secret  foes. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLV. 


35 


546  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  September  8,  1864. 

The  national  thanks  are  tendered  by  the  President  to  Admiral  Farragut 
and  Major-General  Canby,  for  the  skill  and  harmony  with  which  the  recent 
operations  in  Mobile  Harbor  and  against  Fort  Powell,  Fort  Gaines,  and 
Fort  Morgan  were  planned  and  carried  into  execution.  Also  to  Admiral 
Farragut  and  Major-General  Granger,  under  whose  immediate  command 
they  were  conducted,  and  to  the  gallant  commanders  on  sea  and  land,  and 
to  the  sailors  and  soldiers  engaged  in  the  operations,  for  their  energy  and 
courage,  which,  under  the  blessing  of  Providence,  have  been  crowned  with 
brilliant  success,  and  have  won  for  them  the  applause  and  thanks  of  the 
nation.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  September  3,  1864. 

The  national  thanks  are  tendered  by  the  President  to  Major-General 
William  T.  Sherman  and  the  gallant  officers  and  soldiers  of  his  command 
before  Atlanta,  for  the  distinguished  ability,  courage,  and  perseverance 
displayed  in  the  campaign  in  Georgia,  which  under  Divine  power  resulted 
in  the  capture  of  the  city  of  Atlanta.  The  marches,  battles,  sieges,  and 
other  military  operations  that  have  signalized  this  campaign  must  render 
it  famous  in  the  annals  of  war,  and  have  entitled  those  who  have  partici 
pated  therein  to  the  applause  and  thanks  of  the  nation. 

ABEAHAM  LINCOLN. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  September  8,  1864. 

Ordered. — First. — That  on  Monday,  the  5th  day  of  September,  com 
mencing  at  the  hour  of  twelve  o'clock  noon,  there  shall  be  given  a  salute 
of  one  hundred  guns  at  the  arsenal  and  navy-yard  at  Washington,  and  on 
Tuesday,  the  6th  of  September,  or  on  the  day  after  the  receipt  of  this 
order,  at  each  arsenal  and  navy-yard  in  the  United  States,  for  the  recent 
brilliant  achievements  of  the  fleet  and  land  forces  of  the  United  States  in 
the  harbor  of  Mobile,  and  the  reduction  of  Fort  Powell,  Fort  Gaines,  and 
Fort  Morgan.  The  Secretary  of  War  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  will 
issue  the  necessary  directions  in  their  respective  departments  for  the  exe 
cution  of  this  order. 

Second.— That  on  Wednesday,  the  7th  day  of  September,  commencing 
at  the  hour  of  twelve  o'clock  noon,  there  shall  be  fired  a  salute  of  one 
hundred  guns  at  the  arsenal  at  Washington,  and  at  New  York,  Boston, 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Pittsburg,  Newport,  Ky.,  and  at  St.  Louis,  and 
at  New  Orleans,  Mobile,  Pensacola,  Hilton  Head,  and  Newbern,  the  day 
after  the  receipt  of  this  order,  for  the  brilliant  achievements  of  the  army 
under  command  of  Major- General  Sherman,  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  and 
the  capture  of  Atlanta.  The  Secretary  of  War  will  give  directions  for 

the  execution  of  this  order. 

ABEAHAM  LINCOLN. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          547 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN  OF  1864. 

THE  PEESIDENTIAL  ELECTION. — THE  CLEVELAND  CONVENTION. — THE  CON 
VENTION  AT  BALTIMOEE. — ME.  LINCOLN'S  RENOMINATION  AND  ACCEPT 
ANCE.  —  POPULAE  FEELING  DUEING  THE  SUMMEE.  —  THE  AEGUELLER 
CASE. — THE  FOEGED  PEOCLAMATION. — THE  NIAGAEA  FALLS  CONFEEENCE. 
— THE  CHICAGO  CONVENTION. — PEOGEESS  AND  RESULT  OP  THE  CAM 
PAIGN. — POPULAE  JOY  AT  THE  RESULT. 

THE  American  people  were  approaching  another  test  of 
their  capacity  for  self-government,  in  some  respects  more 
trying  than  any  they  had  yet  encountered.  As  the  spring 
of  1864  was  passing  away,  the  official  term  of  President 
Lincoln  drew  towards  its  close,  and  the  people  were  re 
quired  to  choose  his  successor.  At  all  times  and  under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances,  the  election  of  a  Pres 
ident  is  attended  with  a  degree  of  excitement,  which  some 
of  the  wisest  theorists  have  pronounced  inconsistent  with 
the  permanent  harmony  and  safety  of  a  republican  form 
of  government.  But  that  such  an  election  should  become 
necessary  in  the  midst  of  a  civil  war,  which  wrapped  the 
whole  country  in  its  flames  and  aroused  such  intense  and 
deadly  passions  in  the  public  heart,  was  felt  to  be  fore 
most  among  the  calamities  which  had  menaced  the  land. 
The  two  great  rebel  armies  still  held  the  field.  The 
power  of  their  government  was  still  unbroken.  All  our 
attempts  to  capture  their  capital  had  proved  abortive. 
The  public  debt  was  steadily  and  rapidly  increasing. 
Under  the  resistless  pressure  of  military  necessity,  the  Gov 
ernment,  availing  itself  of  the  permissions  of  the  Consti 
tution,  had  suspended  the  great  safeguard  of  civil  freedom, 
and  dealt  with  individuals  whom  it  deemed  dangerous 
to  the  public  safety  with  as  absolute  and  relentless 
severity  as  the  most  absolute  monarchies  of  Europe  had 
ever  shown.  Taxes  were  increasing  ;  new  drafts  of  men 


548  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

to  fill  tlie  ranks  of  new  armies  were  impending  ;  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  from  the  very  beginning  hostile  to  the  war 
and  largely  imbued  with  devotion  to  the  principle  of 
State  Sovereignty  on  which  the  rebellion  rested,  and 
with  toleration  for  slavery  out  of  which  it  grew,  was 
watching  eagerly  for  every  means  of  arousing  popular 
hatred  against  the  Government,  that  they  might  secure  its 
transfer  to  their  own  hands  ;  and  the  losses,  the  agonies, 
the  desolations  of  the  war  were  beginning,  apparently,  to 
make  themselves  felt  injuriously  upon  the  spirit,  the  en 
durance,  the  hopeful  resolution  of  the  people  throughout 
the  loyal  States. 

That  under  these  circumstances  and  amidst  these  ele 
ments  of  popular  discontent  and  hostile  passion,  the 
nation  should  be  compelled  to  plunge  into  the  whirlpool 
of  a  political  contest,  was  felt  to  be  one  of  the  terrible 
necessities  which  might  involve  the  nation' s  ruin.  That 
the  nation  went  through  it,  with  a  majestic  calmness  up 
to  that  time  unknown,  and  came  out  from  it  stronger, 
more  resolute,  and  more  thoroughly  united  than  ever  be 
fore,  is  among  the  marvels  which  confound  all  theory,  and 
demonstrate  to  the  world  the  capacity  of  an  intelligent 
people  to  provide  for  every  conceivable  emergency  in  the 
conduct  of  their  own  affairs. 

Preparations  for  the  nomination  of  candidates  had  be 
gun  to  be  made,  as  usual,  early  in  the  spring  of  1864. 
Some  who  saw  most  clearly  the  necessities  of  the  future, 
had  for  some  months  before  expressed  themselves  strongly 
in  favor  of  the  renomination  of  President  Lincoln.  But 
this  step  was  contested  with  great  warmth  and  activity 
by  prominent  members  of  the  political  party  by  which 
he  had  been  nominated  and  elected  four  years  before. 
Nearly  all  the  original  Abolitionists  and  many  of  the  more 
decidedly  anti-slavery  members  of  the  Republican  party 
were  dissatisfied,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  more  rapidly 
and  more  sweepingly  enforced  their  extreme  opinions. 
Many  distinguished  public  men  resented  his  rejection  of 
their  advice,  and  many  more  had  been  alienated  by  his 
inability  to  recognize  their  claims  to  office.  The  most 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  549 

violent  opposition  came  from  those  who  had  been  most 
persistent  and  most  clamorous  in  their  exactions.  And  as 
it  was  unavoidable  that,  in  wielding  so  terrible  and  so 
absolute  a  power  in  so  terrible  a  crisis,  vast  multitudes 
of  active  and  ambitious  men  should  be  disappointed  in 
their  expectations  of  position  and  personal  gain,  the 
renomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  sure  to  be  contested  by 
a  powerful  and  organized  effort. 

At  the  very  outset  this  movement  acquired  consistency 
and  strength  by  bringing  forward  the  Hon.  S.  P.  Chase, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  a  man  of  great  political  bold 
ness  and  experience,  and  who  had  prepared  the  way  for 
such  a  step  by  a  careful  dispensation  of  the  vast  patron 
age  of  his  department,  as  the  rival  candidate.  But  it  was 
instinctively  felt  that  this  effort  lacked  the  sympathy  and 
support  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  and  it  ended  in 
the  withdrawal  of  his  name  as  a  candidate  by  Mr.  Chase 
himself. 

The  National  Committee  of  the  Union  Republican  party 
had  called  their  convention,  to  be  held  at  Baltimore,  on 
the  8th  of  June.  This  step  had  been  taken  from  a  con 
viction  of  the  wisdom  of  terminating  as  speedily  aa 
possible  all  controversy  concerning  candidates  in  the 
ranks  of  Union  men ;  and  it  was  denounced  with  the 
greatest  vehemence  by  those  who  opposed  Mr.  Lincoln' s 
nomination,  and  desired  more  time  to  infuse  their  hostility 
into  the  public  mind.  Failing  to  secure  a  postponement 
of  the  convention,  they  next  sought  to  overawe  and  dic 
tate  its  action  by  a  display  of  power,  and  the  following 
call  was  accordingly  issued  about  the  1st  of  May,  for  a 
convention  to  be  held  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on  the  31st  day 
of  that  month  : — 

TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
After  having  labored  ineffectually  to  defer,  as  far  as  was  in  our  power, 
tlje  critical  moment  when  the  attention  of  the  people  must  inevitably  be 
fixed  upon  the  selection  of  a  candidate  for  the  chief  magistracy  of  the 
country ;  after  having  interrogated  our  conscience  and  consulted  our  duty 
as  citizens,  obeying  at  once  the  sentiment  of  a  mature  conviction  and  a 
profound  affection  for  the  common  country,  we  feel  ourselves  impelled, 


550  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

on  our  own  responsibility,  to  declare  to  the  people  that  the  time  has 
come  for  all  independent  men,  jealous  of  their  liberties  and  of  the  national 
greatness,  to  confer  together,  and  unite  to  resist  the  swelling  invasion  of 
an  open,  shameless,  and  unrestrained  patronage,  which  threatens  to  in 
gulf  under  its  destructive  wave  the  rights  of  the  people,  the  liberty  and 
dignity  of  the  nation. 

Deeply  impressed  with  the  conviction  that,  in  a  time  of  revolution, 
when  the  public  attention  is  turned  exclusively  to  the  success  of  armies, 
and  is  consequently  less  vigilant  of  the  public  liberties,  the  patronage 
derived  from  the  organization  of  an  army  of  a  million  of  men,  and  an 
administration  of  affairs  which  seeks  to  control  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
country  in  favor  of  its  supreme  chief,  constitute  a  4anSer  seriously 
threatening  the  stability  of  republican  institutions,  we  declare  that  the 
principle  of  one  term,  which  has  now  acquired  nearly  the  force  of  law 
by  the  consecration  of  time,  ought  to  be  inflexibly  adhered  to  in  the  ap 
proaching  election. 

We  further  declare,  that  we  do  not  recognize  in  the  Baltimore  Conven 
tion  the  essential  conditions  of  a  truly  National  Convention.  Its  prox 
imity  to  the  centre  of  all  the  interested  influences  of  the  administration,  its 
distance  from  the  centre  of  the  country,  its  mode  of  convocation,  the 
corrupting  practices  to  which  it  has  been  and  inevita"bly  will  be  sub 
jected,  do  not  permit  the  people  to  assemble  there  with  any  expecta 
tion  of  being  able  to  deliberate  at  full  liberty.  Convinced  as  we  are 
that,  in  presence  of  the  critical  circumstances  in  which  the  nation  is 
placed,  it  is  only  in  the  energy  and  good  sense  of  the  people  that  the 
general  safety  can  be  found ;  satisfied  that  the  only  way  to  consult  it  is 
to  indicate  a  central  position,  to  which  every  one  may  go  without  too 
much  expenditure  of  means  and  time,  and  where  the  assembled  people, 
far  from  all  administrative  influence,  may  consult  freely  and  deliberate 
peaceably,  with  the  presence  of  the  greatest  possible  number  of  men, 
whose  known  principles  guarantee  their  sincere  and  enlightened  devotion 
to  the  rights  of  the  people  and  to  the  preservation  of  the  true  basis  of 
republican  government, — we  earnestly  invite  our  fellow-citizens  to  unite 
at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  on  Tuesday,  May  31,  current,  for  consultation  and 
concert  of  action  in  respect  to  the  approaching  Presidential  election. 

Two  other  calls  were  issued  after  this,  prominent 
among  the  signers  of  which  were  some  of  the  Germans 
of  Missouri  and  some  of  the  old  Radical  Abolitionists  of 
the  East. 

The  convention  thus  summoned  met  at  the  appointed 
time,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  in  number.  1ST o  call  had 
ever  been  put  forward  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  it, 
and  no  one  could  tell  whether  its  members  represented 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          551 

v 

any  constituency  other  than  themselves.  They  came  from 
fifteen  different  States  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  Ibut 
every  one  knew  that  at  the  East  the  movement  had  no 
strength  whatever.  An  effort  was  made  by  some  of 
them  to  bring  forward  the  name  of  General  Grant  as  a 
candidate,  but  the  friends  of  Fremont  formed  altogether 
too  large  a  majority  for  that. 

General  John  Cochrane,  of  New  York,  was  chosen  to 
preside  over  the  convention.  In  the  afternoon  the  plat 
form  was  presented,  consisting  of  thirteen  brief  resolu 
tions,  favoring  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  habeas  corpus ',  of  the  right  of  asylum,  and 
the  Monroe  doctrine,  recommending  amendments  of  the 
Constitution  to  prevent  the  re-establishment  of  slavery, 
and  to  provide  for  the  election  of  President  and  Vice- 
President  for  a  single  term  only,  and  by  the  direct  vote 
of  the  people,  and  also  urging  the  confiscation  of  the 
lands  of  the  rebels  and  their  distribution  among  the  soj 
diers  and  actual  settlers. 

The  platform  having  been  adopted,  the  convention  pro 
ceeded  to  nominate  General  Fremont  for  President  by 
acclamation.  General  Cochrane  was  nominated  for  Yice- 
President.  The  title  of  "The  Radical  Democracy "  was 
chosen  for  the  supporters  of  the  ticket,  a  National  Com 
mittee  was  appointed,  and  the  convention  adjourned. 

General  Fremont's  letter  of  acceptance  was  dated  June 
4th.  Its  main  scope  was  an  attack  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  for 
unfaithfulness  to  the  principles  he  was  elected  to  defend, 
and  upon  his  Administration  for  incapacity  and  selfishness, 
and  for  what  the  writer  called  "its  disregard  of  constitu 
tional  rights,  its  violation  of  personal  liberty  and  the 
liberty  of  the  press,  and,  as  a  crowning  shame,  its  aban 
donment  of  the  right  of  asylum,  dear  to  all  free  nations 
abroad." 

The  platform  he  approved,  with  the  exception  of  the 
proposed  confiscation.     He  intimated  that  if  the  Balti 
more  Convention  would  nominate  any  one  but  Mr.  Lin 
coin  he  would  not  stand  in  the  way  of  a  union  of  all  upon 
that  nominee  ;  but  said,  "  If  Mr.  Lincoln  be  renominated, 


552  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

as  I  believe  it  would  be  fatal  to  the  country  to  indorse  a 
policy  and  renew  a  power  which  has  cost  us  the  lives  of 
thousands  of  men  and  needlessly  put  the  country  on  the 
road  to  bankruptcy,  there  will  remain  no  alternative  but  to 
organize  against  him  every  element  of  conscientious  op 
position,  with  the  view  to  prevent  the  misfortune  of  his 
re-election."  And  he  accepted  the  nomination,  and  an 
nounced  that  he  had  resigned  his  commission  in  the 
army. 

The  convention,  the  nomination,  and  the  letter  of  ac 
ceptance,  fell  dead  upon  the  popular  feeling.  The  time 
had  been  when  Fremont's  name  had  power,  especially 
with  the  young  men  of  the  country.  Many  had  felt  that 
he  had  received  less  than  he  deserved  at  the  hands  of 
the  Administration,  and  that  if  the  opportunity  had  been 
afforded  he  would  have  rendered  to  the  country  distin 
guished  and  valuable  service.  But  the  position  which  he 
had  here  taken  at  once  separated  him  from  those  who  had 
been  his  truest  friends,  whose  feelings  were  accurately 
expressed  by  Governor  Morton,  of  Indiana,  in  a  speech  at 
Indianapolis  on  the  12th  of  June,  when  he  said  :  "I  car 
ried  the  standard  of  General  Fremont  to  the  best  of  my 
poor  ability  through  the  canvass  of  1856,  and  I  have 
since  endeavored  to  sustain  him,  not  only  as  a  politician, 
but  as  a  military  chieftain,  and  never  until  I  read  this 
letter  did  I  have  occasion  to  regret  what  I  have  done.  It 
has  been  read  with  joy  by  his  enemies  and  with  pain  by 
his  friends,  and,  omitting  one  or  two  sentences,  there  is 
nothing  in  it  that  might  not  have  been  written  or  sub 
scribed  without  inconsistency  by  Mr.  Vallandigham." 

The  next  form  which  the  effort  to  prevent  Mr.  Ln> 
coin' s  nomination  and  election  took,  was  an  effort  to  bring 
forward  General  Grant  as  a  candidate.  A  meeting  had 
been  called  for  the  4th  of  June,  in  ISTew  York,  ostensibly 
to  express  the  gratitude  of  the  nation  to  Mm  and  the  sol 
diers  under  his  command,  for  their  labors  and  successes. 
As  a  matter  of  course  the  meeting  was  large  and  enthusi 
astic.  President  Lincoln  wrote  the  folio  wins;  letter  in 
answer  to  an  invitation  to  attend  : — 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  553 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  Junt  3,  1864. 

Hon.  F.  A.  OONKLING  and  others : 

GENTLEMEN  : — 'Your  letter,  inviting  me  to  be  present  at  a  mass  meet 
ing  of  loyal  citizens,  to  be  held  at  New  York,  on  the  4th  instant, 
for  the  purpose  of  expressing  gratitude  to  Lieutenant-General  Grant  for 
his  signal  services,  was  received  yesterday.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to 
attend.  I  approve,  nevertheless,  of  whatever  may  tend  to  strengthen  and 
sustain  General  Grant  and  the  noble  armies  DOW  under  his  direction. 
My  previous  high  estimate  of  General  Grant  has  been  maintained  and 
heightened  by  what  has  occurred  in  the  remarkable  campaign  he  is  now 
conducting,  while  the  magnitude  and  difficulty  of  the  task  before  him 
does  not  prove  less  than  I  expected.  He  and  his  brave  soldiers  are  now 
in  the  midst  of  their  great  trial,  and  I  trust  that  at  your  meeting  you 
will  so  shape  your  good  words  that  they  may  turn  to  men  and  guns, 
moving  to  his  and  their  support. 

Yours  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

Whatever  political  purposes  prompted  the  call  for  this 
meeting,  they  were  entirely  overborne  by  the  simple  but 
resistless  appeal,  made  by  the  President  in  this  letter,  to 
the  patriotism  of  the  country.  Its  effect  was  to  stimulate 
instantly  and  largely  the  effort  to  fill  up  the  ranks  of  the 
army,  and  thus  aid  General  Grant  in  the  great  campaign 
by  which  he  hoped  to  end  the  war.  In  a  private  letter 
to  a  personal  friend,  however,  General  Grant  put  a 
decisive  check  upon  all  these  attempts  of  politicians  to 
make  his  name  the  occasion  of  division  among  Union 
men,  by  peremptorily  refusing  to  alloiv  himself  to  be 
made  a  candidate,  and  by  reiterating  in  still  more  emphatic 
and  hopeful  terms  the  President' s  appeal  to  the  people 
for  aid  and  support. 

None  of  these  schemes  of  ambitious  aspirants  to  politi 
cal  leadership  had  any  effect  upon  the  settled  sentiment 
and  purpose  of  the  great  body  of  the  people.  They 
appreciated  the  importance  of  continuing  the  administra 
tion  of  the  government  in  the  same  channel,  and  saw 
clearly  enough  that  nothing  would  more  thoroughly 
impress  upon  the  rebels  and  the  world  the  determination 
of  the  people  to  preserve  the  Union  at  all  hazards,  and  at 
whatever  cost,  than  the  indorsement  by  a  popular  vote, 
in  spite  of  all  mistakes  and  defects  of  policy,  of  the 


554  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

President,  by  whom  the  war  had  thus  far  been  conducted. 
The  nation,  moreover,  had  entire  faith  in  his  integrity, 
his  sagacity,  and  his  unselfish  devotion  to  the  public 
good. 

The  Union  and  Republican  Convention  met  at  Balti 
more  on  the  day  appointed,  the  8th  of  June.  It  numbered 
nearly  five  hundred  delegates,  chosen  by  the  constituents 
of  each  Congressional  district  of  the  loyal  States,  and  by 
the  people  in  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  and  Arkansas,  in 
which  the  rebel  authority  had  been  overthrown,  and 
who  sought  thus  to  renew  their  political  relations  with 
the  parties  of  the  Union.  The  Rev.  Robert  J.  Breckin- 
ridge,  of  Kentucky,  was  appointed  temporary  chairman, 
and  aroused  the  deepest  enthusiasm  of  the  convention 
by  his  patriotic  address  on  taking  the  chair.  He  pro 
claimed  openly  his  hostility  to  slavery,  and  demanded,  as 
essential  to  the  existence  of  the  nation,  the  complete 
overthrow  of  the  rebellion,  and  condign  punishment  for 
the  traitors  by  whom  it  had  been  set  on  foot.  In  refer 
ence  to  the  nomination  of  a  presidential  candidate,  he 
simply  expressed  the  common  sentiment  when  he  said  :— 

Nothing  can  be  more  plain  than  the  fact  that  you  are  here  as  rep 
resentatives  of  a  great  nation — voluntary  representatives,  chosen  with 
out  forms  of  law,  but  as  really  representing  the  feelings  and  principles, 
and,  if  you  choose,  the  prejudices  of  the  American  people,  as  if  it  were 
written  in  their  laws  and  already  passed  by  their  votes.  For  the  man 
that  you  will  nominate  here  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  and 
ruler  of  a  great  people,  in  a  great  crisis,  is  just  as  certain,  I  suppose, 
to  become  that  ruler  as  any  tiling  under  heaven  is  certain  before  it  is 
done.  And  moreover  you  will  allow  me  to  say,  though  perhaps  it  is 
hardly  strictly  proper  that  I  should,  but  as  fur  as  I  know  your  opin 
ions,  I  suppose  it  is  just  as  certain  now,  before  you  utter  it,  whose  name 
you  will  utter — one  which  will  be  responded  to  from  one  end  to  the 
other  of  this  nation,  as  it  will  be  after  it  has  been  uttered  and  recorded 
by  your  secretary." 

The  permanent  organization  was  effected  in  the 
afternoon,  by  the  choice  of  Hon.  William  Dennison,  Ex- 
Governor  of  Ohio,  as  president,  with  twenty-three  vice- 
presidents,  each  from  a  different  State,  and  twenty- three 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  555 

secretaries.     After  a  speech  from  Governor  Dennison,  and 
another  from  Parson  Brownlow,    of  Tennessee,  the  con 
vention    adjourned    till    Wednesday    morning    at    nine- 
o'clock. 

The  first  "business  which  came  up  when  the  conven 
tion  reassembled,  was  the  report  of  the  Committee  on 
Credentials.  There  were  two  important  questions  which 
arose  upon  this  report.  The  first  was  the  Missouri  ques 
tion — there  being  a  double  delegation  present  from  that 
State.  The  committee  had  reported  in  fayor  of  admitting 
the  delegation  called  the  Radical  Union  Delegation  to 
seats  in  the  convention,  as  the  only  one  elected  in  con 
formity  with  usage  and  in  regular  form.  An  effort  was 
made  to  modify  this  by  admitting  both  delegations  to  seats, 
and  allowing  them  to  cast  the  vote  of  the  State  only  in 
case  of  their  agreement.  This  proposition,  however,  was 
voted  down  by  a  large  majority,  and  the  report  of  the 
committee  on  that  point  was  adopted.  This  result  had 
special  importance  in  its  bearing  upon  the  vexed  state  of 
politics  in  Missouri,  which  had  hitherto,  as  we  have  seen, 
caused  Mr.  Lincoln  much  trouble. 

The  next  question,  which  had  still  greater  importance, 
related  to  the  admission  of  the  delegations  from  Tennessee, 
Arkansas,  and  Louisiana.  Congress  had  passed  a  resolu 
tion  substantially  excluding  States  which  had  been  in  re 
bellion  from  participation  in  national  affairs  until  specifi 
cally  readmitted  to  the  Union — while  it  was  known  that 
President  Lincoln  regarded  all  ordinances  of  secession  as 
simply  null  and  void,  incapable  of  aifecting  the  legal  rela 
tions  of  the  States  to  the  National  Government.  At  the 
very  opening  of  the  convention  an  effort  had  been  made 
by  Hon.  Thaddeus  Stevens,  of  Pennsylvania,  to  secure 
the  adoption  of  a  resolution  against  the  admission  of  dele 
gates  from  any  States  thus  situated.  This,  however,  had 
failed,  and  the  whole  matter  was  referred  to  the  Committee 
on  Credentials,  of  which  Hon.  Preston  King,  of  New 
York,  had  been  appointed  chairman.  Mr.  King,  on  be 
half  of  this  committee  and  under  its  instructions,  reported 
in  favor  of  admitting  these  delegates  to  seats,  but  without 


556  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

giving  them  the  right  to  vote.  Mr.  King,  for  himself, 
however,  and  as  the  only  member  of  the  committee  who 
dissented  from  its  report,  moved  to  amend  it  by  giving 
them  equal  rights  in  convention  with  delegates  from  the 
other  States.  This  amendment  was  adopted  by  a  large 
majority,  and  affected  in  a  marked  degree  the  subsequent 
action  of  the  convention.  The  report  was  further  amend 
ed  so  as  to  admit  delegates  from  the  Territories  of  Colo 
rado,  Nebraska,  and  Nevada,  and  also  from  Florida  and 
Virginia,  without  the  right  to  vote — and  excluding  a 
delegation  from  South  Carolina.  Thus  amended  it  was 
adopted. 

Mr.  H.  J.  Raymond,  of  New  York,  as  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Resolutions,  then  reported  the  following 
declaration  of  principles  and  policy  for  the  Union  and 
Republican  party : — 

THE  BALTIMORE  PLATFORM. 

iteaolced,  That  it  is  the  highest  duty  of  every  American  citizen  to 
maintain,  against  all  their  enemies,  the  integrity  of  the  Union  and  the  par 
amount  authority  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States ;  and 
that,  laying  aside  all  differences  of  political  opinion,  we  pledge  our 
selves  as  Union  men,  animated  by  a  common  sentiment  and  aiming  at  a 
common  object,  to  do  every  thing  in  our  power  to  aid  the  Government 
in  quelling  by  force  of  arms  the  rebellion  now  raging  against  its  author 
ity,  and  in  bringing  to  the  punishment  due  to  their  crimes  the  rebels  and 
traitors  arrayed  against  it. 

Resolved,  That  we  approve  the  determination  of  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  not  to  compromise  with  rebels,  or  to  offer  any  terms  of 
peace  except  such  as  may  be  based  upon  an  unconditional  surrender  of 
their  hostility  and  a  return  to  their  just  allegiance  to  the  Constitution 
and  laws  of  the  United  States ;  and  that  we  call  upon  the  Government 
to  maintain  this  position  and  to  prosecute  the  war  with  the  utmost  pos 
sible  vigor  to  the  complete  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  in  full  reliance 
upon  the  self-sacrificing  patriotism,  the  heroic  valor,  and  the  undying 
devotion  of  the  American  people  to  their  country  and  its  free  institu 
tions. 

Resolved,  That  as  slavery  was  the  cause  and  now  constitutes  the 
strength  of  this  rebellion,  and  as  it  must  be  always  and  everywhere  hos 
tile  to  the  principles  of  republican  government,  justice  and  the  national 
safety  demand  its  utter  and  complete  extirpation  from  the  soil  of  the 
republic ;  and  that  while  we  uphold  and  maintain  the  acts  and  proclama- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          557 

tions  by  which  the  Government,  in  its  own  defence,  has  aimed  a  death 
blow  at  this  gigantic  evil,  we  are  in  favor,  furthermore,  of  such  an 
amendment  to  the  Constitution,  to  be  made  by  the  people,  in  confor 
mity  with  its  provisions,  as  shall  terminate  and  forever  prohibit  the 
existence  of  slavery  within  the  limits  or  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United 
States. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  American  people  are  due  to  the  sol 
diers  and  sailors  of  the  army  and  the  navy,  who  have  perilled  their  lives 
in  defence  of  their  country  and  in  vindication  of  the  honor  of  its  flag ; 
that  the  nation  owes  to  them  some  permanent  recognition  of  their  patri 
otism  and  their  valor,  and  ample  and  permanent  provision  for  those  of 
their  survivors  who  have  received  disabling  and  honorable  wounds  in  the 
service  of  their  country ;  and  that  the  memories  of  those  who  have  fallen 
in  its  defence  shall  be  held  in  grateful  and  everlasting  remembrance. 

Resolved,  That  we  approve  and  applaud  the  practical  wisdom,  the  un 
selfish  patriotism,  and  the  unswerving  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
principles  of  American  liberty  with  which  Abraham  Lincoln  has  dis 
charged,  under  circumstances  of  unparalleled  difficulty,  the  great  duties 
and  responsibilities  of  the  Presidential  office;  that  we  approve  and  in 
dorse,  as  demanded  by  the  emergency  and  essential  to  the  preservation 
of  the  nation,  and  as  within  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution,  the  meas 
ures  and  acts  which  he  has  adopted  to  defend  the  nation  against  its  open 
and  secret  foes;  that  we  approve  especially  the  Proclamation  of  Eman 
cipation  and  the  employment  as  Union  soldiers  of  men  heretofore  held 
in  slavery ;  and  that  we  have  full  confidence  in  his  determination  to  carry 
these  and  all  other  constitutional  measures,  essential  to  the  salvation  of 
the  country,  into  full  and  complete  effect. 

Resolved,  That  we  deem  it  essential  to  the  general  welfare  that  har 
mony  should  prevail  in  our  national  councils,  and  we  regard  as  worthy 
of  public  confidence  and  official  trust  those  only  who  cordially  indorse 
the  principles  proclaimed  in  these  resolutions,  and  which  should  charac 
terize  the  administration  of  the  Government. 

Resolved,  That  the  Government  owes  to  all  men  employed  in  its 
armies,  without  regard  to  distinction  of  color,  the  full  protection  of  the 
laws  of  war,  and  that  any  violation  of  these  laws,  or  the  usages  of  civ 
ilized  nations  in  time  of  war,  by  the  rebels  now  in  arms,  should  be  made 
the  subject  of  prompt  and  full  redress. 

Resolved,  That  the  foreign  immigration  which  in  the  past  has  added  so 
much  to  the  wealth,  development  of  resources,  and  increase  of  power  of 
this  nation,  the  asylum  of  the  oppressed  of  all  nations,  should  be  fostered 
and  encouraged  by  a  liberal  and  just  policy. 

Resolved,  That  we  are  in  favor  of  a  speedy  construction  of  the  railroad 
to  the  Pacific  coast. 

Resolved,  That  the  national  faith,  pledged  for  the  redemption  of  the 
public  debt,  must  be  kept  inviolate,  and  that  for  this  purpose  we  recom 
mend  economy  and  rigid  responsibility  in  the  public  expenditures,  and  a 


558  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

vigorous  and  just  system  of  taxation,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  loyal 
State  to  sustain  the  credit  and  promote  the  use  of  the  national  currency. 
Resolved,  That  we  approve  the  position  taken  by  the  Government, 
that  the  people  of  the  United  States  can  never  regard  with  indifference 
the  attempt  of  any  European  power  to  overthrow  by  force,  or  to  supplant 
by  fraud,  the  institutions  of  any  republican  government  on  the  Western 
Continent ;  and  that  they  will  view  with  extreme  jealousy,  as  menacing 
to  the  peace  and  independence  of  their  own  country,  the  efforts  of  any 
such  power  to  obtain  new  footholds  for  monarchical  governments,  sus 
tained  by  foreign  military  force,  in  near  proximity  to  the  United  States. 

These  resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously  and  with 
great  enthusiasm.  A  motion  was  then  made  that  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  be  nominated  for  re-election  by  acclamation, 
but  this  was  afterwards  withdrawn,  and  a  ballot  taken 
in  the  usual  way  ;  the  only  votes  that  were  not  given 
for  Mr.  Lincoln  were  the  twenty-two  votes  of  Missouri, 
which,  as  was  explained  by  the  chairman  of  the  delega 
tion,  were  given  under  positive  instructions  for  General 
Grant.  Mr.  Lincoln  received  four  hundred  and  ninety- 
seven  votes,  and  on  motion  of  Mr.  Hume,  of  Missouri,  his 
nomination  was  made  unanimous,  amid  intense  enthu 
siasm. 

The  contest  over  the  Vice-Presidency  was  spirited 
but  brief.  The  candidates  before  the  convention  were 
Vice-President  Hamlin,  Hon.  D.  S.  Dickinson,  of  New 
York,  and  Andrew  Johnson,  of  Tennessee.  The  strug 
gle  lay  however  between  Mr.  Johnson  and  Mr.  Dickinson. 
The  action  of  the  Convention  in  admitting  the  delegates 
from  Tennessee  to  full  membership  had  a  powerful  effect 
in  determining  the  result.  Mr.  Johnson  received  two 
hundred  votes  on  the  first  call  of  the  States,  and  it  being 
manifest  that  he  was  to  be  the  nominee,  other  States 
changed,  till  the  vote,  when  declared,  stood  four  hundred 
and  ninety -two  for  Johnson,  seventeen  for  Dickinson,  and 
nine  for  Hamlin. 

The  National  Executive  Committee  was  then  appointed, 
and  the  convention  adjourned.  On  Thursday,  June  9, 
the  committee  appointed  to  inform  Mr.  Lincoln  of  his 
nomination  waited  upon  him  at  the  White  House.  Gov 
ernor  Dennison,  the  President  of  the  Convention  and 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  559 

Chairman    of   the    Committee,    addressed    him    as    fol 
lows : — 

ME.  PRESIDENT  : — The  National  Union  Convention,  which  closed  its 
sittings  at  Baltimore  yesterday,  appointed  a  committee,  consisting  of  one 
from  each  State,  with  myself  as  chairman,  to  inform  you  of  your  unani 
mous  nomination  by  that  convention  for  election  to  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States.  That  committee,  I  have  the  honor  of  now  inform 
ing  you,  is  present.  On  its  behalf  I  have  also  the  honor  of  presenting  you 
with  a  copy  of  the  resolutions  or  platform  adopted  by  that  convention,  as 
expressive  of  its  sense  and  of  the  sense  of  the  loyal  people  of  the  country 
which  it  represents,  of  the  principles  and  policy  that  should  characterize 
the  administration  of  the  Government  in  the  present  condition  of  the 
country.  I  need  not  say  to  you,  sir,  that  the  convention,  in  thus  unani 
mously  nominating  you  for  re-election,  but  gave  utterance  to  the  almost 
universal  voice  of  the  loyal  people  of  the  country.  To  doubt  of  your 
triumphant  election  would  be  little  short  of  abandoning  the  hope  of  a  final 
suppression  of  the  rebellion  and  the  restoration  of  the  government  over  the 
insurgent  States.  Neither  the  convention  nor  those  represented  by  that 
body  entertained  any  doubt  as  to  the  final  result,  under  your  administra 
tion,  sustained  jbj  the  loyal  people,  and  by  our  noble  army  and  gallant 
navy.  Neither  did  the  convention,  nor  do  this  committee,  doubt  the 
speedy  suppression  of  this  most  wicked  and  unprovoked  rebellion. 

[A  copy  of  the  resolutions,  which  had  been  adopted,  was  here  handed 
to  the  President.] 

I  would  add,  Mr.  President,  that  it  would  be  the  pleasure  of  the  com 
mittee  to  communicate  to  you  within  a  few  days,  through  one  of  its  most 
accomplished  members,  Mr.  Curtis,  of  New  York,  by  letter,  more  at  length 
the  circumstances  under  which  you  have  been  placed  in  nomination  for 
the  Presidency. 

The  President  said  in  response  :— 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  COMMITTEE: — I  will  neither 
conceal  my  gratification,  nor  restrain  the  expression  of  my  gratitude,  that 
the  Union  people,  through  their  convention,  in  the  continued  effort  to 
save  and  advance  the  nation,  have  deemed  me  not  unworthy  to  remain  in 
my  present  position.  I  know  no  reason  to  doubt  that  I  shall  accept  the 
nomination  tendered;  and  yet,  perhaps,  I  should  not  declare  definitely 
before  reading  and  considering  what  is  called  the  platform.  I  will  say 
now,  however,  that  I  approve  the  declaration  in  favor  of  so  amending  the 
Constitution  as  to  prohibit  slavery  throughout  the  nation.  When  the 
people  in  revolt,  with  the  hundred  days'  explicit  notice  that  they  could 
within  those  days  resume  their  allegiance  without  the  overthrow  of  their 
institutions,  and  that  they  could  not  resume  it  afterward,  elected  to  stand 
out,  such  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  as  is  now  proposed  became  a 


560  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

fitting  and  necessary  conclusion  to  the  final  success  of  the  Union  cause. 
Such  alone  can  meet  and  cover  all  cavils.  I  now  perceive  its  importance 
sind  embrace  it.  In  the  joint  names  of  Liberty  and  Union  let  us  labor  to 
give  it  legal  form  and  practical  effect. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  President' s  speech,  all  of  the 
committee  shook  him  cordially  by  the  hand  and  offered 
their  personal  congratulations. 

On  the  same  afternoon  a  deputation  from  the  National 
Union  League  waited  upon  the  President,  and  the  chair 
man  addressed  him  as  follows  : — 

MR.  PRESIDENT  : — I  have  the  honor  of  introducing  to  you  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  Union  League  of  the  Loyal  States,  to  congratulate  you 
upon  your  renornination,  and  to  assure  you  that  we  will  not  fail  at  the  polls 
to  give  you  the  support  that  your  services  in  the  past  so  highly  deserve. 
We  feel  honored  in  doing  this,  for  we  are  assured  that  we  are  aiding  in 
re-electing  to  the  proud  position  of  President  of  the  United  States  one  so 
highly  worthy  of  it — one  among  not  the  least  of  whose  claims  is  that  he 

was  the  emancipator  of  four  millions  of  bondmen. 

> 

The  President  replied  as  follows  : — 

GENTLEMEN  : — I  can  only  say  in  response  to  the  remarks  of  your  chair 
man,  that  I  am  very  grateful  for  the  renewed  confidence  which  has  been 
accorded  to  me,  both  by  the  convention  and  by  the  National  League.  I 
am  not  insensible  at  all  to  the  personal  compliment  there  is  in  this,  yet  I 
do  not  allow  myself  to  believe  that  any  but  a  small  portion  of  it  is  to  be 
appropriated  as  a  personal  compliment  to  me.  The  convention  and  the 
nation,  I  am  assured,  are  alike  animated  by  a  higher  view  of  the  interests  of 
the  country,  for  the  present  and  the  great  future,  and  the  part  I  am  entitled 
to  appropriate  as  a  compliment  is  only  that  part  which  I  may  lay  hold  of  as 
being  the  opinion  of  the  convention  and  of  the  League,  that  I  am  not  en 
tirely  unworthy  to  be  intrusted  with  the  place  I  have  occupied  for  the 
\ast  three  years.  I  have  not  permitted  myself,  gentlemen,  to  conclude 
that  I  am  the  best  man  in  the  country;  but  I  am  reminded  in  this  con 
nection  of  a  story  of  an  old  Dutch  farmer,  who  remarked  to  a  companion 
once  that  "  it  was  not  best  to  swap  horses  when  crossing  a  stream." 

On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  the  President  was  ser 
enaded  "by  the  delegation  from  Ohio,  and  to  them  and 
the  large  crowd  which  had  gathered  there,  he  made  the 
following  "brief  speech : — 

GENTLEMEN: — I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  this  compliment.  I 
have  just  being  saying,  and  will  repeat  it,  that  the  hardest  of  all  speeches  I 


STAIE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LIM.OLN.  661 

have  to  answer  is  a  serenade.  I  never  know  what  to  say  on  these  occa 
sions.  I  suppose  that  you  have  done  me  this  kindness  in  connection  with 
the  action  of  the  Baltimore  Convention,  which  has  recently  taken  place, 
and  with  which,  of  course,  I  am  very  well  satisfied.  What  we  want  still 
more  than  Baltimore  Conventions,  or  Presidential  elections,  is  success 
under  General  Grant.  I  propose  that  you  constantly  bear  in  mind  that 
the  support  you  owe  to  the  brave  officers  and  soldiers  in  the  field  is  of  the 
very  first  importance,  and  we  should  therefore  bend  all  our  energies  to  that 
•  point.  Now  without  detaining  you  any  longer,  I  propose  that  you  help  mo 
to  close  up  what  I  am  now  saying  with  three  rousing  cheers  for  General 
Grant  and  the  officers  and  soldiers  under  his  command. 

The  rousing  cheers  were  given — Mr.  Lincoln  himself 
leading  off,  and  waving  his  hat  as  earnestly  as  any  one 
present. 

The  written  address  of  the  Committee  of  the  Convention 
announcing  his  nomination,  sent  to  him  a  few  days  after 
wards,  was  as  follows  :— 

NEW  YORK,  June  14, 1861 
Hon.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  : 

SIR: — The  National  Union  Convention,  which  assembled  in  Baltimore 
on  June  7th,  1864,  has  instructed  us  to  inform  you  that  you  were  nomi 
nated  with  enthusiastic  unanimity  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States 
for  four  years  from  the  4th  of  March  next. 

The  resolutions  of  the  convention,  which  we  have  already  had  the 
pleasure  of  placing  in  your  hands,  are  a  full  and  clear  statement  of  the 
principles  which  inspired  its  action,  and  which,  as  we  believe,  the  great 
body  of  Union  men  in  the  country  heartily  approve.  Whether  those 
resolutions  express  the  national  gratitude  to  our  soldiers  and  sailors,  or 
the  national  scorn  of  compromise  with  rebels,  and  consequent  dishonor, 
or  the  patriotic  duty  of  union  and  success ;  whether  they  approve  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  the  Constitutional  Amendment,  the  em 
ployment  of  former  slaves  as  Union  soldiers,  or  the  solemn  obligation  of 
the  Government  promptly  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  every  soldier  of  the 
Union,  of  whatever  color  or  race ;  whether  they  declare  the  inviolability 
of  the  plighted  faith  of  the  nation,  or  offer  the  national  hospitality  to  the 
oppressed  of  every  land,  or  urge  the  union  by  railroad  of  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  Oceans ;  whether  they  recommend  public  economy  and  vigorous 
taxation,  or  assert  the  fixed  popular  opposition  to  the  establishment  by 
armed  force  of  foreign  monarchies  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the 
United  States,  or  declare  that  those  only  are  worthy  of  official  trust  who 
approve  unreservedly  the  views  and  policy  indicated  in  the  resolutions — 
they  were  equally  hailed  with  the  heartiness  of  profound  conviction. 

Believing  with  you,  sir,  that  this  is  the  people's  war  for  the  maintenance 
of  a  Government  which  you  have  justly  described  as  "of  the  people,  by 
36 


562  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  people,  for  the  people,"  we  are  very  sure  that  you  will  be  glad  to 
know,  not  only  from  the  resolutions  themselves,  but  from  the  singular 
harmony  and  enthusiasm  with  which  they  were  adopted,  how  warm  is 
the  popular  welcome  of  every  measure  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war 
which  is  as  vigorous,  unmistakable,  and  unfaltering  as  the  national  pur 
pose  itself.  No  right,  for  instance,  is  so  precious  and  sacred  to  the 
American  heart  as  that  of  personal  liberty.  Its  violation  is  regarded 
with  just,  instant,  and  universal  jealousy.  Yet,  in  this  hour  of  peril, 
every  faithful  citizen  concedes  that,  for  the  sake  of  national  existence  and 
the  common  welfare,  individual  liberty  may,  as  the  Constitution  provides 
in  case  of  rebellion,  be  sometimes  summarily  constrained,  asking  only 
with  painful  anxiety  that  in  every  instance,  and  to  the  least  detail,  that 
absolute  necessary  power  shall  not  be  hastily  or  unwisely  exercised. 

We  believe,  sir,  that  the  honest  will  of  the  Union  men  of  the.  country 
was  never  more  truly  represented  than  in  this  convention.  Their  pur 
pose  we  believe  to  be  the  overthrow  of  armed  rebels  in  the  field,  and  the 
security  of  permanent  peace  and  union,  by  liberty  and  justice,  under  the 
Constitution.  That  these  results  are  to  be  achieved  amid  cruel  perplex 
ities,  they  are  fully  aware.  That  they  are  to  be  reached  only  through 
cordial  unanimity  of  counsel,  is  undeniable.  That  good  men  may  some 
times  differ  as  to  the  means  and  the  time,  they  know.  That  in  the 
conduct  of  all  human  affairs  the  highest  duty  is  to  determine,  in  the 
angry  conflict  of  passion,  how  much  good  may  be  practically  accom 
plished,  is  their  sincere  persuasion.  They  have  watched  your  official 
course,  therefore,  with  unflagging  attention;  and  amid  the  bitter  taunts 
of  eager  friends  and  the  fierce  denunciation  of  enemies,  now  moving  too 
fast  for  some,  now  too  slowly  for  others,  they  have  seen  you  throughout 
this  tremendous  contest  patient,  sagacious,  faithful,  just—leaning  upon 
the  heart  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  and  satisfied  to  be  moved  by  ita 
mighty  pulsations. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that,  long  before  the  convention  met,  the  popular 
instinct  indicated  you  as  its  candidate;  and  the  convention,  therefore, 
merely  recorded  the  popular  will.  Your  character  and  career  prove 
your  unswerving  fidelity  to  the  cardinal  principles  of  American  liberty 
and  of  the  American  Constitution.  In  the  name  of  that  liberty  and  Con 
stitution,  sir,  we  earnestly  request  your  acceptance  of  this  nomination ; 
reverently  commending  our  beloved  country,  and  you,  its  Chief  Magis 
trate,  with  all  its  brave  sons  who,  on  sea  and  land,  are  faithfully  defend 
ing  the  good  old  American  cause  of  equal  rights,  to  the  blessing  o 
Almighty  God. 

We  are,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  friends  and  fellow-citizens.    ^ 

WM  DEXNISON,  O.,  Chairman.  W.  BUSFTNELL,  111. 

JOSIAH  DBUMMOND,  Maine.  L.  P.  ALEXANDER,  Mich. 

Tnos.  E.  SAWYER,  N.  II.  A.  W.  RANDALL,  Wis. 

RKADI.KY  BART.OW,  Vt.  A.  OLIVF.R.  Iowa. 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  563 

A.  If.  BULLOCK,  Mass.  THOMAS  SIMPSON,  Minn. 

A.  M.  GAMMELL,  R.  I.  JOHN  BIDWELL,  Cal. 

0.  S.  BUSHNELL,  Conn.  THOMAS  H.  PEARNE,  Oregon 

G.  W.  CTJETIS,  N.  Y.  LEROY  KRAMER,  West  Ya. 

W.  A.  NEWELL,  N.  J.  A.  0.  WILDER,  Kansas. 

HENRY  JOHNSON,  Penn.  M.  M.  BEIEN,  Tennessee. 

N.  B.  SMITHEES,  Del.  J.  P.  GEEVES,  Nevada. 

W.  L.  W.  SEABROOK,  Md.  A.  A.  ATOCHA,  La. 

JOHN  F.  HUME,  Mo.  A.  S.  PADDOCK,  Nebraska. 

G.  W.  HITE,  Ky.  VALENTINE  DELL,  Arkansas, 

E.  P.  TYFFE,  Ohio.  JOHN  A.  NYE,  Colorado. 

CYRUS  M.  ALLEN,  Ind.  A.  B.  SLOANAKER,  Utah. 


REPLY   OP   ME.    LINCOLN. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  June  27,  1864 

HON.  WM.  DENNISON-  and  others,  a  Committee  of  the  Union  National  Con 
vention: 

GENTLEMEN:—  Your  letter  of  the  14th  inst.,  formally  notifying  me  that 
I  havo  been  nominated  by  the  convention  you  represent  for  the  Presi 
dency  of  the  United  States  for  four  years  from  the  4th  of  March  next,  has 
been  received.  The  nomination  is  gratefully  accepted,  as  the  resolution 
of  the  convention,  called  the  platform,  are  heartily  approved. 

While  the  resolution  in  regard  to  the  supplanting  of  republican  govern 
ment  upon  the  Western  Continent  is  fully  concurred  in,  there  might  be 
misunderstanding  were  I  not  to  say  that  the  position  of  the  Government 
in  relation  to  the  action  of  France  in  Mexico,  as  assumed  through  the 
State  Department  and  indorsed  by  the  convention  among  the  measures 
and  acts  of  the  Executive,  will  be  faithfully  maintained  so  long  as  the 
state  of  facts  shall  leave  that  position  pertinent  and  applicable. 

I  am  especially  gratified  that  the  soldier  and  seaman  were  not  forgotten 
by  the  convention,  as  they  forever  must  and  will  be  remembered  by  the 
grateful  country  for  whose  salvation  they  devote  their  lives. 

Thanking  you  for  the  kind  and  complimentary  terms  in  which  you 
have  communicated  the  nomination  and  other  proceedings  of  the  con- 
vention,  I  subscribe  myself, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


^  platform  adopted  by  the  Baltimore  Convention 
met  with  the  general  approval  of  those  of  the  people  who 
claimed  to  be  the  supporters  of  the  'Government.  One 
exception  was,  however,  found  In  the  person  of  Mr. 
Charles  Gibson,  Solicitor  of  the  United  States  in  the 


564  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Court  of  Claims  at  St.  Louis,  who,  considering,  as  he 
said,  that  that  platform  rendered  his  retention  of  office 
under  Mr.  Lincoln' s  Administration  wholly  useless  to  the 
country,  as  well  as  inconsistent  with  his  principles,  ten 
dered  his  resignation,  through  the  clerk  of  the  Court  of 
Claims,  Mr.  Welling. 

The  President' s  reply,  communicated  through  his  pri 
vate  secretary,  was  as  follows  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  July  25, 18W. 

J.  0.  WELLING,  ESQ.: — 

According  to  the  request  contained  in  your  note,  I  have  placed  Mr. 
Gibson's  letter  of  resignation  in  the  hands  of  the  President.  He  has 
read  the  letter,  and  says  he  accepts  the  resignation,  as  he  will  he  glad  to 
do  with  any  other,  which  may  be  tendered,  as  this  is,  for  the  purpose  of 
taking  an  attitude  of  hostility  against  him. 

He  says  he  was  not  aware  that  he  was  so  much  indebted  to  Mr.  Gibson 
for  haying  accepted  the  office  at  first,  not  remembering  that  he  ever 
pressed  him  to  do  so,  or  that  he  gave  it  otherwise  than  as  usual,  upon  a 
request  made  on  behalf  of  Mr.  Gibson. 

He  thanks  Mr.  Gibson  for  his  acknowledgment  that  he  has  been  treated 
with  personal  kindness  and  consideration,  and  he  says  he  knows  of  but 
two  small  drawbacks  upon  Mr.  Gibson's  right  to  still  receive  such  treat 
ment,  one  of  which  is  that  he  could  never  learn  of  his  giving  much 
attention  to  the  duties  of  his  office,  and  the  other  is  this  studied  attemot 
of  Mr.  Gibson's  to  stab  him. 

I  am,  very  truly, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  HAY. 

The  elements  of  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln' s  election  in 
the  ranks  of  his  own  party  were  checked,  though  not 
wholly  destroyed,  by  the  unanimity  of  his  nomination. 
Conferences  were  still  held  among  prominent  men,  espe 
cially  in  the  city  of  New  York,  for  the  purpose  of  organ 
izing  this  hostility  and  making  it  effective,  and  a  call  was 
put  in  circulation  for  a  convention  to  be  held  at  Cincin 
nati,  to  put  in  nomination  another  candidate.  The  move 
ment,  however,  was  so  utterly  destitute  of  popular  sym 
pathy  that  it  was  soon  abandoned.  A  very  sharp  and 
acrimonious  warfare  was  still  waged  upon  Mr.  Lincoln 
and  his  Administration,  not  only  by  the  leading  presses 
of  the  opposition,  but  by  prominent  men  and  influential 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          565 

journals  ostensibly  in  the  ranks  of  Ms  supporters.  Every 
act  of  the  government  was  canvassed  with  eager  and  un 
friendly  scrutiny,  and  made,  wherever  it  was  possible,  the 
ground  of  hostile  assault. 

Among  the   matters  thus   seized   upon   was  the  sur 
render  to  the  Spanish  authorities   of  a   Cuban    named 
Arguelles,  which  was  referred  to  by  the  Fremont  Con 
vention  as  a  denial  of  the  right  of  asylum.      This  man, 
Don  Jose  Augustine  Arguelles,  was  a  colonel  in  the 
Spanish  army,  and  Lieutenant- Governor  of  the  District 
of  Colon,   in  Cuba.     As  such,  in  November,  1863,   he 
effected  the  capture  of  a  large  number  of  slaves  that  were 
landed  within  his  district,  and  received  from  the  Govern 
ment  of  Cuba  praise  for  his  efficiency,  and  the  sum  of 
fifteen  thousand  dollars  for  his  share  of  prize-money  on 
the  capture.     Shortly  afterwards,  he  obtained  leave  of 
absence  for  twenty  days,  for  the  purpose  of  going  to  New 
York  and  there  making  the  purchase   of  the   Spanish 
newspaper  called  La  Cronica.     He  came  to  New  York, 
and   there  remained.     In  March  following,   the   Cuban 
Government  made  application  to  our  authorities,  through 
the  Consul-General's  office  at  Havana,  stating  that  it  had 
been  discovered  that  Arguelles,  with  others,  had  been 
guilty  of  the  crime  of  selling  one  hundred  and  forty-one 
of  the  cargo  of  negroes  thus  captured,  into  slavery,  and 
by  means  of  forged  papers  representing  to  the  Govern 
ment  that  they  had  died  after  being  landed  ;  stating  also 
that  his  return  to  Cuba  was  necessary  to   procure  the 
liberation  of  his  hapless  victims,  and  desiring  to  know 
whether   the    Government  of  the  United    States  would 
cause  him  to  be  returned  to  Cuba.     Documents  authen 
ticating  the  facts  of  the  case    were  forwarded    to  our 
authorities.     There  being  no  extradition  treaty  between 
our  country  and  Spain,  the   Cuban    Government  could 
take  no  proceedings  before  the    courts  in  the  matter, 
and  the  only  question  was  whether  our   Government 
would  take  the  responsibility  of  arresting  Arguelles  and 
sending  him  back  or  not.     The  Government  determined 
to  assume  the  responsibility,  and  sent  word  to  the  Cuban 


566  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

authorities  that  if  they  would  send  a  suitable  officer  to 
New  York,  measures  would  be  taken  to  place  Arguelles 
in  his  charge.  The  officer  was  sent,  and  Arguelles  hav 
ing  been  arrested  by  the  United  States  Marshal  at 
New  York,  was,  before  any  steps  could  be  taken  to 
appeal  to  any  of  the  courts  on  Ms  behalf,  put  on  board  a 
steamer  bound  for  Havana.  This  proceeding:  caused 
great  indignation  until  the  facts  were  understood.  Ar 
guelles  having  money,  had  found  zealous  friends  in 
New  York,  and  a  strong  effort  was  made  in  his  favor. 
It  was  stated  on  his  behalf  that,  instead  of  being 
guilty  of  selling  these  negroes  into  slavery,  it  was  the 
desire  of  the  Cuban  authorities  to  get  possession  of  him 
and  silence  him,  lest  he  should  publish  facts  within  his 
knowledge  which  implicated  the  authorities  themselves 
in  that  nefarious  traffic.  And  the  fact  that  he  was  taken 
as  he  was,  by  direct  order  of  the  Government,  not  by  any 
legal  or  judicial  proceedings,  and  without  having  the 
opportunity  to  test  before  the  courts  the  right  of  the 
Government  thus  to  send  back  any  one,  however  criminal, 
was  alleged  to  spring  from  the  same  disregard  of  liberty 
and  law  in  which  the  arbitrary  arrests  which  had  been 
made  of  rebel  sympathizers  were  said  to  have  had  their 
source.  Proceedings  were  even  taken  against  the  United 
States  Marshal  under  a  statute  of  the  State  of  New  York 
against  kidnapping,  and  everywhere  the  enemies  of  the 
Administration  found  in  the  Arguelles  case  material  for 
assailing  it  as  having  trampled  upon  the  right  of  asylum, 
exceeded  its  own  legal  powers,  insulted  the  laws  and 
courts  of  the  land,  and  endangered  the  liberties  of  the 
citizen  ;  while  the  fact  of  its  having  aided  in  the  punish 
ment  of  an  atrocious  crime,  a  crime  intimately  connected 
with  the  slave-trade,  so  abhorrent  to  the  sympathies  of 
the  people,  was  kept  out  of  sight. 

Another  incident  used  to  feed  the  public  distrust  of 
the.  Administration,  was  the  temporary  suppression  of 
two  Democratic  newspapers  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
On  Wednesday,  May  18th,  these  two  papers,  the  World 
and  the  Journal  of  Commerce,  published  what  purported 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  5C57 

to  be  a  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln.  At  this  time, 
as  will  be  recollected,  General  Grant  was  still  struggling 
with.  Lee  "before  Spottsylvania,  with  terrible  slaughter 
and  doubtful  prospects,  while  Sigel  had  been  driven 
back  by  Imboden,  and  Butler  was  held  in  check  by 
Beauregard.  This  proclamation  announced  to  the  coun 
try  that  General  Grant' s  campaign  was  virtually  closed  ; 
and,  4 '  in  view  of  the  situation  in  Virginia,  the  disaster  at 
Red  River,  the  delay  at  Charleston,  and  the  general  state 
of  the  country,"  it  appointed  the  26th  of  May  as  a  day 
of  fasting,  humiliation,  and  prayer,  and  ordered  a  fresh 
draft  of  four  hundred  thousand  men.  The  morning  of  its 
publication  was  the  day  of  the  departure  of  the  mails  for 
Europe.  Before  its  character  was  discovered,  this  forged 
proclamation,  telegraphed  all  over  the  country,  had 
raised  the  price  of  gold  five  or  six  per  cent.,  and  car 
ried  discouragement  and  dismay  to  the  popular  heart. 
The  suppression  of  the  papers  by  which  it  had  been 
published,  the  emphatic  denial  of  its  authenticity,  and 
the  prompt  adoption  of  measures  to  detect  its  author, 
speedily  reassured  the  public  mind.  After  being  satis 
fied  that  the  publication  of  the  document  was  inadver 
tent,  the  journals  seized  were  permitted  to  resume  publi 
cation,  the  authors  of  the  forgery  were  sent  to  Fort 
Lafayette,  and  public  affairs  resumed  their  ordinary 
course. 

But  the  action  of  the  Government  gave  fresh  stimulus 
to  the  partisan  warfare  upon  it.  As  in  the  Arguelles  case 
and  the  arbitrary  arrests  it  had  been  charged  with  tram 
pling  upon  the  liberties  of  the  citizen,  so  now  it  was  charged 
witli  attacking  the  liberty  of  the  press.  Governor 
Seymour  directed  the  District  Attorney  of  New  York  to 
take  measures  for  the  prosecution  and  punishment  of  all 
who  had  been  connected  with  shutting  up  the  newspaper 
offices.  The  matter  was  brought  before  a  grand-jury, 
which  reported  that  it  was  "  inexpedient  to  examine  into 
the  subject." 

Determined  not  to  be  thus  thwarted,  Governor  Sey 
mour,  alleging  that  the  grand-jury  had  disregarded  their 


568  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC*  SERVICES,  AND 

oaths,  directed  the  District  Attorney  to  bring  the  subject 
before  some  magistrate.  Warrants  were  accordingly 
issued  by  City  Judge  Russell  for  the  arrest  of  General 
Dix  and  the  officers  who  had  acted  in  the  matter.  The 
parties  voluntarily  appeared  before  the  judge,  and  an 
argument  of  the  legal  questions  involved  was  had.  The 
judge  determined  to  hold  General  Dix  and  the  rest  for 
the  action  of  the  grand-jury.  One  grand- jury,  however, 
had  already  refused  to  meddle  with  the  matter,  and, 
greatly  to  the  disappointment  of  those  who  had  aimed 
to  place  the  State  of  New  York  in  a  position  of  open 
hostility  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  no  fur 
ther  proceedings  were  ever  taken  in  the  matter. 

An  effort  was  made  to  bring  the  subject  up  in  Con 
gress.  Among  other  propositions,  Mr.  Brooks,  of  New 
York,  proposed  to  add,  as  an  amendment  to  a  bill  for 
the  incorporation  of  a  Newsboys'  Home  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  a  provision  that  no  newspaper  should  be  sup 
pressed  in  Washington,  or  its  editor  incarcerated,  without 
due  process  of  law.  He  succeeded  in  making  a  speech 
abounding  in  denunciations  of  the  Government,  but  had 
no  other  success. 

To  those  men  at  the  North  who  really  sympathized  with 
the  South  on  the  slavery  question,  the  whole  policy  of 
the  Administration  upon  that  subject  was  distasteful. 
The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  the  repeal  of  the  Fugi 
tive  Slave  Law,  and  even  the  employment  of  negroes  in 
the  army,  were  with  them  grave  causes  of  complaint 
against  it.  The  President's  views  on  this  matter  were 
expressed  in  the  following  conversational  remarks,  to  some 
prominent  Western  gentlemen  :— 

The  slightest  knowledge  of  arithmetic  (said  he)  will  prove  to  any 
man  that  the  rebel  armies  cannot  be  destroyed  by  Democratic  strategy. 
It  would  sacrifice  all  the  white  men  of  the  North  to  do  it.  There  are 
now  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  nearly  two  hundred  thousand 
able-bodied  colored  men,  most  of  them  under  arms,  defending  and  ac 
quiring  Union  territory.  The  Democratic  strategy  demands  that  these 
forces  be  disbanded,  and  that  tho  masters  be  conciliated  by  restoring  their 
to  slavery.  The  black  men  who  now  assist  Union  prisoners  to  escape 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  569 

are  to  be  converted  into  our  enemies,  in  the  vain  hope  of  gaining  the 
good-will  of  their  masters.  We  shall  have  to  fight  two  nations  instead 
of  one. 

You  cannot  conciliate  the  South  if  you  guarantee  to  them  ultimate 
success,  and  the  experience  of  the  present  war  proves  their  success  is 
inevitable  if  you  fling  the  compulsory  labor  of  four  millions  of  black  men 
into  their  side  of  the  scale.  Will  you  give  our  enemies  such  military 
advantages  as  insure  success,  and  then  depend  upon  coaxing,  flattery,  and 
concession  to  get  them  back  into  the  Union  ?  Abandon  all  the  forts  now 
garrisoned  by  black  men,  take  two  hundred  thousand  men  from  our  side, 
and  put  them  in  the  battle-field,  or  cornfield,  against  us,  and  we  would 
be  compelled  to  abandon  the  war  in  three  weeks. 

We  have  to  hold  territory  in  inclement  and  sickly  places.  Where  are 
the  Democrats  to  do  this  ?  It  was  a  free  fight,  and  the  field  was  open  to 
the  War  Democrats  to  put  down  this  rebellion  by  fighting  against  both 
master  and  slave  long  before  the  present  policy  was  inaugurated.  There 
have  been  men  base  enough  to  propose  to  me  to  return  to  slavery  our 
black  warriors  of  Port  Hudson  and  Olustee,  and  thus  win  the  respect  of 
the  masters  they  fought.  Should  I  do  so,  I  should  deserve  to  be  damned 
in  time  and  eternity.  Come  what  will,  I  will  keep  rny  faith  with  friend  and 
foe.  My  enemies  pretend  I  am  now  carrying  on  this  war  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  abolition.  So  long  as  I  am  President  it  shall  be  carried  on 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  restoring  the  Union.  But  no  human  power  can 
subdue  this  rebellion  without  the  use  of  the  emancipation  policy,  and 
every  other  policy  calculated  to  weaken  the  moral  and  physical  forces  of 
the  rebellion. 

Freedom  has  given  us  two  hundred  thousand  men,  raised  on  Southern 
soil.  It  will  give  us  more  yet.  Just  so  much  it  has  abstracted  from  the 
enemy ;  and  instead  of  checking  the  South,  there  are  evidences  of  a  fra 
ternal  feeling  growing  up  between  our  men  and  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
rebel  soldiers.  Let  my  enemies  prove  to  the  country  that  the  destruction 
of  slavery  is  not  necessary  to  the  restoration  of  the  Union.  I  will  abide 
the  issue. 

Aside  from  the  special  causes  of  attack  which  we  have 
mentioned,  others  were  brought  forward  more  general  in 
their  character.  The  burdens  of  the  war  were  made 
especially  prominent.  Every  thing  discouraging  was 
harped  upon  and  magnified,  every  advantage  was  belittled 
and  sneered  at.  The  call  for  five  hundred  thousand  men 
in  June  was  even  deprecated  by  the  friends  of  the  Ad 
ministration,  because  of  the  political  capital  which  its 
enemies  would  be  sure  to  make  of  it.  Nor  was  Mr.  Lin 
coln  himself  unaware  that  such  would  be  the  result,  but, 


570  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

though  recognizing  the  elements  of  dissatisfaction  which 
it  carried  with  it,  he  did  not  suffer  himself  to  be  turned 
aside  in  the  least  from  the  path  which  duty  to  his  coun 
try  required  him  to  pursue.  The  men  were  needed,  he 
said,  and  must  be  had,  and  should  he  fail  as  a  candidate 
for  re-election  in  consequence  of  doing  his  duty  to  the 
country,  he  would  have  at  least  the  satisfaction  of  going 
down  with  colors  flying. 

Financial  difficulties  were  also  used  in  the  same  way. 
The  gradual  rise  in  the  price  of  gold  was  pointed  at  as 
indicating  the  approach  of  that  financial  ruin  which 
was  surely  awaiting  the  country,  if  the  re-election  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  should  mark  the  determination  of  the  people  to 
pursue  the  course  upon  which  they  had  entered. 

Amidst  these  assaults  from  his  opponents,  Mr.  Lincoln 
seemed  fairly  entitled,  at  least,  to  the  hearty  support  of 
all  the  members  of  his  own  party.  And  yet  this  very 
time  was  chosen  by  Senator  Wade,  of  Ohio,  and  11. 
Winter  Davis,  of  Maryland,  to  make  a  violent  attack  upon 
him  for  the  course  which  he  had  pursued  in  reference 
to  the  Reconstruction  Bill,  which  he  had  not  signed,  but 
had  given  his  reasons  for  not  signing,  in  his  proclama 
tion  of  July  18th.  They  charged  him  with  usurpation, 
with  presuming  upon  the  forbearance  of  his  supporters, 
with  defeating  the  will  of  the  people  by  an  Executive 
perversion  of  the  Constitution,  &c.,  &c.,  and  closed  a 
long  and  violent  attack  by  saying  that  if  lie  wished  their 
support  he  "must  confine  himself  to  his  Executive 
duties — to  obey  and  execute,  not  make  the  laws — to  sup 
press  by  arms  armed  rebellion,  and  leave  political  reorgan 
ization  to  Congress." 

This  manifesto,  prepared  with  marked  ability,  and 
skilfully  adapted  to  the  purpose  it  was  intended  to  serve, 
at  first  created  some  slight  apprehension  among  the  sup 
porters  of  the  President.  But  it  was  very  soon  felt  that 
it  met  with  no  response  from  the  popular  heart,  and  it 
only  served  to  give  a  momentary  buoyancy  to  the  hopes 
of  the  Opposition. 

Still  another  incident  soon  occurred  to  excite  a  con 


STATE  PAPEHS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  571 

siderable  degree  of  public  anxiety  concerning  the  imme 
diate  political  future.  It  was  universally  understood  that 
a  strong  desire  for  peace  pervaded  the  public  mind,  and 
that  the  determination  to  prosecute  the  war  was  the  dic 
tate  of  duty,  rather  than  inclination.  To  such  an  extent 
did  this  longing  for  peace  influence  the  sentiments  and 
action  of  some,  among  the  least  resolute  and  hopeful  of 
the  political  leaders  in  the  Republican  party,  that  ready 
access  to  them  was  found  by  agents  of  the  Rebel  Govern 
ment,  stationed  in  Canada  for  such  active  service  as  cir 
cumstances  might  require.  Of  these  agents,  who  were 
then  at  Niagara  Falls,  were  C.  C.  Clay,  formerly  United 
States  Senator  from  Alabama,  Professor  Holcombe,  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  George  1ST.  Sanders.  Acting  on  their  behalf 
and  under  their  instructions,  W.  Cornell  Jewett,  an  irre 
sponsible  and  half-insane  adventurer,  had  put  himself  in 
communication  with  Hon.  Horace  Greeley,  Editor  of  the 
New  York  Tribune,  whose  intense  eagerness  for  peace  had 
already  commended  him  to  the  admiration  and  sympathy 
of  the  emissaries  of  the  Rebel  Government.  In  reply  to 
some  letter  which  had  been  addressed  to  him,  but  which 
has  not  yet  been  made  public,  Jewett  wrote  on  the  5th  of 
July  to  Mr.  Greeley  the  following  letter  :— 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  July  5, 1864. 

MY  DEAK  ME.  GEEELKY  :— In  reply  to  your  note,  I  have  to  advise  hav 
ing  just  left  Hon.  George  N.  Sanders,  of  Kentucky,  on  the  Canada  side.  / 
am  authorized,  to  state  to  you,  for  our  use  only,  not  the  public,  that  two 
ambassadors  of  Dams  &  Co.  are  now  in  Canada,  with  full  and  complete 
powers  for  a  peace,  and  Mr.  Sanders  requests  that  you  come  on  immedi 
ately  to  me,  at  Cataract  House,  to  have  a  private  interview,  or  if  you 
will  send  the  President's  protection  for  him  and  two  friends,  they  will 
come  on  and  meet  you.  He  says  the  whole  matter  can  be  consummated 
by  me,  you,  them,  and  President  Lincoln.  Telegraph  me  in  such  form 
that  I  may  know  if  you  come  here,  or  they  to  come  on  with  ine. 

Yours,  W.  C.  JEWETT. 

The  next  day  Mr.  Jewett  also  telegraphed  as  fol 
lows  : — 

II.  GKEELEY,  Tribune: 

Will  you  come  here?     Parties  have  full  ponrer.     Wrote  you  yesterday 

JE>VETT. 


572  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

This  letter  and  telegram  Mr.  Greeley  enclosed  to  the 
President,  at  Washington,  accompanied  "by  the  follow 
ing  letter : — 

NEW  YORK,  July  7,  1864. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  venture  to  enclose  you  a  letter  and  telegraphic  dis 
patch  that  I  received  yesterday  from  our  irrepressible  friend,  Colorado 
Jewett,  at  Niagara  Falls.  I  think  they  deserve  attention.  Of  course  I 
do  not  indorse  Jewett's  positive  averment  that  his  friends  at  the  Falls 
have  "  full  powers  "  from  J.  D.,  though  I  do  not  doubt  that  he  thinks 
they  have.  I  let  that  statement  stand  as  simply  evidencing  the  anxiety 
of  the  Confederates  everywhere  for  peace.  So  much  is  beyond  doubt. 

And  therefore  I  venture  to  remind  you  that  our  bleeding,  bankrupt, 
almost  dying  country  also  longs  for  peace — shudders  at  the  prospect  of 
fresh  conscriptions,  of  further  wholesale  devastations,  and  of  new  rivers 
of  human  blood ;  and  a  wide-spread  conviction  that  the  Goverment  and 
its  prominent  supporters  are  not  anxious  for  peace,  and  do  not  improve 
proffered  opportunities  to  achieve  it,  is  doing  great  harm  now,  and  is 
morally  certain,  unless  removed,  to  do  far  greater  in  the  approaching 
elections. 

It  is  not  enough  that  we  anxiously  desire  a  true  and  lasting  peace ;  we 
ought  to  demonstrate  and  establish  the  truth  beyond  cavil.  The  fact  that 
A.  H.  Stephens  was  not  permitted  a  year  ago  to  visit  and  confer  with 
the  authorities  at  Washington  has  done  harm,  which  the  tone  at  the  late 
National  Convention  at  Baltimore  is  not  calculated  to  counteract. 

I  entreat  you,  in  your  own  time  and  manner,  to  submit  overtures  for 
pacification  to  the  Southern  insurgents,  which  the  impartial  must  pro  • 
nounce  frank  and  generous.  If  only  with  a  view  to  the  momentous  elec 
tion  soon  to  occur  in  North  Carolina,  and  of  the  draft  to  be  enforced  in 
the  Free  States,  this  should  be  done  at  once.  I  would  give  the  safe-con 
duct  required  by  the  rebel  envoys  at  Niagara,  upon  their  parole  to  avoid 
observation  and  to  refrain  from  all  communication  with  their  sympa 
thizers  in  the  loyal  States  ;  but  you  may  see  reasons  for  declining  it.  But 
whether  through  them  or  otherwise,  do  not,  I  entreat  you,  fail  to  make 
the  Southern  people  comprehend  that  you,  and  all  of  us,  are  anxious  for 
peace,  and  prepared  to  grant  liberal  terms.  I  venture  to  suggest  the  fol 
lowing 

PLAN    OF    ADJUSTMENT. 

1.  The  Union  is  restored  and  declared  perpetual. 

2.  Slavery  is  utterly  and  forever  abolished  throughout  the  same. 

3.  A  complete  amnesty  for  all  political  offences,  with  a  restoration  of 
all  the  inhabitants  of  each  State  to  all  the  privileges  of  citizens  of  the 
United  States. 

4.  The  Union  to  pay  four  hundred  million  dollars  ($400,000,000)  in 
five  per  cent.  United  States  stock  to  the  late  Slave  States,  loyal  and  seces- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  573 

eion  alike,  to  be  apportioned  pro  rata,  according  to  their  slave  popula 
tion  respectively,  by  the  census  of  1860,  in  compensation  for  the  losses 
of  their  loyal  citizens  by  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Each  State  to  be  en 
titled  to  its  quota  upon  the  ratification  by  its  legislature  of  this  adjust 
ment.  The  bonds  to  be  at  the  absolute  disposal  of  the  legislature  afore 
said. 

5.  The  said  Slave  States  to  be  entitled  henceforth  to  representation  in 
the  House  on  the  basis  of  their  total,  instead  of  their  federal  population, 
the  whole  now  being  free. 

6.  A  national  convention,  to  be  assembled  so  soon  as  may  be,  to  ratify 
this  adjustment,  and  make  such  changes  in  the  Constitution  as  may  be 
deemed  advisable. 

Mr.  President,  I  fear  you  do  not  realize  how  intently  the  people  desire 
any  peace  consistent  with  the  national  integrity  and  honor,  and  how 
joyously  they  would  hail  its  achievement,  and  bless  its  authors.  With 
United  States  stocks  worth  but  forty  cents  in  gold  per  dollar,  and  draft 
ing  about  to  commence  on  the  third  million  of  Union  soldiers,  can  this 
be  wondered  at  ? 

I  do  not  say  that  a  just  peace  is  now  attainable,  though  I  believe  it  to 
be  so.  But  I  do  say  that  a  frank  offer  by  you  to  the  insurgents  of  terms 
which  the  impartial  say  ought  to  be  accepted  will,  at  the  worst,  prove 
an  immense  and  sorely  needed  advantage  to  the  national  cause.  It  may 
save  us  from  a  Northern  insurrection. 

Yours,  truly,  HORACE  GEEELET. 

Hon.  A.  LINCOLN,  President,  Washington,  D.  G. 

P.  S. — Even  though  it  -should  be  deemed  unadvisable  to  make  an  oftei 
of  terms  to  the  rebels,  I  insist  that,  in  any  possible  case,  it  is  desirable 
that  any  offer  they  may  be  disposed  to  make  should  be  received,  and 
either  accepted  or  rejected.  I  beg  you  to  invite  those  now  at  Niagara  to 
exhibit  their  credentials  and  submit  their  ultimatum.  H.  G. 

To  this  letter  the  President  sent  the  following  answer :    - 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  9, 18(54. 

Hon.  HOKACE  GKEELET  : 

DEAR  SIE  : — Your  letter  of  the  7th,  with  enclosures,  received.  If  you 
can  find  any  person  anywhere  professing  to  have  any  proposition  of  Jef 
ferson  Davis,  in  writing,  for  peace,  embracing  the  restoration  of  the 
Union  and  abandonment  of  slavery,  whatever  else  it  embraces,  say  to 
him  he  may  corne  to  me  with  you,  and  that  if  he  really  brings  such  prop 
osition,  he  shall,  at  the  least,  have  safe-conduct  with  the  paper  (and  with  - 
out  publicity  if  he  chooses)  to  the  point  where  you  shall  have  met  him. 
The  same  if  there  be  two  or  more  persons. 

Yours  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 


574  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Mr.  Greeley  answered  this  letter  as  follows  :— 

OFFICE  OF  THE  TRIBUNE,  NEW  TOEK,  July  10. 1864. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  yours  of  yesterday.  Whether  there  be  persons 
it  Niagara  (or»  elsewhere)  who  are  empowered  to  commit  the  rebels  by 
negotiation,  is  a  question;  but  if  there  be  such,  there  is  no  question  at  all 
that  they  would  decline  to  exhibit  their  credentials  to  me,  much  more  to 
open  their  budget  and  give  me  their  best  terms.  Green  as  I  may  be,  I  am 
not  quite  so  verdant  as  to  imagine  any  thing  of  the  sort.  I  have  neither 
purpose  nor  desire  to  be  made  a  confidant,  far  less  an  agent,  in  such  nego 
tiations.  But  I  do  deeply  realize  that  the  rebel  chiefs  achieved  a  most 
decided  advantage  in  proposing  or  pretending  to  propose  to  have  A.  H. 
Stephens  visit  Washington  as  a  peacemaker,  and  being  rudely  repulsed; 
and  I  am  anxious  that  the  ground  lost  to  the  national  cause  by  that  mis 
take  shall  somehow  be  regained  in  season  for  effect  on  the  approaching 
North  Carolina  election.  I  will  see  if  I  can  get  a  look  into  the  hand  of 
whomsoever  may  be  at  Niagara;  though  that  is  a  project  so  manifestly 
hopeless  that  I  have  little  heart  for  it,  still  I  shall  try. 

Meantime  I  wish  you  would  consider  the  propriety  of  somehow  ap 
prising  the  people  of  the  South,  especially  those  of  North  Carolina,  that 
no  overture  or  advance  looking  to  peace  and  reunion  has  ever  been  re 
pelled  by  you,  but  that  such  a  one  would  at  any  time  have  been  cordially 
received  and  favorably  regarded,  and  would  still  be. 

Tours,  HORACE  GREELEY, 

Hon.  A.  LINCOLN. 

This  letter  failed  to  reach  the  President  until  after  the 
following  one  was  received,  and  was  never,  therefore, 
specifically  answered. 

Three  days  after  the  above  letter,  Mr.  Greeley,  having 
received  additional  information  from  some  quarter,  wrote 
to  the  President  again  as  follows : — 

OFFICE  OF  THE  TKIBCTNE,  NEW  TOKK,  July  13, 1864. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  now  information  on  which  I  can  rely  that  two 
persons  duly  commissioned  and  empowered  to  negotiate  for  peace  are  at 
this  moment  not  far  from  Niagara  Falls,  in  Canada,  and  are  desirous  of 
conferring  with  yourself,  or  with  such  persons  as  you  may  appoint  and 
empower  to  treat  with  them.  Their  names  (only  given  in  confidence)  are 
Hon.  Clement  C.  Clay,  of  Alabama,  and  Hon.  Jacob  Thompson,  of  Missis 
sippi.  If  you  should  prefer  to  meet  them  in  person,  they  require  safe-con 
ducts  for  themselves,  and  for  George  N.  Sanders,  who  will  accompany 
them.  Should  you  choose  to  empower  one  or  more  persons  to  treat  with 
them  in  Canada,  they  will  of  course  need  no  safe-conduct;  but  they  can 
not  be  expected  to  exhibit  credentials  save  to  commissioners  empowered 
as  they  are.  In  negotiating  directly  with  yourself,  all  grounds  of  cavil 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  575 

would  be  avoided,  and  you  would  be  enabled  at  all  times  to  act  upon  the 
freshest  advices  of  the  military  situation.  You  will  of  course  understand 
that  I  know  nothing  and  have  proposed  nothing  as  to  terms,  and  that 
nothing  is  conceded  or  taken  for  granted  by  the  meeting  of  persons  em 
powered  to  negotiate  for  peace.  All  that  is  assumed  is  a  mutual  desire 
to  terminate  this  wholesale  slaughter,  if  a  basis  of  adjustment  can  be  mu 
tually  agreed  on,  and  it  seems  to  me  high  time  that  an  effort  to  this  end 
should  be  made.  I  am  of  course  quite  other  than  sanguine  that  a  peace 
can  now  be  made,  but  I  am  quite  sure  that  a  frank,  earnest,  anxious 
effort  to  terminate  the  war  on  honorable  terms  would  immensely 
strengthen  the  Government  in  case  of  its  failure,  and  would  help  us  in  the 
eyes  of  the  civilized  world,  which  now  accuses  us  of  obstinacy,  and  indis 
position  even  to  seelc  a  peaceful  solution  of  our  sanguinary,  devastating 
conflict.  Hoping  to  hear  that  you  have  resolved  to  act  in  the  premises, 
and  to  act  so  promptly  that  a  good  influence  may  even  yet  be  exerted  on 
the  North  Carolina  election  next  month, 

I  remain  yours,  HORACE  GREELEY. 

lion.  A.  LINCOLN,  Washington. 

On  the  12th,  the  day  before  the  foregoing  letter  was 
sent,  Mr.  George  N.  Sanders  had  written  to  Mr.  Greelev 
as  follows : — 

CLIFTON  TTorsK.  TTt^OAF.A  FALLS,      I 
CANADA  WKST,  July  12,  1864.  ( 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  am  authorized  to  say  that  Honorable  Clement  C.  Clay, 
of  Alabama,  Professor  James  P.  Holcombe,  of  Virginia,  and  George  N. 
Sanders,  of  Dixie,  are  ready  and  willing  to  go  at  once  to  Washington, 
upon  complete  and  unqualified  protection  being  given  either  by  the  Presi 
dent  or  Secretary  of  War.  Let  the  permission  include  the  three  names 
arid  one  other.  Very  respectfully,  GEORGE  K  SANDERS. 

To  Hon.  HORACE  GREELET. 

This  letter  of  Mr.  Sanders  does  not  seem  to  haye  been 
communicated  to  the  President,  but  on  the  receipt  of  Mr. 
Greeley's  letter  of  the  13th,  he  immediately  answered  'it 
by  the  following  telegram : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  Jwly  15, 1SG4. 

Hon.  HORACE  GREELEY,  New  York : — I  suppose  you  received  my  letter 
of  the  9th.  I  have  just  received  yours  of  the  13th,  and  am  disappointed 
by  it.  I  was  not  expecting  you  to  tend  me  a  letter,  but  to  bring  me  a 
man,  or  men.  Mr.  Hay  goes  to  you  with  my  answer  to  yours  of  the  13th. 

A.   LINCOLN. 

The  answer  which  Major  Hay  carried  was  as  follows  :— 


576  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  July  15,  1864. 

Hon.  HORACE  GREELEY: 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — Yours  of  the  13th  is  just  received,  and  I  am  disap 
pointed  that  you  have  not  already  reached  here  with  those  commission 
ers.  If  they  would  consent  to  come,  on  being  shown  my  letter  to  you  of 
the  9th  instant,  show  that  and  this  to  them,  and  if  they  will  come  on  the 
terms  stated  in  the  former,  bring  them.  I  not  only  intend  a  sincere  effort 
for  peace,  but  I  intend  that  you  shall  'be  a  personal  witness  that  it  is 
made.  Yours  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

When  Major  Hay  arrived  at  New  York,  lie  delivered 
to  Mr.  Greeley  this  letter  from  the  President,  and  tele 
graphed  its  result  to  the  President  as  follows : — 

UNITED  STATES  MILITARY  TELEGRAPH,  ) 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  NEW  TOEK,  9  A.  M.,  July  16, 1864.  f 

His  Excellency  A.  LINCOLN, 

President  of  the  United  States  : 

Arrived  this  morning  at  6  A.  M.,  and  delivered  your  letter  few  minutes 
after.  Although  he  thinks  some  one  less  known  would  create  less  ex 
citement  and  be  less  embarrassed  by  public  curiosity,  still  he  will  start 
immediately  if  he  can  have  an  absolute  safe-conduct  for  four  persons  to 
be  named  by  him.  Your  letter  he  does  not  think  will  guard  them  from 
arrest,  and  with  only  those  letters  he  would  have  to  explain  the  whole 
matter  to  any  officer  who  might  choose  to  hinder  them.  If  this  meets 
with  your  approbation,  I  can  write  the  order  in  your  name  as  A.  A.-GL 
or  you  can  send  it  by  mail.  Please  answer  me  at  Astor  House. 

JOHN  HAY,  A.  A.-  G. 

The  President  at  once  answered  by  telegraph  as  fol 
lows : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  July  16, 1864 

JOHN  HAY,  Astor  House,  New  York  : 

Yours  received.  Write  the  safe-conduct  as  you  propose,  without  wait 
ing  for  one  by  mail  from  me.  If  there  is  or  is  not  any  thing  in  the  affair, 
I  wish  to  know  it  without  unnecessary  delay.  A.  LINCOLN. 

Major  Hay  accordingly  wrote  the  following  safe-conduct, 
armed  with  which  Mr.  Greeley  betook  himself  at  once  to 
Niagara  Falls  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  0. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  directs  that  the  four  persons  whose 
names  follow,  to  wit : 

Hon.  CLEMENT  0.  CLAY, 
HON.  JACOB  THOMPSON, 
Prof.  JAMES  B.  HOLCOMBE, 
GEORGE  !N".  SANDERS, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  577 

shall  have  safe-conduct  to  the  City  of  Washington  in  company  with  the 
Hon.  Horace  Greeley,  and  shall  be  exempt  from  arrest  or  annoyance  of 
any  kind  from  any  officer  of  the  United  States  during  their  journey  to  tho 
said  City  of  Washington. 

By  order  of  the  President : 

Jonx  HAY,  Major  and  A.  A.-G. 

On  his  arrival,  Mr.  Greeley  sent  by  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Jewett  the  following  letter : — 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  N.  Y.,  July  IT,  1884. 

GENTLEMEX: — I  am  informed  that  you  are  duly  accredited  from  Rich 
mond  as  the  bearers  of  propositions  looking  to  the  establishment  of  peace ; 
that  you  desire  to  visit  Washington  in  the  fulfilment  of  your  mission ;  and 
that  you  further  desire  that  Mr.  George  N.  Sanders  shall  accompany  you. 
If  my  information  be  thus  far  substantially  correct,  lam  authorized  by 
the  President  of  the  United  States  to  tender  you  his  safe-conduct  on  tho 
journey  proposed,  and  to  accompany  you  at  the  earliest  time  that  will  be 
agreeable  to  you.  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  gentlemen, 

Yours,  HORACE  GREELEY. 

To  Messrs.  CLEMENT  0.  CLAY,  JACOB  THOMPSON,  JAMES  P.  HOLCOMIJE, 
Cli^on  House,  0.  W. 

To  this  letter  the  following  reply  was  returned  : — 

CLIFTON  HOUSE;  NIAGARA  FALLS,  July  IS, 1861 

SIR: — We  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  your  favor  of  the  17th  inst. 
which  would  have  been  answered  on  yesterday,  but  for  the  absence  of 
Mr.  Clay.  The  safe-conduct  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  has 
been  tendered  us,  we  regret  to  state,  under  some  misapprehension  of  facts. 
We  have  not  been  accredited  to  him  from  Richmond,  as  the  bearers  of 
propositions  looking  to  the  establishment  of  peace.  We  are,  however, 
in  the  confidential  employment  of  our  Government,  and  are  entirely 
familiar  with  its  wishes  and  opinions  on  that  subject;  and  we  feel  author 
ized  to  declare,  that  if  the  circumstances  disclosed  in  this  correspondence 
were  communicated  to  Richmond,  we  would  be  at  once  invested  with 
the  authority  to  which  your  letter  refers,  or  other  gentlemen,  clothed 
with  full  powers,  would  be  immediately  sent  to  Washington  with  a  view 
of  hastening  a  consummation  so  much  to  be  desired,  and  terminating  at 
the  earliest  possible  moment  the  calamities  of  the  war.  We  respectfully 
solicit,  through  your  intervention,  a  safe-conduct  to  Washington,  and 
thence  by  any  route  which  may  be  designated  through  your  lines  to 
Richmond.  We  would  be  gratified  if  Mr.  George  Sanders  was  embraced 
in  this  privilege.  Permit  us,  in  conclusion,  to  acknowledge  our  obliga 
tions  to  you  for  tho  interest  you  have  manifested  in  the  furtherance  of 
37 


578  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

our  wishes,  and  to  express  the  hope  that,  in  any  event,  you  will  afford  us 
the  opportunity  of  tendering  them  in  person  before  you  leave  the  Falls. 
We  remain,  very  respectfully,  &c., 

0.  C.  CLAY,  JR. 

J.  P.  HOLCOMBE. 

P.  S. — It  is  proper  to  state  that  Mr.  Thompson  is  not  here,  and  has 
not  been  staying  with  us  since  our  sojourn  in  Canada. 

Mr.  Greeley  thereupon  wrote  as  follows  : — 

INTERNATIONAL  HOTEL,  NIAGARA  FALLS,  N.  Y.,  July  18, 1864. 

GENTLEMEN  : — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  yours 
of  tliis  date  by  the  hand  of  Mr.  W.  0.  Jewett.  The  state  of  facts  therein 
presented  being  materially  different  from  that  which  was  understood  to 
exist  by  the  President  when  he  intrusted  me  with  the  safe-conduct  re 
quired,  it  seems  to  me  on  every  account  advisable  that  I  should  commu 
nicate  with  him  by  telegraph,  and  solicit  fresh  instructions,  which  I  shall 
at  once  proceed  to  do. 

I  hope  to  be  able  to  transmit  the  result  this  afternoon,  and  at  all  events 
I  shall  do  so  at  the  earliest  moment. 

Yours  truly,  HORACE  GREELEY. 

To  Messrs.  CLEMENT  C.  CLAY  and  JAMES  P.  HOLOOMBE,  Clifton  House, 
0.  W. 

This  letter  was  thus  acknowledged  : — 

CLIFTON  HOUSE,  NIAGABA  FALLS,  July  18, 1864. 

To  Hon.  H.  GREELEY,  Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y. : 

SIR  : — We  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  note  of 
this  date  by  the  hands  of  Colonel  Jewett,  and  will  await  the  further 
answer  which  you  propose  to  send  to  MS. 

We  are,  very  respectfully,  &c., 
(Signed)  C.  C.  CLAY,  JR. 

JAMES  P.  HOLOOMBE. 

Mr.  Greeley  accordingly  sent  the  following  telegram  at 
once  to  the  President  at  Washington  : — 

INDEPENDENT  TELEGRAPH  LINE,  NIAGARA  FALLS,  July  18, 1864, 
Hon.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President : 

I  have  communicated  with  the  gentlemen  in  question,  and  do  not  find 
them  so  empowered  as  I  was  previously  assured.  They  say  that  "we 
are,  however,  in  the  confidential  employment  of  our  Government,  and 
entirely  familiar  with  its  wishes  and  opinions  on  that  subject,  and  we  fee! 
authorized  to  declare  that,  if  the  circumstances  disclosed  in  this  correspond- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          579 

ence  were  communicated  to  Richmond,  we  would  at  once  be  invested  with 
the  authority  to  which  your  letter  refers,  or  other  gentlemen  clothed  with 
full  power  would  immediately  be  sent  to  "Washington  with  a  view  of 
hastening  a  consummation  so  much  to  be  desired,  and  terminating  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment  the  calamities  of  war.  We  respectfully  solicit, 
through  your  intervention,  a  safe-conduct  to  Washington,  and  thence  by 
any  route  which  may  be  designated  to  Richmond."  Such  is  the  more 
material  portion  of  the  gentlemen's  letter.  I  will  transmit  the  entire 
correspondence,  if  desired.  Awaiting  your  further  instructions, 

I  remain  yours,  HORACE  GEEELET. 

The  President,  on  receiving  this  telegram,  immediately 
dispatched  Major  Hay  to  Niagara  with  a  further  commu 
nication,  and  telegraphed  to  Mr.  G-reeley  that  he  had 
done  so,  whereupon  tfie  latter  sent  across  the  river  the 
following  letter : — 

INTERNATIONAL  HOTEL,  NIAQAEA  FALLS,  NEW  YOBK,  July  19, 1864, 

GENTLEMEN  : — At  a  late  hour  last  evening  (too  late  for  communication 
with  you)  I  received  a  dispatch  informing  me  that  further  instructions 
left  Washington  last  evening,  which  must  reach  me,  if  there  be  no  inter 
ruption,  at  noon  to-morrow.  Should  you  decide  to  await  their  arrival,  I. 
feel  confident  that  they  will  enable  me  to  answer  definitely  your  note  of 
yesterday  morning.  Regretting  a  delay  which  I  am  sure  you  will  regard 
as  unavoidable  on  my  part, 

I  remain  yours  truly,  HOBAOE  GREELET. 

To  Hon.  Messrs.  0.  0.  CLAY,  JR.,  and  J.  P.  HOLCOMBE,  Clifton  House, 
C.  W. 

He  received  the  following  acknowledgment : — 

CLIFTOW  HOUSE,  NIAGARA  FALLS,  July  19, 1864. 

SIK  : — Colonel  Jewett  has  just  handed  us  your  note  of  this  date,  in 
which  you  state  that  further  instructions  from  Washington  will  reach 
you  by  noon  to-inorrow,  if  there  be  no  interruption.  One,  or  possibly 
both  of  us,  may  be  obliged  to  leave  the  Falls  to-day,  but  will  return  in 
time  to  receive  the  communication  which  you  promise  to-morrow. 
We  remain  truly  yours,  &c., 

JAMES  P.  HOLOOMBB. 
C.  C.  CLAY,  JR. 
To  the  Hon.  HORACE  GREELEY,  now  at  the  International  Hotel. 

The  further  instructions  from  the  President,  sent  by  the 
hands  of  Major  Hay,  were  as  follows  : — 


580  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  July  IS,  1S64. 
To  WHOM  IT  MAY  CONCERN  : 

Any  proposition  which  embraces  the  restoration  of  peace,  the  integrity 
of  the  whole  Union,  and  the  abandonment  of  slavery,  and  which  comes 
by  and  with  an  authority  that  can  control  the  armies  now  at  war  ag:<inst 
the  United  States,  will  be  received  and  considered  by  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  and  will  be  met  by  liberal  terms  012 
substantial  and  collateral  points,  and  the  bearer  or  bearers  thereof  shall 
have  safe  conduct  both  waya. 

(Signed)  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Major  Hay  arrived  at  Niagara  on  the  20th  of  July,  and 
went  with  Mr.  Greeley  across  to  the  Clifton  House,  where 
he  delivered  to  Professor  Holcombe  the  above  paper,  in 
the  President's  own  handwriting.  The  interview  was  a 
brief  one,  and  on  separating,  Mr.  Greeley  returned  to 
New  York,  leaving  Major  Hay  to  receive  their  answer, 
if  there  should  be  one. 

Their  reply  was,  however,  sent  to  Mr.  Greeley  by  the 
hands  of  Mr.  Jewett.  It  was  as  follows  :— 

NIAGARA  FALLS,  CLIFTON  HOUSE,  July  21. 
To  Hon.  HORACE  GREELEY  : 

SIR  : — The  paper  handed  to  Mr.  Holcombe  on  yesterday,  in  your  pres 
ence,  by  Major  Hay,  A.  A.-G.,  as  an  answer  to  the  application  in  our  note 
of  the  18th  inst.,  is  couched  in  the  following  terms : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  0.,  July  19, 1SG1. 
TO  WHOM  IT  MAY  CONCERN  : 

Any  proposition  which  embraces  the  restoration  of  peace,  the  integrity 
of  the  whole  Union,  and  the  abandonment  of  slavery,  and  which  comes 
by  and  with  an  authority  that  can  control  the  armies  now  at  war  against 
the  United  States,  will  be  received  and  considered  by  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  and  will  be  met  by  liberal  terms  on 
other  substantial  and  collateral  points,  and  the  bearer  or  bearers  therof 
shall  have  safe-conduct  both  ways.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  application  to  which  we  refer  was  elicited  by  your  letter  of  the 
17th  inst.,  in  which  you  inform  Mr.  Jacob  Thompson  and  ourselves,  that 
you  were  authorized  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  tender  us  his 
safe-conduct  on  the  hypothesis  that  we  were  "duly  accredited  from  Rich 
mond,  as  bearers  of  propositions  looking  to  the  establishment  of 
peace,"  and  desired  a  visit  to  Washington  in  the  fulfilment  of  this  mis 
sion.  This  assertion,  to  which  we  then  gave,  and  still  do,  entire  credence, 
was  accepted  by  us  as  the  evidence  of  an  unexpected  but  most  gratifying 
change  in  the  policy  of  the  President — a  change  which  we  felt  authorized 
to  hope  might  terminate  in  the  conclusion  of  a  peace,  mutually  just,  honor- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          581 

able,  and  advantageous  to  the  North  and  to  the  South,  exacting  no  con 
dition,  but  that  we  should  be  "  duly  accredited  from  Richmond  as  bearers 
of  propositions  looking  to  the  establishment  of  peace,"  thus  proffering  a 
basis  for  conference  as  comprehensive  as  we  could  desire.  It  seemed  to 
us  that  the  President  opened  a  door,  which  had  previously  been  closed 
against  the  Confederate  States  for  a  full  interchange  of  sentiments,  free 
discussion  of  conflicting  opinions,  and  untrammelled  effort  to  remove  all 
causes  of  controversy  by  liberal  negotiations.  We  indeed  could  not  claim 
the  benefit  of  a  safe-conduct  .which  had  been  extended  to  us  in  a  charac 
ter  we  had  no  right  to  assume,  and  had  never  affected  to  possess;  but  the 
uniform  declaration  of  our  Executive  and  Congress,  and  their  thrice  re 
peated  and  as  often  repulsed  attempts  to  open  negotiations,  furnish  a 
sufficient  pledge  to  assure  us  that  this  conciliatory  manifestation  on  the 
part  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  would  be  met  by  them  in  a 
temper  of  equal  magnanimity.  We  had  therefore  no  hesitation  in  de 
claring  that  if  this  correspondence  was  communicated  to  the  President 
of  the  Confederate  States,  he  would  promptly  embrace  the  opportunity 
presented  for  seeking  a  peaceful  solution  of  this  unhappy  strife.  We  feel 
confident  that  you  must  share  our  profound  regret  that  the  spirit  which 
dictated  the  first  step  towards  peace  had  not  continued  to  animate  the 
counsels  of  your  President. 

Had  the  representatives  of  the  two  Governments  met  to  consider  this 
question,  the  most  momentous  ever  submitted  to  human  statesmanship,  in 
a  temper  of  becoming  moderation  and  equity,  followed  as  their  delibera 
tions  would  have  been  by  the  prayers  and  benedictions  of  every  patriot 
and  Christian  on  the  habitable  globe,  who  is  there  so  bold  as  to  pronounce 
that  the  frightful  waste  of  individual  happiness  and  public  prosperity, 
which  is  daily  saddening  the  universal  heart,  might  not  have  been  termi 
nated,  or  if  the  desolation  and  carnage  of  war  must  still  be  endured 
through  weary  years  of  blood  and  suffering,  that  there  might  not  at  least 
have  been  infused  into  its  conduct  something  more  of  the  spirit  which 
softens  and  partially  redeems  its  brutalities?  Instead  of  the  safe-conduct 
which  we  solicited,  and  which  your  first  letter  gave  us  every  reason  to 
suppose  would  be  extended  for  the  purpose  of  initiating  a  negotiation  in 
which  neither  Government  would  compromise  its  rights  or  its  dignity,  a 
document  has  been  presented  which  provokes  as  much  indignation  as  sur 
prise.  It  bears  no  feature  of  resemblance  to  that  which  was  originally 
offered,  and  is  unlike  any  paper  which  ever  before  emanated  from  the  con 
stitutional  Executive  of  a  free  people.  Addressed  "  to  whom  it  may  con 
cern,1'  it  precludes  negotiation,  and  prescribes  in  advance  the  terms  and 
conditions  of  peace.  It  returns  to  the  original  policy  of  "  no  bargaining, 
no  negotiations,  no  truces  with  rebels,  except  to  bury  their  dead,  until  every 
man  shall  have  laid  down  his  arms,  submitted  to  the  Government,  and  sued 
for  mercy."  What  may  be  the  explanation  of  this  sudden  and  entire 
change  in  the  views  of  the  President,  of  this  rude  withdrawal  of  a  cour 
teous  overture  for  negotiation  at  the  moment  it  was  likely  to  be  accepted 


582  THE  LIFE.  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

of  this  emphatic  recall  of  words  of  pence  just  uttered,  and  fresh  blasts  of 
war  to  the  hitter  end,  we  leave  for  the  speculation  of  those  who  have  the 
means  or  inclination  to  penetrate  the  mysteries  of  his  cabinet,  or  fathom 
the  caprice  of  his  imperial  will.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  say  that  we  have 
no  use  whatever  for  the  paper  which  has  been  placed  in  our  hands.  "We 
could  not  transmit  it  to  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States  without 
offering  him  an  indignity,  dishonoring  ourselves,  and  incurring  the  well- 
merited  scorn  of  our  countrymen. 

Whilst  an  ardent  desire  for  peace  pervades  the  people  of  the  Confeder 
ate  States,  we  rejoice  to  believe  that  there  are  few,  if  any,  among  them, 
who  would  purchase  it  at  the  expense  of  liberty,  honor,  and  self-respect. 
If  it  can  be  secured  only  by  their  submission  to  terms  of  conquest,  the 
generation  is  yet  unborn  which  will  witness  its  restitution.  If  there  be 
any  military  autocrat  in  the  North,  who  is  entitled  to  proffer  the  condi 
tions  of  this  manifesto,  there  is  none  in  the  Smith  authorized  to  entertain 
them.  Those  who  control  our  armies  are  the  servants  of  the  people,  not 
their  masters,  and  they  have  no  more  inclination  than  they  have  right  to 
subvert  the  social  institutions  of  the  sovereign  States,  to  overthrow  their 
established  constitutions,  and  to  barter  away  their  priceless  heritage  of 
self-government. 

This  correspondence  will  not,  however,  we  trust,  prove  wholly  barren 
of  good  results. 

If  there  is  any  citizen  of  the  Confederate  States  who  has  clung  to  a 
hope  that  peace  was  possible  with  this  Administration  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment,  it  will  strip  from  his  eyes  the  last  film  of  such  a  delusion  ;  or  if 
there  be  any  whose  hearts  have  grown  faint  under  the  suffering  and  agony 
of  this  bloody  struggle,  it  will  inspire  them  with  fresh  energy  to  endure 
and  brave  whatever  may  yet  be  requisite  to  preserve  to  themselves  and 
their  children  all  that  gives  dignity  and  value  to  life,  or  hope  and  conso 
lation  to  death.  And  if  there  be  any  patriots  or  Christians  in  your  land, 
who  shrink  appalled  from  the  illimitable  vista  of  private  misery  and 
public  calamity  which  stretches  before  them,  we  pray  that  in  their  bosoms 
a  resolution  may  be  quickened  to  recall  the  abused  authority  and  vin 
dicate  the  outraged  civilization  of  their  country.  For  the  solicitude"  yon 
have  manifested  to  inaugurate  a  movement  which  contemplates  results  the 
most  noble  and  humane,  we  return  our  sincere  thanks,  and  are  most 

respectfully  and  truly 

Your  obedient  servants, 

C.  C.  CLAY,  JB. 
JAMES  P.  HOLOOMBB. 

The  letter  to  Mr.  Jewett  in  which  it  was  enclosed  was 
as  follows : — 

CLIFTON  HOUSK,  NIAGARA  FALLS,  July  20,  1864. 

Col.  W.  C.  JEWETT,  Cataract  House,  Niagara  Falls : 

We  are  in  receipt  of  your  note  admonishing  us  of  the  departure  of  Hon. 
Horace  Greeley  from  the  Falls,  that  he  regrets  the  sad  termination  of  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  583 

initiatory  stops  taken  for  peace,  in  consequence  of  the  change  made  by 
the  President  in  his  instructions  to  convey  commissioners  to  Washington 
for  negotiations,  unconditionally,  and  that  Mr.  Greeley  will  be  pleased  to 
receive  any  answer  we  may  have  to  make  through  you.  We  avail  our 
selves  of  this  offer  to  enclose  a  letter  to  Mr.  Greeley,  which  you  will  oblige 
us  by  delivering.  We  cannot  take  leave  of  you  without  expressing  our 
thanks  for  your  courtesy  and  kind  offices  as  the  intermediar}'  through 
whom  our  correspondence^ith  Mr.  Greeley  has  been  conducted,  and  as 
suring  you  that  we  are,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servants, 

C.  C.  CLAY,  JR. 
JAMES  P.  HOLCOMBE. 

Mr.  Greeley,  before  his  departure,  gave  the  following 
certificate  to  Mr.  Jewett  :— 

INTERNATIONAL  HOTEL,  NIAGARA  FALLS,  July  20, 1861 

In  leaving  the  Falls,  I  feel  bound  to  state  that  I  have  had  no  intercourse 
with  the  Confederate  gentlemen  at  the  Clifton  House,  but  such  as  I  was 
fully  authorized  to  hold  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  that  1 
have  done  nothing  in  the  premises  but  in  fulfilment  of  his  injunction**. 
The  notes,  therefore,  which  you  have  interchanged  between  those  gentle 
men  and  myself,  can  in  no  case  subject  you  to  the  imputation  of  unauthor 
ized  dealing  with  public  enemies  HORACE  GKKELBY. 

To  W.  C.  JEWETT,  Esq. 


In  their  note  of  July  20,  to  Mr.  Jewett,  enclosing  theii 
final  letter  to  Mr.  Greeley,  the  rebel  emissaries  acknoAvl- 
edge  the  assurance,  received  from  Mr.  Jewett,  that  Mr. 
Greeley  "  regrets  the  sad  termination  of  the  initiatory 
steps  taken  for  peace,  in  consequence  of  the  change  made 
by  the  President  in  his  instructions  to  convey  commis 
sioners  to  Washington  for  negotiations  unconditionally." 
The  Commissioners  must  have  misunderstood  Mr.  Jewett, 
or  Mr.  Jewett  must  have  misrepresented  Mr.  Greeley,  in 
this  report  of  the  ground  of  his  "regrets,"  or  else  Mr. 
Greeley  must  have  taken  a  position  quite  at  variance  with 
the  facts  of  the  case.  Mr.  Greeley  could  scarcely  have 
believed  that  the  President  had  "changed  his  instruc 
tions"  in  the  least  degree  ;  and  he  must  have  known  that 
the  result  of  the  attempted  negotiation  was  due  to  a  wholly 
different  cause. 

The  iirst  response  made  by  the  President  to  Mr.  Greeley'  a 


584  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

urgent  entreaty  that  peace  commissioners  should  be  re 
ceived,  was  dated  July  9,  and  said  :— 

k'If  you  can  find  any  person  professing  to  have  any  proposition  of 
Jefferson  Davis,  in  writing,  for  peace,  embracing  the  restoration  of  the 
Union,  and  abandonment  of  slavery,  whatever  else  it  embraces,  say  to 
him  that  lie  may  come  to  me." 

At  the  very  outset,  therefore,  the  President  distinctly 
specified  the  conditions  on  which  he  would  receive  the 
pretended  commissioners  : — they  must  bring  written  prop 
ositions  for  peace  from  Davis,  and  those  propositions 
must  embrace  two  of  the  things  which  Mr.  Greeley  himself 
had  suggested, — the  restoration  of  the  Union,  and  the  aban 
donment  of  slavery.  So  far  as  appears,  Mr.  Greeley 
neither  showed  this  letter  of  the  President  to  the  pretended 
agents  of  the  Rebel  Government,  nor  did  he  inform  them 
in  any  way  of  the  conditions  on  which  alone  they  would 
be  received.  But  in  his  letters  of  July  10th  and  13th,  to 
the  President,  without  making  any  reference  to  these  con 
ditions,  he  reiterates  his  pressing  entreaty  that  the  negotia 
tions  may  be  encouraged,  and  that  the  rebel  agents  may 
be  received  at  Washington.  To  this  the  President  replied, 
expressing  his  disappointment  that  the  commissioners  had 
not  already  arrived,  and  saying, 

"If  they  would  consent  to  come,  on  being  shown  my  letter  to  you  of 
the  9th  inst.  [in  which  the  conditions  of  their  coming  were  distinctly 
stated],  show  that  and  this  to  them,  and  if  they  will  come  on  the  terms 
stated  in  the  former,  bring  them." 

Notwithstanding  these  explicit  and  peremptory  instruc 
tions,  it  does  not  appear  that  Mr.  Greeley  gave  the  rebel 
agents  any  information  whatever  as  to  the  " terms"  of 
their  being  received,  nor  did  he  show  them  either  of 
the  President's  two  letters  in  which  these  terms  were 
stated.  But  he  proceeded  to  make  arrangements  for  their 
visit  to  Washington,  and  went  to  Niagara  Falls  to  bear 
them  company.  There  he  addressed  them  a  letter  on  the 
17th  of  July,  saying  that,  if  it  was  true,  as  he  had  been  in 
formed,  that  they  were  ' '  duly  accredited  from  Richmond  as 
the  bearers  of  propositions  looking  to  the  establishment 
of  peace,  and  in  the  fulfilment  of  their  mission,"  he  was 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  585 

1 '  authorized  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  tender 
them  his  safe-conduct  on  the  journey  proposed."  Mr.  Gree- 
ley  was  not  authorized  to  tender  these  agents  a  safe-conduct 
to  Washington  upon  any  such  terms,  but  only  on  certain 
other  conditions  which  he  concealed  from  the  agents,  and 
of  which  he  took  no  notice  whatever,  either  in  his  corre 
spondence  with  them  or  with  the  President.  Their  reply 
to  him,  however,  corrected  his  impression  that  they  were 
' '  duly  accredited ' '  from  Richmond  to  negotiate  for  peace. 
They  had  no  authority  of  the  kind,  but  expressed  their 
belief  that  they  could  get  it,  and,  upon  this  presumption, 
renewed  their  solicitations  for  a  safe-conduct  to  Washing 
ton.  On  the  18th,  Mr.  Greeley  wrote  to  the  President 
communicating  this  information,  but  still  making  no  allu 
sion  whatever  to  the  conditions  imposed  upon  their  being 
received. 

The  President,  meantime,  not  understanding  the  cause 
of  delay  in  their  arrival,  sent  Major  Hay,  his  private  sec 
retary,  to  communicate  directly  with  ' '  any  persons ' '  pro 
fessing  to  have  authority  from  Davis  to  treat  for  peace, 
and  to  inform  them,  as  he  had  twice  before  instructed 
Mr.  Greeley  to  inform  them,  that  any  proposition  for 
peace,  in  order  to  be  received  and  considered*  by  him, 
must  embrace  "the  restoration  of  peace,  the  integrity  of 
the  whole  Union,  and  the  abandonment  of  slavery." 
These  instructions  were  embodied  in  the  letter  addressed 
"to  whom  it  may  concern" — and  were  delivered  by 
Major  Hay  in  person  to  the  rebel  agents.  As  it  was  the 
first  they  had  ever  heard  of  any  "conditions,"  and  as 
they  had  been  informed  by  Mr.  Greeley  that  he  was  in 
structed  by  the  President  to  tender  them  safe- conduct  to 
Washington,  without  any  mention  of  conditions — they 
were  of  course  taken  by  surprise,  and  naturally  enough 
attributed  to  the  President  the  "sudden  and  entire 
change  of  viejvs"  with  which  they  reproach  him  in  their 
letter  to  Mr.  Greeley  of  July  21st.  And  strangely  enough, 
even  after  receiving  this  letter  and  being  thus  apprised 
of  the  charge  brought  against  the  President,  Mr.  Greeley 
not  only  failed  to  relieve  him  from  it  by  making  public 


586  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  facts,  but  joined  in  ascribing  to  Mr.  Lincoln  the  fail 
ure  of  negotiations  for  peace  and  the  consequent  prolon 
gation  of  the  war.  And,  according  to  Mr.  Jewett's  state 
ment,  Mr.  Greeley  also  authorized  him  to  express  to  the 
rebel  commissioners  his  regrets,  that  the  negotiation 
should  have  failed  in  consequence  of  the  President's 
"  change  of  views." 

It  is  not  easy  now,  any  more  than  it  was  then,  to 
reconcile  Mr.  Greeley' s  action  in  this  matter  with  fidelity 
to  the  Union  cause,  or  with  good  faith  to  the  Administra 
tion,  by  which  alone  that  cause  was  maintained.  The 
Opposition  press  made  Mr.  Lincoln's  alleged  tergiversa 
tion  the  ground  of  fresh  and  vehement  attack,  while  it 
was  used  throughout  the  rebel  States  as  fresh  proof  of 
the  faithless  character  of  the  Federal  Government,  and 
of  the  absolute  impossibility  of  making  peace  except  by 
successful  war.  The  commissioners  themselves  made  a 
very  adroit  use  of  the  advantage  which  Mr.  Greeley' s 
extraordinary  course  had  placed  in  their  hands,  and,  in 
their  letter  of  July  21st,  addressed  to  him,  but  intended 
to  be  a  public  impeachment  of  President  Lincoln' s  honor 
and  good  faith,  made  a  powerful  and  effective  appeal  to 
the  indignant  pride  of  the  Southern  people  and  the  sym 
pathy  of  their  friends  in  the  Northern  States. 

The  President  felt  very  sensibly  the  injustice  done  to 
himself,  and  the  injury  done  the  country,  by  Mr.  Greeley 's 
suppression  of  these  most  essential  facts,  in  his  intercourse 
with  the  rebel  commissioners.  As  the  only  mode  of 
placing  the  whole  subject  properly  before  the  people, 
he  applied  to  Mr.  Greeley  for  permission  to  publish  the 
whole  correspondence  —  omitting  only  certain  passages 
not  at  all  essential  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  subject, 
and  likely  seriously  to  injure  the  Union  cause  by  infusing 
into  the  public  mind  something  of  the  despondency, 
which  Mr.  Greeley  himself  felt  and  openly  avowed,  con 
cerning  the  prospects  of  the  country.  The  words  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  desired  to  have  omitted,  in  the  publication 
of  the  correspondence,  were  the  following.  In  the  letter 
of  July  7 :— 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  587 

In  the  second  paragraph :  the  words  "  and  therefore  I  venture  to  re 
mind  you  that  our  bleeding,  bankrupt,  almost  dying  country  also  longs 
for  peace,  shudders  at  the  prospect  of  fresh  conscriptions,  of  further 
wholesale  devastations,  and  of  new  rivers  of  human  blood,  and:" — also 
the  words  "  now,  and  is  morally  certain,  unless  removed,  to  do  far 
greater  in  the  approaching  elections." 

In  the  fourth  paragraph,  the  words  "If  only  with  a  view  to  the  mo 
mentous  election  soon  to  occur  in  North  Carolina  and  of  the  draft  to  be 
enforced  in  the  Free  States,  this  should  be  done." 

In  the  last  paragraph,  the  words  "It  may  save  us  from  a  Northern  in 
surrection." 

In  the  letter  of  July  10th,  second  paragraph,  the  words  "in  season 
for  effect  on  the  approaching  North  Carolina  election ;"  and  in  the  last 
paragraph,  the  words  "  especially  those  of  North  Carolina." 

And  in  the  letter  of  July  13th,  last  paragraph,  the  words  "  that  a  good 
influence  may  even  yet  be  exerted  on  the  North  Carolina  election  next 
month." 

Mr.  Greeley  declined  to  give  his  assent  to  the  publica 
tion  of  the  correspondence,  unless  these  phrases  should  be 
published  also.  The  President  accordingly  submitted  in 
silence  to  the  injustice  which  had  been  done  him,  and  com 
mitted  the  whole  subject,  in  the  following  letter,  to  the  judg 
ment  of  a  personal  and  political  friend  : — 

EXEOCTIVB  MANSION,  WASHINGTON  Auyust  15, 1864. 
Hon.  HENRY  J.  RAYMOND  : 

Mr  DEAK  SIB: — I  have  proposed  to  Mr.  Greeley  that  the  Niagara  cor 
respondence  be  published,  suppressing  only  the  parts  of  his  letters  over 
which  the  red-pencil  is  drawn  in  the  copy  which  I  herewith  send.  He 
declines  giving  his  consent  to  the  publication  of  his  letters  unless  these 
parts  be  published  with  the  rest.  I  have  concluded  that  it  is  better  for 
me  to  submit,  for  the  time,  to  the  consequences  of  the  false  position  in 
which  I  consider  he  has  placed  me,  than  to  subject  the  country  to  the 
consequences  of  publishing  these  discouraging  and  injurious  parts.  I 
send  you  this,  and  the  accompanying  copy,  not  for  publication,  but  merely 
to  explain  to  you,  and  that  you  may  preserve  them  until  their  proper 
time  shall  come.  Yours  truly,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

This  public  statement  of  the  facts  of  this  case  is  deemed 
"by  the  author  due  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  He 
has  been  widely  censured  for  entering  into  communica 
tion  with  rebel  agents  at  all ; — but  this  correspondence 
shows  that  Mr.  Greeley' s  assurances,  and  his  pressing  en 
treaties,  had  made  it  necessary  for  him,  either  to  open  the  way 


590  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

for  peace  negotiations  or  reject  the  opportunity,  which  one 
of  the  most  influential  leaders  of  his  own  party  thus  assured 
him  was  offered,  for  an  honorable  termination  of  the  war. 
He  was  charged  with  having  finally  insisted  upon  certain 
concessions  as  the  basis  of  an  interview,  after  having  first 
promised  it  unconditionally ;  but  this  correspondence 
shows  that  these  conditions  were  distinctly  stated  at  the 
very  outset,  but  were  withheld  by  Mr.  Greeley  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  rebel  commissioners.  It  is  due  to  jus 
tice,  as  well  as  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  that  impressions  so  injurious 
and  so  false  should  no  longer  prevail. 

The  effect  of  this  attempt  at  negotiation  upon  the  public 
mind  was,  for  the  moment,  unfavorable  to  the  Union  cause. 
The  people,  responding  heartily  to  the  demand  of  the  Bal 
timore  Platform,  that  no  peace  should  be  accepted  by  the 
Government  on  any  terms  short  of  an  unconditional  sur 
render,  were  distrustful  of  negotiations  which  might  look 
to  some  other  issue.  The  charge  of  bad  faith  urged 
against  the  President  stimulated  the  Opposition,  and,  in 
the  absence  of  the  facts,  embarrassed  his  supporters ;  while 
the  fact  that  Mr.  Lincoln  insisted  upon  the  abandonment 
of  slavery  as  one  of  the  conditions  of  peace,  was  cited  by 
the  opponents  of  his  Administration  as  proof  that  the 
object  of  the  war  was  changed,  and  that  it  was  to  be  waged 
hereafter,  not  solely  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  but 
for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves.  In  the  absence  of  any 
opposing  candidate,  these  and  countless  other  charges  were 
urged  against  the  Administration  with  marked  effect,  and 
added  very  materially  to  the  popular  despondency  which 
the  lack  of  military  success  had  naturally  engendered. 

Eager  to  avail  themselves  to  the  utmost  of  this  auspicious 
condition  of  political  affairs,  and  embarrassed  not  a  little 
by  discordant  sentiments  in  their  own  ranks,  the  Demo 
cratic  party  had  postponed  their  National  Convention  for 
the  nomination  of  a  President  from  the  22d  of  June  to  the 
29th  of  August.  But  the  delay  from  which  they  expected 
so  much,  in  fact,  betrayed  them  into  a  confidence  which 
proved  fatal  to  their  hopes.  Their  expectations,  however, 
were  not  without  reason.  The  state  of  the  public  mind 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  591 

was  favorable  to  the  success  of  their  plans.  The  as 
saults  upon  the  Administration  had  grown  more  vim- 
lent,  and  seemed  to  produce  more  effect.  Many  of  its 
friends,  who,  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was  renominated,  had 
considered  the  main  work  of  the  political  campaign  over, 
had  grown  gradually  doubtful.  The  uncertainty  as  to 
the  course  which  the  Democratic  party  would  pursue 
compelled  them  almost  to  inaction,  at  least  so  far  as  offen 
sive  warfare  was  concerned,  while  they  were  themselves 
exposed  to  every  kind  of  attack.  And  when  the  time  for 
the  Chicago  Convention  came,  its  managers  gathered  to  it 
with  high  hopes,  believing  that  if  they  could  only  unite 
upon  a  candidate  and  a  platform  which  should  not  vio 
lently  offend  either  wing  of  the  party,  their  success  was 
certain.  The  peace  wing  of  the  party,  however,  had  been 
relatively  strengthened  in  the  interim.  The  delays  and 
losses  of  the  armies,  the  hope  deferred  to  which  the  long 
and  bloody  struggles  in  Virginia  and  in  Georgia  had  fa 
miliarized  but  not  inured  the  popular  heart,  the  rise  in 
gold,  the  call  for  five  hundred  thousand  more  men — all 
these  things  had  given  them  strength,  and  made  them  more 
vehement  and  more  exacting.  Their  great  champion,  Mr. 
Vallandighain,  had  surreptitiously  returned  from  Canada, 
in  violation  of  the  sentence  which  ordered  his  banishment 
from  the  lines  during  the  war,  and  had  remained  in  open 
defiance  of  the  Government,  whose  failure  to  arrest  and 
send  him  back,  or  otherwise  to  punish  him,  was  treated 
then  as  an  indication  of  weakness  rather  than  of  wisdom. 
He  and  his  friends  were  active  everywhere,  and  did  not 
hesitate  to  declare  that  they  must  have  a  peace  can 
didate,  or  platform,  one  or  both,  at  all  hazards,  and 
threatened  to  nominate  a  candidate  of  their  own,  if  this 
course  was  not  pursued.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the 
fatal  course  which  was  finally  adopted  by  the  Convention 
was  largely  due  to  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Yallandigham,  and 
to  the  encouragement  which  his  friends  received  from  the 
apparent  unwillingness  of  the  Government  to  molest  him 
on  his  return. 
The  Convention  met  in  Chicago  on  Monday,  August  29. 


592  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

It  was  called  to  order  by  August  Belmont,  of  New  York, 
the  Chairman  of  the  National  Committee,  on  whose  motion 
Ex- Governor  Bigler,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  appointed 
temporary  Chairman.  The  business  transacted  on  the 
first  day  embraced  the  appointment  of  Committees  on 
Credentials,  Organization,  and  Resolutions,  of  which  latter 
committee  Mr.  Vallandigham  was  chosen  chairman. 

On  Tuesday  the  committees  reported.  There  were  no 
contested  delegations  except  from  Kentucky,  and  this 
question  the  committee  settled  by  admitting  both  delega 
tions  and  dividing  the  vote  between  them.  Louisiana 
and  the  Territories  had  sent  delegates,  but  these  were  at 
once  excluded.  Governor  Horatio  Seymour,  of  New  York, 
was  chosen  President  of  the  Convention,  with  twenty-one 
vice-presidents  and  secretaries.  In  the  afternoon,  the 
platform  was  reported. 

The  second  resolution,  which  embodied  the  spirit  of 
the  Convention,  and  shaped  the  succeeding  canvass,  was 
as  follows : — 

Resolved,  That  this  Convention  does  explicitly  declare,  as  the  sense  of 
the  American  people,  that  after  four  years  of  failure  to  restore  the  Union 
by  the  experiment  of  war,  during  which,  under  the  pretence  of  military 
necessity  or  war  power  higher  than  the  Constitution,  the  Constitution 
itself  has  been  disregarded  in  every  part,  and  public  liberty  and  private 
right  alike  trodden  down,  and  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country 
essentially  impaired,  justice,  humanity,  liberty,  and  the  public  welfare 
demand  that  immediate  efforts  be  made  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  with 
a  view  to  an  ultimate  convention  of  the  States  or  other  peaceable  means, 
to  the  end  that,  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment,  peace  may  be  restored 
on  the  basis  of  the  Federal  Union  of  the  States. 

The  other  resolutions  assailed  the  Administration  for 
its  military  interference  in  elections,  its  arbitrary  arrests, 
suppression  of  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  denial 
of  the  right  of  asylum,  imposing  test-oaths,  taking  away 
arms  from  the  people  (as  had  been  done  where  there  was 
danger  of  armed  insurrection  on  the  part  of  local  asso 
ciations),  and  disregard  of  duty  towards  our  soldiers  who 
were  prisoners  of  war;  and  they  extended  "  the  sym 
pathy  of  the  Democratic  party"  to  the  soldiers  and  the 
sailors. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  593 

Mr.  Long,  of  Ohio,  who,  as  will  be  recollected,  had  been 
publicly  censured  by  Congress  for  a  speech  bordering 
upon  treason,  endeavored  to  amend  the  resolutions  so  as 
to  "  place  the  Convention  in  a  position  favoring  peace 
beyond  the  mistakes  of  any  equivocal  language."  Under 
the  working  of  the  previous  question,  however,  Mr.  Long 
was  silenced,  and  the  resolutions  were  adopted  with  but 
four  dissenting  votes. 

The  Convention  then  proceeded  to  the  nomination  of 
a  candidate  for  President.  The  nomination  of  General 
McClellan  was  the  signal  for  a  fierce  attack  upon  him  by 
some  of  the  ultra  peace  men,  but  he  was  vigorously 
defended,  and  the  debate  lasted  till  darkness  compelled 
an  adjournment.  The  vote  was  taken  as  soon  as  the 
Convention  met  in  the  morning,  and  General  McClellan 
received  one  hundred  and  sixty-two  votes  out  of  two 
hundred  and  twenty-eight,  and  this  number  was  increased 
to  two  hundred  and  two  and  a  half  before  the  ballot 
was  announced ;  the  rest  having  been  cast  for  Thomas 
H.  Seymour,  of  Connecticut. 

For  Yice-President,  the  Convention  nominated  George 
H.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio,  whose  position  was  unqualifiedly 
among  the  ultra  peace  men. 

Mr.  Wickliffe,  of  Kentucky,  saying  that  "  the  delegates 
from  the  West  were  of  the  opinion  that  circumstances 
may  occur  between  noon  of  to-day  and  the  fourth  of 
March  next,  which  will  make  it  proper  for  the  Democracy 
of  the  country  to  meet  in  convention  again,"  moved  the 
following  resolution : — 

Resolved,  That  this  Convention  shall  not  be  dissolved  bj  adjournment 
at  the  close  of  its  business,  but  shall  remain  organized,  subject  to  be  called 
at  any  time  and  place  that  the  Executive  National  Committee  shall 
designate. 

This  suggestive  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted, 
and  the  Convention  then  separated. 

The  action  of  the  Convention  was  eminently  cheering 
to  the  friends  of  the  Administration.  It  was  more  open 
and  honest  than  they  had  anticipated  ;  it  avowed  senti 
ments  which,  though  entertained,  it  was  feared  would  be 

38 


594  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

concealed.      The    whole    tone   of   the  Convention    had 
"been  in  opposition  to  the  popular  feeling  on  the  war. 
The  ultra  peace  men  had  been  prominent  in  its  delibera 
tions.     Vallandighain,  Harris,  Long,  Pendleton,  men  who 
had    done  their  utmost  to  help   on  the  rebellion  and 
hamper  the  Government,    had  been  its  ruling  spirits. 
The  tone  of  its  speeches  had  been  in  entire  sympathy 
with  the  rebels,  for  whom  no  words  of  reproof  were 
littered,  while  they  were  unmeasured  in  their  denun 
ciation  of   Mr.    Lincoln  and  his   Administration.     The 
news  of  the  fall  of  Fort  Morgan  had  come  in  upon  them 
as  they  sat  in  conclave,  but  it  won  no  cheers  from  that 
assembly  for  the  success  of  the  Old  Flag  and  the  leaf 
of  imperishable  renown  which  added  to  the  full  wreath 
of  laurel,  which   already  crowned  our  army  and  our 
navy.     Its  resolutions  had  declared  that  the  war  was 
a  failure,  and  called  for  an  immediate  cessation  of  hos 
tilities  ;  while,  as  a  striking  commentary  upon  this  decla 
ration,   the  very   day  after  the  Convention  adjourned 
brought  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Atlanta  and  the  glorious 
success  of  that  grand  march  of  Sherman's  army  which 
turned  the  tide  of  war,  and  contributed  so  largely  to  its 
final  success. 

The  Union  party  instantly  and  joyfully  accepted  the 
issue  thus  boldly  tendered.  They  knew  that,  once  fairly 
before  the  country,  the  result  could  not  be  doubtful. 
The  people  did  not  believe  that  the  effort  to  maintain 
the  Union  by  force  of  arms  had  yet  proved  "  a  failure." 
They  did  not  believe  that  the  Union  could  be  preserved 
by  negotiation,  and  they  were  not  in  favor  of  a  cessation 
of  hostilities  until  victory  should  be  secured.  The  issue 
had  been  fairly  made  between  the  two  parties  in  their 
respective  declarations  at  Baltimore  and  Chicago.  The 
former  demanded  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  and 
denounced  all  terms  of  peace  short  of  an  unconditional 
surrender  of  the  rebels ;  the  latter  demanded  a  suspension 
of  hostilities  and  a  resort  to  negotiation. 

The  great  body  of  the  Democratic  party  throughout  the 
country,  sympathizing  with  the  national  sentiment,  felt 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  595 

that  they  had  been  placed  in  a  false  position  by  the  action 
of  their  convention.  An  effort  was  made  to  stem  the 
rising  tide  of  public  condemnation  by  General  McClellan 
their  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  in  his  letter  of  accept- 
He  declared  himself  in  favor  of  preserving  the 
Union  by  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war,  if  all  the 
" resources  of  statesmanship,"  which  should  be  first  em 
ployed,  should  prove  inadequate.  The  letter,  however, 
was  without  effect.  It  did  something  to  alienate  the  peace 
men  who  had  controlled  the  Chicago  Convention,  but 
nothing  to  disturb  the  conviction  of  the  people  that  the 
same  men  would  control  General  McClellan  also  in  the 
event  of  his  election. 

The  political  campaign  was  thus  fairly  opened.     The 
Fremont  movement,  which  had  but  little  strength  from 
the  start,  now  came  to  an  inglorious  end.     Shortly  before 
the  meeting  of  the  Chicago  Convention,  some  friends  of 
General  Fremont,  with  some  faint  hope  of  compelling  Mr. 
Lincoln  to  withdraw,  had  written  to  the  General  to  know 
if  he  would  withdraw  from  the  canvass,  provided  Mr 
Lincoln  would  do  so.     In  reply,  General  Fremont,  saying 
that  he  had  no  right  to  act  independently  of  the  men 
who  nominated  him,  suggested  that  some  understanding 
should  be  had  between  the  supporters  of  the  Baltimore 
Cleveland  Conventions,  with  a  view  to  the  convoca 
tion  of  a  third  convention  ;  for,  as  he  said,  "a  really  pop 
ular  convention,  upon  a  broad  and  liberal  basis,  so  that 
it  could  be  regarded  as  a  convocation  in  mass  of  the 
people,  and  not  the  work  of  politicians,  would  command 
public    confidence."      The   proposition,  however,    com 
manded  not  the  slightest  attention ;  and  after  the  Demo 
cratic  nomination  was  made,  the  lines  were  drawn  so 
closely  that  the  pressure  of  public  sentiment  compelled 
the  absolute  withdrawal  of  General  Fremont,  which  took 
place  on  the  21st  of  September.     From  that  time  forward 
the  contest  was  between  Mr.  Lincoln,  representing  thr 
sentiments  of  the  Baltimore  Platform  on  the  one  hand 
and  General  McClellan,  representing  the  sentiments  of  the 

icago  Platform  on  the  other.     The  lines  were  clearly 


596  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

drawn,  and  the  canvass  was  prosecuted  with  earnestness, 
"but  with  less  than  the  usual  acrimony  and  intemperate 
zeal.  It  was  felt  to  be  a  contest  of  principle,  and  was 
carried  on  with  a  gravity  and  decorum  "befitting  its  im 
portance. 

One  of  the  incidents  upon  which  great  stress  was  laid 
by  the  Opposition  in  the  canvass,  arose  out  of  some  pro 
ceedings  in  Tennessee,  of  which  Andrew  Johnson  still 
remained  military  governor,  with  reference  to  the  calling 
of  a  convention  and  holding  an  election  in  the  State. 
Several  efforts  had  been  made  in  that  direction  during  the 
year.  As  early  as  January  26th,  Governor  Johnson  had 
issued  a  proclamation,  ordering  an  election  for  county 
officers,  and  in  his  proclamation  had  prescribed  stringent 
qualifications  for  voters,  and  a  stringent  oath  which  every 
voter  must  take.  Some  of  the  judges  of  election  thought, 
however,  that  it  was  enough  to  require  of  voters  to  take 
the  oath  of  the  President's  amnesty  proclamation.  Ac 
cordingly,  one  of  them  wrote  to  Washington  on  the  sub 
ject,  as  follows  :  — 


!,  February  20,  IS&i. 

Hon.  W.  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State,  Washington,  D.  0.  : 

In  county  and  State  elections,  must  citizens  of  Tennessee  take  the  oath 
prescribed  by  Governor  Johnson,  or  will  the  President's  oath  of  amnesty 
entitle  them  to  vote?  I  have  been  appointed  to  hold  the  March  election 
in  Cheatham  County,  and  wish  to  act  understandingly. 

WARREN  JORDAN. 

The  President  himself  answered  by  telegraph  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

"WASHINGTON,  February  20,  1S84. 

WARREN  JORDAN,  Nashville  : 

In  county  elections  you  had  better  stand  by  Governor  Johnson's  plan; 
otherwise  you  will  have  conflict  and  confusion.  I  have  seen  his  plan. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

This  election  was  held  with  but  indifferent  success.  A 
convention  was  also  held  in  May  at  Knoxville,  but  took 
no  important  action.  But,  in  September,  another  con 
vention  was  called  together  for  the  purpose  of  reorgan- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  597 

izing  the  State  and  taking  part  in  the  approaching  Presi 
dential  election.  The  convention  met,  and  determined 
that  the  election  should  be  held.  They  adopted  an  elec 
toral  ticket,  and  provided  for  ascertaining  the  qualifica 
tions  of  voters.  Among  other  things,  they  provided  a 
stringent  oath,  to  be  administered  to  registers  and  officers 
holding  the  elections,  and  requested  Governor  Johnson 
to  execute  the  resolutions  which  they  had  adopted  "in 
such  manner  as  he  might  think  would  best  subserve  the 
interests  of  the  Government." 

Governor  Johnson  accordingly,  on  the  30th  of  Septem 
ber,  issued  a  proclamation,  directing  that  the  election  be 
opened  and  held,  and  that  at  such  election  "all  citizens 
and  soldiers,  being  free  white  men,  twenty -one  years  of 
age,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  for  six  months 
prior  to  the  election  citizens  of  the  State  of  Tennessee, 
who  have  qualified  themselves  by  registration,  and  who 
take  the  oath  prescribed"  by  the  convention,  should  be 
entitled  to  vote.  The  oath  prescribed  was  as  follows  :— 

"  I  solemnly  swear  that  I  will  henceforth  support  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  defend  it  against  the  assaults  of  all  enemies :  that 
I  am  an  active  friend  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
enemy  of  the  so-called  Confederate  States :  that  I  ardently  desire  the  sup 
pression  of  the  present  rebellion  against  the  Government  of  the  United 
States :  that  I  sincerely  rejoice  in  the  triumph  of  the  armies  and  navies 
of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  defeat  and  overthrow  of  the  armies, 
navies,  and  of  all  armed  combinations  in  the  interest  of  the  so-called  Con 
federate  States :  that  I  will  '  ordially  oppose  all  armistices  and  negotia 
tions  for  peace  with  rebels  in  arms,  until  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  all  laws  and  proclamations  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  shall 
be  established  over  all  the  people  of  every  State  and  Territory  embraced 
within  the  National  Union ;  and  that  I  will  heartily  aid  and  assist  the 
loyal  people  in  whatever  measures  may  be  adopted  for  the  attainment  of 
these  ends :  and  further,  that  I  take  this  oath  freely  and  voluntarily,  and 
without  mental  reservation.  So  help  me  God." 

An  electoral  ticket  in  favor  of  General  McClellan  had 
previously  been  nominated  by  persons  not  in  sympatl^ 
with  the  State  Convention,  nor  with  the  National  Ad 
ministration,  and  these  gentlemen,  on  the  appearance  of 
this  proclamation,  drew  up  a  protest,  which  they  addressed 


598  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

to  the  President.  They  protested  against  Governor  John 
son' s  assuming  to  dictate  the  qualifications  of  voters, 
which  they  said  were  prescribed  by  the  laws  of  Tennessee, 
a  copy  of  which  they  annexed ;  and  they  protested  against 
the  oath. 

This  protest  was  presented  to  the  President  by  Mr.  J. 
Lellyet,  one  of  the  signers,  who  sent  to  a  New  York  news 
paper  the  following  account  of  the  interview  : — 

WASHINGTON,  October  15. 

I  called  upon  the  President  to-day,  and  presented  and  read  to  him  the 
subjoined  protest.  Having  concluded,  Mr.  Lincoln  responded: — 

"May  I  inquire  how  long  it  took  you  and  the  New  York  politicians  to 
concoct  that  paper  ?" 

I  replied,  "It  was  concocted  in  Nashville,  without  communication  with 
any  but  Tennesseans.  We  communicated  with  citizens  of  Tennessee  out 
side  of  Nashville,  but  not  with  New  York  politicians." 

"  I  will  answer,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  emphatically,  "  that  I  expect  to  let 
the  friends  of  George  B.  McOlellan  manage  their  side  of  this  contest  in 
their  own  way,  and  I  will  manage  my  side  of  it  in  my  way." 

"May  we  ask  an  answer  in  writing?"  I  suggested. 

"  Not  now.  Lay  those  papers  down  here.  I  will  give  no  other  answer 
now.  I  may  or  I  may  not  write  something  about  this  hereafter.  I  un 
derstand  this.  I  know  you  intend  to  make  a  point  of  this.  But  go 
ahead,  you  have  my  answer." 

"  Your  answer  then  is  that  you  expect  to  let  General  McOlellan's  friends 
manage  their  side  of  the  contest  in  their  own  way,  and  you  will  manage 
your  side  of  it  in  your  way  ?" 

"Yes." 

I  then  thanked  the  President  for  his  courtesy  in  giving  us  a  hearing  at 
all,  and  then  took  my  leave.  * 

JOHN  LELLYET. 

The  President,  a  few  days  after,  however,  sent  them 
the  following  answer  in  writing  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  I).  C.,  October  22, 1S64. 

Messrs.  WILLIAM  B.   CAMPBELL,   THOMAS  A.  R.  NELSON,   JAMES  T.   P. 

CARTER,    JOHN    WILLIAMS,    A.   BLIZZARD,    HEXRY    COOPER,    BAILLIE 

PEYTON,  JOHN  LELLYET,  EMERSON  ETHERIDGE,  and  JOHN  D.  PERRY 

MAN: 

Gentlemen : — On  the  15th  day  of  this  month,  as  I  remember,  a  printed 
paper  manuscript,  with  a  few  manuscript  interlineations,  called  a  protest, 
with  your  names  appended  thereto,  and  accompanied  by  another  printed 
paper,  purporting  to  be  a  proclamation  by  Andrew  Johnson,  Military 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  599 

Governor  of  Tennessee,  and  also  a  manuscript  paper,  purporting  to  be 
extracts  from  the  Code  of  Tennessee,  were  laid  before  me. 

The  protest,  proclamation,  and  extracts  are  respectively  as  follows: — 

[The  protest  is  here  ^ecited,  and  also  the  proclamation  of  Governor 
Johnson,  dated  September  30,  to  which  it  refers,  together  with  a  list  of 
the  counties  in  East,  Middle,  and  West  Tennessee ;  also  extracts  from  the 
Code  of  Tennessee  in  relation  to  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President, 
qualifications  of  voters  for  members  of  the  General  Assembly,  places 
of.-iiolding  elections,  and  officers  of  popular  elections.] 

At  the  time  these  papers  were  presented,  as  before  stated,  I  had  never 
seen  either  of  them,  nor  heard  of  the  subject  to  which  they  relate,  except 
in  a  general  way  one  day  previously. 

Up  to  the  present  moment,  nothing  whatever  upon  the  subject  has 
passed  between  Governor  Johnson,  or  any  one  else,  connected  with  the 
proclamation,  and  myself. 

Since  receiving  the  papers,  as  stated,  I  have  given  the  subject  such 
brief  consideration  as  I  have  been  able  to  do,  in  the  ink  *t  of  so  many 
pressing  public  duties. 

My  conclusion  is,  that  I  can  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter,  either 
to  sustain  the  plan  as  the  convention  and  Governor  Johnson  have  initiated 
it,  or  to  revoke  or  modify  it  as  you  demand. 

By  the  Constitution  and  laws,  the  President  is  charged  with  no  duty  in 
the  Presidential  election  in  any  State,  nor  do  I  in  this  case  perceive  any 
military  reason  for  his  interference  in  the  matter. 

The  movement  set  on  foot  by  the  convention  and  Governor  Johnson 
does  not,  as  seems  to  be  assumed  by  you,  emanate  from  the  National 
Executive. 

In  no  proper  sense  can  it  be  considered  other  than  an  independent 
movement  of,  at  least,  a  portion  of  the  loyal  people  of  Tennessee. 

I  do  not  perceive  in  the  plan  any  menace,  or  violence,  or  coercion  towards 
any  one. 

Governor  Johnson,  like  any  other  loyal  citizen  of  Tennessee,  has  the 
right  to  favor  any  political  plan  he  chooses,  and,  as  military  governor,  it 
is  his  duty  to  keep  the  peace  among  and  for  the  loyal  people  of  the  State. 
I  cannot  discern  that  by  this  plan  he  purposes  any  more.    But  you  ob 
ject  to  the  plan. 

Leaving  it  alone  will  be  your  perfect  security  against  it.  It  is  not  pro 
posed  to  force  you  into  it. 

Do  as  you  please,  on  your  own  account,  peaceably  and  loyally,  and  Gov 
ernor  Johnson  will  not  molest  you,  but  will  protect  you  against  violence 
as  far  as  in  his  power. 

I  presume  that  the  conducting  of  a  Presidential  election  in  Tennessee  in 

strict  accordance  with  the  old  code  of  the  State,  is  not  now  a  possibility. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add,  that  if  any  election  shall  be  held  and 

any  votes  shall  be  cast  in  the  State  of  Tennessee  for  President  and  Vice- 


500  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

President  of  the  United  States,  it  will  not  belong  to  the  military  agents, 
nor  yet  to  the  Executive  Department,  but  exclusively  to  another  depart 
ment  of  the  Government,  to  determine  whether  they  are  entitled  to  be 
counted  in  conformity  with  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United 
States. 

Except  it  be  to  give  protection  against  violence,  I  decline  to  interfere  in 
any  way  with  any  Presidential  election. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  signers  of  the  protest  thereupon  declared  the  Mc- 
Clellan  electoral  ticket  withdrawn.  And  this  incident 
was  made  the  basis  of  fresh  attacks  upon  the  President 
for  interfering  in  the  election. 

Like  all  other  persons  in  similar  position,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  subjected  to  assaults  upon  his  personal  character  and 
conduct.  °ne  of  these  charges  was,  that  while  all  other 
public  GT(  dtors  drew  their  compensation  in  paper  money, 
his  salary  was  paid  in  gold.  The  charge  is  important, 
now,  only  because  it  led  to  the  publication  of  the  follow 
ing  letter  from  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  : — 

UNITED  STATES  TBKASCBT,  WASHINGTON,  October  13. 

MY  DEAB  SIR  : — Since  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  10th  instant,  I 
have  found  the  article  spoken  of  by  you,  and  which,  although  I  am  told  it 
has  gone  the  rounds  of  the  Democratic  press,  I  have  not  before  seen.  It 
is  in  the  words  following  : — 

"  Jeff.  Davis's  salary  is  nominally  twenty-five  thousand  a  year,  but  by 
the  depreciation  of  the  Confederate  money  is  equal  to  about  fifteen  hundred 
dollars,  and  on  this  practically  he  has  to  live.  Abraham  Lincoln's  salary 
is  legally  twenty -five  thousand  dollars  a  year.  But  his  legal-tender  money, 
having  depreciated  to  less  than  half  its  nominal  value,  he  refuses  to  take, 
and  demands  and  receives  his  pay  in  gold  or  gold  certificates,  while  the 
soldiers  of  his  army  have  to  take  their  pay  in  greenbacks.  Isn't  this  pa 
triotic  and  honest  in  Old  Abe,  and  ought  not  he  to  be  re-elected  to  another 
four  years'  hard  money  for  himself,  and  of  largely  depreciated  money  for 
the  people?" 

Now,  this  story  is  perhaps  as  true  as  other  slanders  that  have  been 
heaped  upon  the  head  of  Mr.  Lincoln  by  his  malignant  Copperhead  and 
traitor  enemies,  North  and  South.  The  facts  in  the  case,  however,  are 
entirely  at  variance  with,  and  the  very  reverse  of,  the  statements  made  in 
the  article  quoted.  The  salary  of  the  President  is,  in  accordance  with  law, 
paid  in  warrant  drafts  on  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States  for  the  amount, 
loss  the  income  tax,  which  have  been  sent  him  regularly  monthly.  Instead 
of  drawing  his  money  on  these  drafts,  he  has  been  iu  the  habit  of  leaving 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  601 

it  for  a  long  time  without  interest.  In  one  case  all  his  salary  so  remained 
for  eleven  months.  On  several  occasions  I  solicited  the  President  to  draw 
what  was  due  him,  urging  that  he  was  losing  largely  in  interest  on  the 
amount  due  him.  He  asked  me,  "Who  gains  my  loss?"  On  my  an 
swering,  "  The  United  States,"  he  replied,  "Then  as  it  goes  for  the  good 
of  the  country,  let  it  remain.  The  Treasury  needs  it  more  than  I  do." 
Having  at  length  satisfied  the  President  that  it  was  necessary  to  the  clo 
sing  of  my  annual  accounts  that  the  drafts  on  the  Treasury  that  he  held 
should  be  presented  and  paid,  he  indorsed  and  handed  them  to  me.  I  drew 
the  amount  in  United  States  notes,  and  placed  it  to  his  credit  as  a  temporary 
loan  at  five  per  cent,  per  annum,  payable,  principal  and  interest,  in  green 
backs.  Since  then  his  salary  has  been  from  time  to  time  mostly  invested  in 
the  stocks  of  the  United  States,  purchased  at  current  rates  by  his  friends 
for  him.  The  interest  of  these  stocks  is  payable  in  coin.  "When  this  in 
terest  became  due,  I  tried  to  induce  him  to  draw  it.  Failing  in  doing  so, 
the  amount  due  him  was  sent  by  Honorable  John  0.  Underwood,  Judge 
of  the  United  States  Court  for  the  District  of  Virginia.  The  result  of  his 
interview  with  the  President  is  best  told  in  the  letter  of  Judge  Underwood 
to  me,  which  is  herewith  enclosed  to  you.  I  have  caused  an  investigation 
to  be  made  of  the  transactions  of  the  President  with  the  receipt  of  his 
salary,  and  the  investment  of  the  sums  in  United  States  stocks,  and  enclose 
you  herewith  the  letter  of  Leroy  Tuttle,  Esq.,  the  Assistant  Cashier,  from 
which  it  appears  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  from  his  forbearance  in  collecting  his 
dues,  has  lost  at  least  four  thousand  dollars,  and  which  he  has  virtually 
given  to  the  people  of  the  United  States.  I  have  great  doubts  as  to  the  pro 
priety  of  answering  this  foul  falsehood,  well  knowing  that  others  perhaps 
even  grosser  will  be  made,  so  as  to  keep  the  Union  party  on  the  defensive, 
and  thus  preventing  the  loyal  men  of  the  country  from  attacking  the  peace- 
at-any-price  Democracy  for  their  damning  heresies  and  treasonable  prac 
tices.  You,  however,  ask  me  to  make  the  statement  and  to  put  it  in  an 
official  form.  I  have  therefore  done  so,  and  I  authorize  you  to  use  it 
and  the  accompanying  letters,  or  any  part  of  either,  in  any  way  that 
may  seem  best  calculated  to  place  the  President  and  his  calumniators  in 
thoir  true  light  and  positions  before  the  American  people. 
Very  respectfully  yours, 

F.  E.  SPINNER,  U.  S.  Treasurer. 
Tc  General  D.  W.  0.  CLAEKE,  Burlington,  Vermont. 

We  may  say  here,  that  this  gift  of  money  to  the  cause 
of  the  country  was  not  the  only  way  in  which  Mr.  Lin 
coln  shared  in  the  burdens  of  the  war.  He  set  an  ex 
ample  to  his  fellow-citizens,  also,  by  sending  a  repre 
sentative  recruit  to  the  army. 

The  differences  in  the  Union  ranks  had  all  disappeared 


602  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

before  the  common  danger.  Efforts  were  made  on  every 
side,  not  for  discord,  but  for  harmony  and  united  effort. 
With  this  desire,  and  in  accordance  with  an  intimation 
in  the  Baltimore  Platform  that  a  change  in  the  Cabinet 
would  be  desirable,  Mr.  Lincoln  determined  to  displace 
Mr.  Blair  from  the  position  of  Postmaster-General.  The 
following  correspondence  passed  between  them  : — 

EXECUTIVB  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  September  23,  1S64. 

Hori.  MONTGOMERY  BLAIR  : 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :— You  have  generously  said  to  me,  more  than  once,  that 
whenever  your  resignation  could  be  a  relief  to  me,  it  was  at  my  disposal. 
The  time  has  come.  You  very  well  know  that  this  proceeds  from  no  dis 
satisfaction  of  mine  with  you  personally  or  officially.  Your  uniform 
kindness  has  been  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  other  friend,  and  while  it  is 
true  that  the  war  does  not  so  greatly  add  to  the  difficulties  of  your  de 
partment  as  to  those  of  some  others,  it  is  yet  much  to  say,  as  I  most  truly 
can,  that  in  the  three  years  and  a  half  during  which  you  have  adminis 
tered  the  General  Post-Office,  I  remember  no  single  complaint  against  you 
in  connection  therewith.  Yours,  as  ever, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

MR.  BLAIR'S  REPLY. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :— I  have  received  your  note  of  this  date,  referring  to  my 
offers  to  resign  whenever  you  should  deem  it  advisable  for  the  public  in 
terest  that  I  should  do  so,  and  stating  that,  in  your  judgment,  that  time 
has  now  come.  I  now,  therefore,  formally  tender  my  resignation  of  the 
office  of  Postmaster-General.  I  cannot  take  leave  of  you  without  renew 
ing  the  expressions  of  my  gratitude  for  the  uniform  kindness  which  has 
marked  your  course  towards  Yours  truly, 

M.  BLAIR. 

THE  PRESIDENT. 

The  political  canvass  was  prosecuted  with  energy  and 
confidence  in  every  section  of  the  country.  The  main  con 
sideration  which  was  pressed  upon  the  public  mind  was, 
that  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  rebels,  an  explicit  disapproval  of  the  general  line  of 
policy  he  had  pursued,  and  a  distinct  repudiation  by  the 
people  of  the  Northern  States  of  the  Baltimore  declara 
tion,  that  the  war  should  be  prosecuted  to  the  complete 
and  final  overthrow  of  the  rebellion.  This  view  of  the 
case  completely  controlled  the  sentiment  and  action  of 
the  people,  and  left  little  room  or  disposition  for  wran- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  603 

gling  over  the  many  petty  issues  to  which  such  a  contest 
gives  birth.  As  the  canvass  advanced  the  confidence  of 
success  increased,  and  received  a  still  further  impulse 
from  the  grand  military  victories  which,  in  quick  suc 
cession,  began  to  crown  the  Union  arms. 

During  the  months  of  September  and  October,  General 
Hood,  in  a  vain  endeavor  to  regain  the  ground  lost  by  the 
fall  of  Atlanta,  made  a  movement  upon  General  Sherman's 
communications.  He  might  have  caused  some  trouble,  if 
it  had  not  been  for  the  gallant  defence  of  Alatoona,  by 
General  Corse,  which  enabled  Sherman  to  adopt  such 
measures  as  drove  Hood  away  from  his  line  of  communi 
cation,  into  the  northern  part  of  Alabama,  where  he  gathered 
his  forces  for  that  fatal  march  which  led  his  army  to  be 
crushed  upon  the  heights  of  Nashville. 

General  Grant  had  not  been  idle  before  Petersburg  du 
ring  this  time.  Several  attacks  had  been  made  by  onr 
forces  both  on  the  north  side  of  the  James  and  towards 
the  south  of  Petersburg,  resulting  in  steady  gains  for 
Grant's  operations. 

But  the  most  important  of  all  were  the  brilliant  victories 
gained  by  General  Sheridan,  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley, 
one  on  September  19th,  near  Winchester,  the  second  three 
days  later,  at  Fisher's  Hill,  and  the  greatest  of  all  at  Cedar 
Creek,  on  the  19th  of  October,  when  what  had  already 
been  a  repulse  of  our  army,  by  a  surprise  on  the  part  of 
General  Early,  was  turned  into  a  glorious  victory  by  the 
timely  arrival  of  Sheridan,  who  on  his  return  from 
Washington,  hearing  the  guns  of  the  battle  at  Win 
chester,  rode  full  speed  to  join  his  men,  whom  he  reformed 
and  led  instantly  to  the  destruction  of  the  exulting 
rebels. 

It  was  with  the  joy  of  this  last  victory  kindling  his 
heart,  that  the  President,  on  the  20th  of  October,  issued 
his  proclamation  for  a  national  thanksgiving,  as  follows : — 

A  PROCLAMATION. 

It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  prolong  our  national  life  another  year, 
defending  us  with  His  guardian  care  against  unfriendly  designs  from 
abroad,  and  vouchsafing  to  us  in  His  mercy  many  and  signal  victories  ovei 


604  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  enemy  who  is  of  our  own  household.  It  has  also  pleased  our  Heavenly 
Father  to  favor  as  well  our  citizens  in  their  homes  as  our  soldiers  in  their 
camps  and  our  sailors  on  the  rivers  and  seas,  with  unusual  health.  He 
has  largely  augmented  our  free  population  by  emancipation  and  by  immi 
gration,  while  He  has  opened  to  us  new  sources  of  wealth,  and  has 
crowned  the  labor  of  our  workingmen  in  every  department  of  industry 
with  abundant  reward.  Moreover,  He  has  been  pleased  to  animate  and 
inspire  our  minds  and  hearts  with  fortitude,  courage,  and  resolution  suffi 
cient  for  the  great  trial  of  civil  war,  into  which  we  have  been  brought  by 
our  adherence  as  a  nation  to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  humanity,  and  to 
afford  to  us  reasonable  hopes  of  an  ultimate  and  happy  deliverance  from 
all  our  dangers  and  affliction. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  do 
hereby  appoint  and  set  apart  the  last  Thursday  in  November  next,  as  a 
day  which  I  desire  to  be  observed  by  all  my  fellow-citizens,  wherever  they 
may  then  be,  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving  and  prayer  to  Almighty  God,  tho 
beneficent  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  universe ;  and  I  do  further  recommend 
to  my  fellow-citizens  aforesaid,  that  on  that  occasion  they  do  reverently 
humble  theLiselves  in  the  dust,  and  from  thence  offer  up  penitent  and  fer 
ment  prayers  and  supplications  to  the  great  Disposer  of  events,  for  a  return 
of  the  inestimable  blessings  of  peace,  union,  and  harmony  throughout  tho 
land,  which  it  has  pleased  Him  to  assign  as  a  dwelling-place  for  ourselves 
and  our  posterity  throughout  all  generations. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  twentieth  day  of  October, 
in  the  year  of  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-four, 
and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-ninth. 

ABEAHAM  LINCOLN. 
B/  the  President : 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

He  also  wrote  the  following  letter  of  congratulation  to 
General  Sheridan,  which  was  read  at  the  head  of  every 
regiment  in  the  command  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  October  22. 

To  Major-General  SHEEIDAN: 

With  great  \  leasure  I  tender  to  you,  and  your  brave  army,  the  thank? 
of  the  nation  and  my  own  personal  admiration  and  gratitude  for  the 
month's  operations  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  especially  for  the  splen 
did  work  of  October  19.  Your  obedient  servant, 

ABEAHAM  LINCOLN. 

These  victories  gave  vigor  and  courage  to  the  country. 
The  price  of  gold  fell  in  the  market,  the  credit  of  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  605 

Government  was  rapidly  enhanced,  volunteers  swelled 
the  ranks  of  the  army,  and  the  menaced  draft  promised 
to  be  unnecessary. 

The  term  for  which  the  hundred-days  men  from  the 
West  had  enlisted  had  expired,  and  the  men  were  sent 
home,  having  done  good  service.  Tho'se  from  Ohio  had 
served  in  the  east,  while  those  from  the  States  farther  west 
had  aided  Sherman's  march  ;  when  they  were  discharged 
the  following  complimentary  orders,  by  President  Lincdln, 
were  issued : — 

THANKS  TO  THE  OHIO  TROOPS. 

WASHINGTON,  Stptember  10. 
Governor  BROUGH: 

Pursuant  to  the  President's  directions,  I  transmit  to  you  the  following 
Executive  order,  made  by  him  in  acknowledgment  of  the  services  of  the 
hundred-day  men,  who  at  the  opening  of  the  spring  campaign  volunteered 
their  service  in  the  operations  of  General  Grant.  The  certificates  of  ser 
vices  mentioned  in  the  order  will  be  prepared  without  delay  and  trans 
mitted  to  the  officers  and  soldiers  entitled  to  them. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

Executive  order  returning  thanks  to  the  Ohio  Volunteers  for  one  hun 
dred  days : — 

ExKCimvB  MANSION,  WASHINGTON  CITT,  September  10,  1864 

The  term  of  one  hundred  days  for  which  the  National  Gu&rd  of  Ohio 
volunteered  having  expired,  the  President  directs  an  official  acknowledg 
ment  of  their  patriotism  and  valuable  services  during  the  recent  campaign. 
The  term  of  service  of  their  enlistment  was  short,  but  distinguished  bj 
memorable  events  in  the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  on  the  Peninsula,  in 
the  operations  of  the  James  River,  around  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  in 
the  battle  of  Monocacy,  in  the  intrenchments  of  Washington,  and  in  other 
important  service.  The  National  Guard  of  Ohio  performed  with  alacrity 
the  duty  of  patriotic  volunteers,  for  which  they  are  entitled,  and  are  here 
by  tendered,  through  the  Governor  of  their  State,  the  national  thanks. 

The  Secretary  of  War  is  directed  to  transmit  a  copy  of  this  order  to  the 
Governor  of  Ohio,  and  to  cause  a  certificate  of  their  honorable  service  to  be 
delivered  to  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Ohio  National  Guard,  who  re 
cently  served  in  the  military  force  of  the  United  States  as  volunteers  for 
one  hundred  days.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

THANKS  TO  THE  TROOPS  OF  ILLINOIS. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  October  7, 1864. 

To  THE  GOVERNOR  OF  ILLINOIS  : 

The  following  order  has  been  made  by  the  President,  and  the  Adjutant- 
General  is  preparing  certificates  for  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  your 
State,  which  will  be  forwarded  to  you  for  distribution. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 


606  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  October  1, 18C4. 

Special  Executive  order  returning  thanks  to  volunteers  for  one  hun 
dred  days,  from  the  States  of  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  and  Wisconsin: — 

The  term  of  one  hundred  days  for  which  volunteers  from  the  States  of 
Indiana.  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Wisconsin  volunteered,  under  the  call  of  their 
respective  Governors,  in  the  months  of  May  and  June,  to  aid  the  recent 
campaign  of  General  Sherman,  having  expired,  the  President  directs  an 
official  acknowledgment  to  be  made  of  their  patriotic  service.  It  was 
their  good  fortune  to  render  effective  service  in  the  brilliant  operations 
in  the  Southwest,  and  to  contribute  to  the  victories  of  the  national  arms 
over  the  rebel  forces  in  Georgia,  under  command  of  Johnston  and  Hood.  On 
all  occasions,  and  in  every  service  to  which  they  were  assigned,  their  duty 
as  patriotic  volunteers  was  performed  with  alacrity  and  courage,  for  which 
they  are  entitled  to  and  are  hereby  tendered  the  national  thanks  through 
the  Governors  of  their  respective  States. 

The  Secretary  of  War  is  directed  to  transmit  a  copy  of  this  order  to 
the  Governors  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Wisconsin,  and  to  cause  a 
certificate  of  their  honorable  services  to  be  delivered  to  the  officers  and 
soldiers  of  the  States  above  named,  who  recently  served  in  the  military 
service  of  the  United  States  as  volunteers  for  one  hundred  days. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

To  one  of  the  OMo  regiments  returning  through  Washing 
ton  and  calling  to  serenade  him,  the  President  made  a  brief 
speech,  in  which  are  noticeable,  first,  his  desire  to  impress 
upon  them  the  importance  of  the  main  point  involved  in 
the  contest  with  the  rebellion,  and  the  duty  of  not  allow 
ing  minor  matters  to  blind  them  to  this  main  point,  and 
second,  that  specimen  of  his  careful  and  perfectly  clear 
way  of  stating  a  proposition,  when  he  says,  not  that  this 
is  a  country  in  which  all  men  are  equal,  but  that  it  is  one 
in  which  ' '  every  man  7ias  a  rigid  to  be  equal  to  every 
other  man." 

The  speech  was  as  follows  :— 

SOLDIERS: — You  are  about  to  return  to  your  homes  and  your  friends, 
after  having,  as  I  learn,  performed  in  camp  a  comparatively  short  term 
of  duty  in  this  great  contest.  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you,  and  to  all 
who  have  come  forward  at  the  call  of  their  country.  I  wish  it  might  be 
more  generally  and  universally  understood  what  the  country  is  now 
engaged  in.  We  have,  as  all  will  agree,  a  free  government,  where  every 
man  has  a  right  to  be  equal  with  every  other  man.  In  this  great  struggle, 
this  form  of  government  and  every  form  of  human  right  is  endangered 
if  our  enemies  succeed.  There  is  more  involved  in  this  contest  than  is 
realized  by  every  one.  There  is  involved  in  this  struggle,  the  question 
whether  your  children  and  my  children  shall  enjoy  the  privileges  wo 
have  enjoyed.  I  say  this,  in  order  to  impress  upon  you,  if  you  are  not 
already  so  impressed,  that  no  small  matter  should  divert  us  from  our 
great  purpose. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  607 

There  may  be  some  inequalities  in  the  practical  application  of  our 
system.  It  is  fair  that  each  man  shall  pay  taxes  in  exact  proportion  to 
the  value  of  his  property;  but  if  we  should  wait,  before  collecting  a  tax, 
to  adjust  the  taxes  upon  each  man  in  exact  proportion  with  every  other 
man,  we  should  never  collect  any  tax  at  all.  There  may  be  mistakes 
made  sometimes ;  things  may  be  done  wrong,  while  the  officers  of  the 
Government  do  all  they  can  to  prevent  mistakes.  But  I  beg  of  you,  as 
citizens  of  this  great  Republic,  not  to  let  your  minds  be  carried  off  from 
'  the  great  work  we  have  before  us.  This  struggle  is  too  large  for  you  to 
be  diverted  from  it  by  any  small  matter.  When  you  return  to  your 
homes,  rise  up  to  the  height  of  a  generation  of  men  worthy  of  a  free 
government,  and  we  will  carry  out  the  great  work  we  have  commenced. 
I  return  to  you  my  sincere  thanks,  soldiers,  for  the  honor  you  have  done 
me  this  afternoon. 

To  another  Ohio  regiment  he  spoke  as  follows  :— 

SOLDIERS  : — I  suppose  you  are  going  home  to  see  your  families  and 
friends.  For  the  services  you  have  done  in  this  great  struggle  in  which 
we  are  engaged,  I  present  you  sincere  thanks  for  myself  and  the  country. 

I  almost  always  feel  inclined,  when  I  say  any  thing  to  soldiers,  to  impress 
upon  them,  in  a  few  brief  remarks,  the  importance  of  success  in  this  contest. 
It  is  not  merely  for  the  day,  but  for  all  time  to  come,  that  we  should  per 
petuate  for  our  children's  children  that  great  and  free  government  which 
we  have  enjoyed  all  our  lives.  I  beg  you  to  remember  this,  not  merely 
for  my  sake,  but  for  yours.  I  happen,  temporarily,  to  occupy  this  big 
White  House.  I  am  a  living  witness  that  -any  one  of  your  children  may 
look  to  come  here  as  my  father's  child  has.  It  is  in  order  that  each  one 
of  you  may  have,  through  this  free  government  which  we  have  enjoyed, 
an  open  field,  and  a  fair  chance  for  your  industry,  enterprise,  and  intelli 
gence  ;  that  you  may  all  have  equal  privileges  in  the  race  of  life,  with 
all  its  desirable  human  aspirations— it  is  for  this  that  the  struggle  should 
be  maintained,  that  we  may  not  lose  our  birthrights— not  only  for  one, 
but  for  two  or  three  years,  if  necessary.  The  nation  is  worth  fighting 
for,  to  secure  such  an  inestimable  jewel. 

The  premonitory  symptoms  of  the  result  of  the  Presi 
dential  contest  were  seen  in  the  State  elections  Tby  which 
it  was  preceded. 

In  September  Vermont  led  off  with  a  largely  increased 
Union  majorty,  and  Maine  followed  her  a  week  after, 
showing  also  a  proportionate  increase  in  the  majority 
with  which  that  State  had  sustained  the  Administration. 

But  the  October  elections  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Penn 
sylvania  indicated  yet  more  clearly  what  was  to  be  the 


608  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

result  in  November.  The  two  former  States  gave  heavy 
majorities  for  the  Union  ticket  on  the  home  vote.  In 
fact,  in  Indiana  the  soldiers  were  not  allowed  to  vote  at 
all.  Governor  Morton,  who  was  a  candidate  for  re-elec 
tion,  had  made  a  splendid  canvass,  speaking  with  great 
effect  all  over  the  State.  One  matter  which  doubtless 
aided  him  materially,  was  the  discovery  of  a  plot  on  the 
part  of  leading  members  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the 
Northwest  to  raise  a  revolt  in  that  section  of  the  conn- 
try,  to  release  the  rebel  prisoners,  and  by  arming  them, 
to  make  a  powerful  diversion  in  favor  of  the  rebels.  The 
election  following  close  upon  this  exposure,  Indiana  re- 
elected  Governor  Morton  by  a  large  majority,  in  spite  of 
the  absence  of  many  of  her  loyal  sons  in  the  field. 

In  Pennsylvania  the  result  upon  the  home  vote  was 
close,  but  with  the  soldiers'  votes  the  Union  ticket  car 
ried  the  State  by  about  twelve  thousand  majority. 

A  victory  was  won,  also,  in  Maryland  for  freedom,  by 
the  adoption,  though  by  a  close  vote,  of  the  new  Free 
State  Constitution.  The  heavy  majorities  in  its  favor, 
which  were  given  by  Baltimore  and  the  more  loyal  sec 
tions  of  the  State,  were  overborne  by  the  votes  of  the 
southern  and  western 'counties,  but  the  votes  of  the 
soldiers  were  almost  unanimous  in  favor  of  the  Con 
stitution,  and  Maryland  took  her  place  as  a  State  whose 
freedom  was  insured. 

Mr.  Lincoln  took  great  interest  in  the  success  of  this 
Constitution.  The  following  is  a  letter  which  he  wrote 
to  a  meeting  of  its  friends  in  Baltimore,  before  the  elec 
tion  : — 

EXECTTTIYK  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  October  18. 

Hon.  HENRY  W.  HOFFMAN  : 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — A  convention  of  Maryland  has  formed  a  now  Consti 
tution  for  the  State ;  a  public  meeting  is  called  for  this  evening,  at  Balti 
more,  to  aid  in  securing  its  ratification,  and  you  ask  a  word  from  me  for 
the  occasion.  I  presume  the  only  feature  of  the  instrument  about  whicfc 
there  is  serious  controversy,  is  that  which  provides  for  the  extinction  of 
slavery. 

It  needs  not  to  be  a  secret,  and  I  presume  it  is  no  secret,  that  I  wish 
success  to  this  provision.  I  desire  it  on  every  consideration.  1  wish 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  G09 


to  see  '  all  men  free.  I  wish  the  national  prosperity  of  tl  .e 
free,  which  I  feel  sure  the  extinction  of  slavery  would  bring.  I  wish  to 
see  in  progress  of  disappearing  that  only  thing  which  could  bring  this 
nation  to  civil  war.  I  attempt  no  argument.  Argument  upon  the  question 
is  already  exhausted  by  the  abler,  better  informed  and  more  immediately 
interested  sons  of  Maryland  herself.  I  only  add,  that  I  shall  be  gratified 
exceedingly  if  the  good  people  of  the  State  shall  by  their  votes  ratify  the 
new  Constitution. 

Yours  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 

After  the  result  of  the  election  was  known,  the  Presi 
dent  made  the  following  speech  at  a  serenade  given  to 
him  by  the  loyal  Marylanders,  in  honor  of  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution  :— 

FBIENDS  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  :—  I  am  notified  that  this  is  a  compliment 
paid  me  by  the  loyal  Marylanders  resident  in  this  District.  I  infer  that 
the  adoption  of  the  new  Constitution  for  the  State  furnishes  the  occasion, 
and  that  in  your  view  the  extirpation  of  slavery  constitutes  the  chief 
merit  o'  the  new  Constitution.  Most  heartily  do  I  congratulate  you,  and 
Maryland,  and  the  nation,  and  the  world,  upon  this  event.  I  regret  that 
it  did  not  occur  two  years  sooner,  which,  I  am  sure,  would  have  saved  the 
nation  more  money  than  would  have  met  all  the  private  loss  incident  to 
the  measure  ;  but  it  has  oome  at  last^n^I  sincerely  hope  its  friends 
may  fully  realize  all  their  anticipati«  ftupd  from  it,  and  thnt  its 
opponents  may  by  its  effects  bo  agree  JM  IBofitably  disappointed. 

A  word  upon  another  subject.  SolBMif  said  by  the  Secretary  of 
State  in  his  recent  speech  at  Auburn,  has  nKeri  construed  by  some  into  a 
threat,  that  if  I  shall  be  beaten  at  the  election,  I  will,  between  then  and 
the  end  of  my  constitutional  term,  do  what  I  may  be  able  to  ruin  the 
Government. 

Others  regard  the  fact  that  the  Chicago  Convention  adjourned,  not  sine 
die,  but  to  meet  again,  if  called  to  do  so  by  a  particular  individual,  as 
the  intimation  of  a  purpose  that  if  their  nominee  shall  be  elected  he  will 
at  once  seize  eontrol  of  the  Government.  I  hope  the  good  people  will 
permit  themselves  to  suifer  no  uneasiness  on  either  point.  I  am  strug 
gling  to  maintain  the  Government,  not  to  overthrow  it.  I  am  struggling 
especially  to  prevent  others  from  overthrowing  it.  I  therefore  say 
that  if  I  live,  I  shall  remain  President  until  the  4th  of  next  March, 
and  that  whoever  shall  be  constitutionally  elected,  in  November, 
shall  be  duly  installed  as  President  on  the  4th  of  March,  and  in  the  inter 
val  I  shall  do  my  utmost  that  whoever  is  to  hold  the  helm  for  the  next 
voyage  shall  start  with  the  best  possible  chance  of  saving  the  ship.  This 
is  due  to  the  people,  both  on  principle  and  under  the  Constitution. 
T>ieir  will,  constitutionally  expressed,  is  the  ultimate  law  for  all.  If  they 
39 


610  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

should  deliberately  resolve  to  have  immediate  peace,  even  at  the  loss  of 
their  country  and  their  liberties,  I  know  not  the  power  or  the  right  to 
resist  them.  It  is  their  own  business,  and  they  must  do  as  they  please 
with  their  own.  I  believe,  however,  they  are  still  resolved  to  preserve 
their  country  and  their  liberties ;  and  in  this,  in  office  or  out  of  it,  I  am  re 
solved  to  stand  by  them.  I  may  add,  that  in  this  purpose  to  save  the 
country  and  its  liberties,  no  classes  of  people  seem  so  nearly  unanimous 
as  the  soldiers  in  the  field  and  the  sailors  afloat.  Do  they  not  have  the 
hardest  of  it  ?  Who  should  quail  while  they  do  not  ?  God  bless  the  sol 
diers  and  seamen,  with  all  their  brave  commanders. 

The  latter  part  of  this  speech  was  called  forth  by  a  cur 
rent  misrepresentation  of  a  speech  made  by  Secretary  Sew- 
ard  at  Auburn,  on  the  £>th  of  September.  The  Secretary 
had  alluded  to  the  declaration  of  the  Chicago  Convention 
in  favor  of  an  immediate  cessation  of  hostilities,  and  the 
inevitable  tendency  of  the  success  of  the  ticket  nominated 
upon  that  platform  to  paralyze  the  efforts  of  the  Govern 
ment  to  put  down  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms ;  and 
he  asked,  if  such  a  thing  should  happen,  "who  could 
vouch  for  the  safety  of  the  country  against  the  rebels, 
during  the  interval  which  must  elapse  before  the  new 
Administration  can  cmy^tutionalry  come  into  power?" 
This  was  distorted  jfl  Khreat  that  if  the  Democratic 
candidate  should  ifl  B^d,  the  Administration  would 
take  means  to  retauWy  usurpation  the  power  which 
should  of  right  be  handed  over  to  him.  And  the  charge 
was  repeated  so  persistently,  that  the  President  at  length 
felt  called  upon  to  notice  it  as  he  did. 

The  result  of  the  October  elections  had  practically 
determined  the  result  in  November.  But,  as  the  time 
drew  near,  the  atmosphere  seemed  full  of  turbulent  and 
threatening  elements.  Loud  and  angry  charges  of  fraud 
in  the  October  elections  were  made  by  the  Opposition,  but 
were  not  sustained ;  and  they  were  succeeded  by  yet 
louder  charges  from  the  other  side  of  an  attempted  fraud 
in  the  soldiers'  votes  of  the  State  of  New  York,  which 
were  followed  up  by  proof.  Some  of  the  Democratic 
agents  were  convicted  of  these  attempted  frauds,  and, 
after  trial  and  conviction  by  a  military  commission,  they 
were  sentenced  to  a  heavy  imprisonment. 


STATE  PATERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          611 

The  rebels  used  all  means  in  their  power  to  aid  the 
party  from  whose  success  they  anticipated  so  much  ad 
vantage.  Hood's  movement,  it  was  hoped,  would  have 
a  political  influence  upon  the  election  ;  and  Early' s  ad 
vance  was  spoken  of  in  Southern  journals  as  a  means  of 
assisting  the  counting  of  the  ballots  in  Pennsylvania. 
Along  the  Northern  border,  too,  the  rebel  agents,  sent 
thither  on  "  detached  service  "  by  the  Rebel  Government, 
were  active,  in  movements  intended  to  terrify  and  harass 
the  people.  On  the  19th  of  October,  a  party  of  them 
made  a  raid  into  St.  Albans,  Vermont,  robbing  the  banks 
there,  and  making  their  escape  across  the  lines  into  Can 
ada  with  their  plunder,  having  killed  one  of  the  citizens 
in  their  attack.  Pursuit  was  made,  and  several  of 
the  marauders  were  arrested  in  Canada.  Proceedings 
were  commenced  to  procure  their  extradition,  which  were 
not,  however,  brought  to  a  close  before  the  election.  The 
Government  received  information  that  this  affair  was  but 
one  of  a  projected  series,  and  that  similar  attempts  would 
be  made  all  along  the  frontier.  More  than  this,  there 
were  threats,  followed  by  aci^alattempts,  to  set  fire  to 
the  principal  Northern  citiew  ^»re  were  not  wanting 
some  signs  of  an  inclination^  Hhv  the  scenes  of  the 
riots  of  the  year  before.  ^9r 

A  very  grave  sensation  was  produced  by  the  publica 
tion  of  a  report  of  Judge  Advocate-General  Holt,  giving 
conclusive  proof  of  the  existence  of  an  organized  secret 
association  at  the  North,  controlled  by  prominent  men  in 
the  Democratic  party,  whose  objects  were  the  overthrow, 
by  revolution,  of  the  Administration,  in  the  interest  of  the 
rebellion.  Some  of  the  leaders  were  arrested  and  tried. 
The  Democratic  presses  had  sneered  at  the  whole  affair  as 
one  which  was  got  up  by  the  Government  for  political 
effect.  But  when  one  of  their  leaders,  being  on  parole 
as  he  was  being  tried,  ran  away  rather  than  meet  the  re 
sult,  people  began  to  be  sensible  of  the  danger  they  had 
escaped. 

So  rife  were  threats  of  a  revolution  at  the  North,  and 
especially  in  New  York  City,  if  Mr.  Lincoln  were  re- 


612  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

elected,  that  the  Government  sent  a  body  of  veterans 
from  the  Army  of  the  James,  under  General  Butler,  to 
that  city  for  purposes  of  precaution.  But,  fortunately, 
in  New  York,  as  everywhere  else,  so  quiet  an  election 
was  never  known,  nor  was  there  ever  one  more  utterly 
free  from  complaints  of  fraud.  Certainly,  none  so  de 
cisive  was  ever  held  in  this  country.  Of  all  the  States 
which  voted  on  that  day,  General  McClellan  carried 
but  three — New  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Kentucky- 
while  Mr.  Lincoln  received  the  votes  of  all  the  New 
England  States,  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  of  all 
the  Western  States,  of  West  Virginia,  Tennessee,  Louisi 
ana,  and  Arkansas,  and  of  the  new  State  of  Nevada, 
which  was,  on  the  31st  of  October,  admitted  into  the 
Union  by  the  following  proclamation : — 

Whereas,  The  Congress  of  the  United  States  passed  an  act,  which  was 
approved  on  the  21st  day  of  March  last,  entitled,  u  An  Act  to  enable  the 
People  of  Nevada  to  form  a  Constitution  and  State  Government,"  and  for 
the  admission  of  such  State  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  States ;  and 

Whereas,  The  said  Constitution  and  State  Government  have  been  formed 
pursuant  to  the  condition  P^flHK  by  the  fifth  section  of  the  act  of  Con 
gress  aforesaid,  and  the  <  J9  Required  by  the  said  act,  and  also  a 
copy  of  the  Constitutional  ^Hmances  have  been  submitted  to  tho 
President  of  the  United  Staf^i^' 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known,  that  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  in  accordance  with  the  duty  imposed  upon  me  by  the 
act  of  Congress  aforesaid,  do  hereby  declare  and  proclaim  that  the  said 
State  of  Nevada  is  admitted  into  the  Union  on  an  equal  footing  with  the 
original  States. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  thirty-first  day  of  Octo 
ber,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
[L.  s.]         sixty-four,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States 
the  eighty-ninth. 

(Signed)  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President : 

WM.  H.  SKWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

The  vote  at  that  election  was  very  large  everywhere, 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  received  a  popular  majority  of  over  four 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  613 

hundred  thousand  votes — a  larger  majority  than  was  ever 
received  by  any  other  President. 

The  feeling  which  was  uppermost  in  the  President's 
heart  at  the  result  of  the  election  was  joy  over  its  effects 
upon  the  cause.  He  expressed  this  sentiment  in  some  re 
marks  which  he  made,  when  serenaded  by  a  club  of  Penn- 
sylvanians,  at  a  late  hour  on  the  night  of  the  election.  His 
speech  was  as  follows  :— 

FKIENDS  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  :— Even  before  I  had  been  informed  by 
you  that  this  compliment  was  paid  to  me  by  loyal  citizens  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  friendly  to  me,  I  had  inferred  that  you  were  that  portion  of  my 
countrymen  who  think  that  the  best  interests  of  the  nation  are  to  be  sub 
served  by  the  support  of  the  present  Administration.  I  do  not  pretend 
to  say  that  you  who  think  so  embrace  all  the  patriotism  and  loyalty  of 
the  country.  But  I  do  believe,  and  I  trust  without  personal  interest, 
that  the  welfare  of  the  country  does  require  that  such  support  and  in 
dorsement  be  given.  I  earnestly  believe  that  the  consequence  of  this 
day's  work,  if  it  be  as  you  assure  me,  and  as  now  seems  probable,  will  be 
to  the  lasting  advantage,  if  not  to  the  very  salvation  of  the  country.  I 
cannot  at  this  hour  say  what  has  been  the  result  of  the  election ;  but  what 
ever  it  may  have  been,  I  have  no  desire  to  modify  this  opinion,  that  all 
who  have  labored  to-day  in  behalf  of  the  Union  organization  have 
wrought  for  the  best  interests  of  their  country  and  the  world,  not  only 
for  the  present,  but  for  all  future  ages.  I  am  thankful  to  God  for  this 
approval  of  the  people.  But,  while  d'eeply  grateful  for  this  mark  of  their 
confidence  in  me,  if  I  know  my  heart,  my  gratitude  is  free  from  any  taint 
of  personal  triumph.  I  do  not  impugn  the  motives  of  any  one  opposed  to 
me.  It  is  no  pleasure  to  me  to  triumph  over  any  one,  but  I  give  thanks 
to  the  Almighty  for  this  evidence  of  the  people's  resolution  to  stand  by 
free  government  and  the  rights  of  humanity. 

The  telegraph  brought  certain  news  of  the  result  with 
in  a  few  hours.  On  the  night  of  November  10th,  the 
various  Lincoln  and  Johnson  Clubs  of  the  District  went 
to  the  White  House  to  serenade  the  President,  to  whom 
he  spoke  as  follows  : — 

It  has  long  been  a  grave  question  whether  any  Government,  not  too 
strong  for  the  liberties  of  its  people,  can  be  strong  enough  to  maintain  its 
existence  in  great  emergencies.  On  this  point  the  present  rebellion 
brought  our  Government  to  a  severe  test,  and  a  Presidential  election 
occurring  in  a  regular  course  during  the  rebellion,  added  not  a  little  to  the 
train. 


614  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

If  the  loyal  people  united  were  put  to  the  utmost  of  their  strength  by 
the  rebellion,  must  they  not  fail  when  divided  and  partially  paralyzed  bj 
a  political  war  among  themselves?  But  the  election  was  a  necessity. 
We  cannot  have  free  government  without  elections  ;  and  if  the  rebellion 
could  force  us  to  forego  or  postpone  a  national  election,  it  might  fairly 
claim  to  have  already  conquered  and  ruined  us.  The  strife  of  the  elec 
tion  is  but  human  nature  practically  applied  to  the  facts  of  the  case. 
What  has  occurred  in  this  case  must  ever  recur  in  similar  cases.  Human 
nature  will  not  change.  In  any  future  great  national  trial,  compared 
with  the  men  of  this,  we  will  have  as  weak  and  as  strong,  as  silly  and  as 
wise,  as  bad  and  as  good.  Let  us,  therefore,  study  the  incidents  of  this 
as  philosophy  to  learn  wisdom  from,  and  none  of  them  as  wrongs  to  be 
revenged. 

But  the  election,  along  with  its  incidental  and  undesirable  strife,  has 
done  good,  too.  It  has  demonstrated  that  a  people's  government  can 
sustain  a  national  election  in  the  midst  of  a  great  civil  war.  Until  now, 
it  has  not  been  known  to  the  world  that  this  was  a  possibility.  It  shows, 
also,  how  sound  and  how  strong  we  still  are.  It  shows  that  even  among 
the  candidates  of  the  same  party,  he  who  is  most  devoted  to  the  Union 
and  most  opposed  to  treason  can  receive  most  of  the  people's  votes.  It 
shows,  also,  to  the  extent  yet  known,  that  we  have  more  men  now  than 
we  had  when  the  war  began.  Gold  is  good  in  its  place;  but  living, 
brave,  and  patriotic  men  are  better  than  gold. 

But  the  rebellion  continues,  and,  now  that  the  election  is  over,  may 
not  all  have  a  common  interest  to  reunite  in  a  common  effort  to  save  our 
common  country  ?  For  my  own  part,  I  have  striven  and  shall  strive  to 
avoid  placing  any  obstacle  in  the  way.  So  long  as  I  have  been  here,  I 
have  not  willingly  planted  a  t,horn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While  I  am 
duly  sensible  to  the  high  compliment  of  a  re-election,  and  duly  grateful, 
as  I  trust,  to  Almighty  God,  for  having  directed  my  countrymen  to  a 
right  conclusion,  as  I  think,  for  their  good,  it  adds  nothing  to  my  satisfac 
tion  that  any  other  man  may  be  disappointed  by  the  result. 

May  I  ask  those  who  have  not  differed  with  me  to  join  with  me  in  this 
same  spirit  towards  those  who  have  ?  And  now,  let  me  close  by  asking 
three  hearty  cheers  for  our  brave  soldiers  and ,  seamen,  and  their  gallant 
and  skilful  commanders. 

/ 

But  though  the  President  rejoiced  over  the  result 
mainly  because  of  its  public  bearing  on  the  welfare  of 
the  country,  he  was  by  no  means  insensible  to  the  per 
sonal  confidence  in  himself  which  it  exhibited.  This  feel 
ing  he  expressed  in  a  speech  which  he  made  to  the  State 
Committee  of  Maryland,  who  waited  on  him  to  congratu 
late  him  upon  the  trust. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  615 

The  Chairman  had  remarked  that  they  felt  under  deep 
obligations  to  him  because,  by  the  exercise  of  rare  discre 
tion  on  his  part,  Maryland  to-day  occuDied  the  proud 
position  of  a  free  State. 

The  President  said  that  he  would  not  attempt  to  conceal  his  gratifica 
tion  with  the  result  of  the  election.  He  had  exercised  his  best  judgment 
for  the  good  of  the  whole  country,  and  to  have  the  seal  of  approbation 
placed  upon  his  course  was  exceedingly  grateful  to  his  feelings. 

Believing  the  policy  he  had  pursued  was  the  best  and  the  only  one 
which  could  save  the  country,  he  repeated  what  he  had  said  before,  that 
he  indulged  in  no  feeling  of  triumph  over  any  one  who  had  thought  or 
acted  differently  from  himself.  He  had  no  such  feeling  towards  any 
living  man.  He  thought  the  adoption  of  a  Free  State  Constitution  for 
Maryland  was  "a  big  thing,"  and  a  victory  for  right  and  worth  a  great 
deal  more  than  the  part  of  Maryland  in  the  Presidential  election,  although 
of  the  latter  he  thought  well.  In  conclusion,  he  repeated  what  he  had 
said  before :  namely,  that  those  who  differed  from  and  opposed  us,  will 
yet  see  that  defeat  was  better  for  their  own  good  than  if  they  had  been 
successful. 

This  same  sense  of  personal  gratitude  found  expression 
in  the  following  letter  which  he  wrote  to  Deacon  John 
Phillips,  of  Stourbridge,  Massachusetts,  who,  though  a 
hundred  and  four  years  old,  attended  the  polls  to  cast 
his  vote  for  Mr.  Lincoln  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  Nov&mbtr  21,  1864. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — I  have  heard  of  the  incident  at  the  polls  in  your  town, 
in  which  you  acted  so  honorable  a  part,  and  I  take  the  liberty  of  writing 
to  you  to  express  my  personal  gratitude  for  the  compliment  paid  me  by 
the  suffrage  of  a  citizen  so  venerable. 

The  example  of  such  devotion  to  civic  duties  in  one  whose  days  have 
already  been  extended  an  average  lifetime  beyond  the  Psalmist's  limit, 
cannot  but  be  valuable  and  fruitful.  It  is  not  for  myself  only,  but  for 
the  country  which  you  have  in  your  sphere  ser  ved  so  long  and  so  wellt 
that  I  thank  you.  Your  friend  and  servant, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Deacon  JOHN  PHILLIPS. 

We  publish  here,  as  it  was  written  on  the  same  day,  the 
following  graceful  letter  addressed  by  the  President  to 
Mrs.  Bixby,  a  resident  of  Boston,  who  had  lost  five  sons 
in  the  war,  and  whose  sixth  was  lying  severely  wounded 
at  the  time  in  the  hospital : — 


616  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  November  21,  1S64. 

DEAR  MADAM  : — I  have  been  shown  in  the  files  of  the  War  Department 
a  statement  of  the  Adjutant-General  of  Massachusetts,  that  you  are  the 
mother  of  five  sons  who  have  died  gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle.  I 
feel  how  weak  and  fruitless  must  be  any  words  of  mine  which  should 
attempt  to  beguile  you  from  the  grief  of  a  loss  so  overwhelming.  But  I 
cannot  refrain  from  tendering  to  you  the  consolation  that  may  be  found 
in  the  thanks  of  the  Republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray  that  our  Heavenly 
Father  may  assuage  the  anguish  of  your  bereavement,  and  leave  you  only 
the  cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and  lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that 
must  be  yours  to  have  laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom. 
Yours,  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

To  Mrs.  BIXBY,  Boston,  Massachusetts. 

This  letter,  addressed  to  one  conspicuous  among  the 
thousands  who  had  laid  ' i  costly  sacrifices  upon  the  altar 
of  Freedom,"  touched  the  hearts  of  all,  and  strengthened 
the  feelings  of  love  which  the  great  "body  of  the  people 
were  coming  to  cherish  for  the  man  whom  Providence 
had  made  their  ruler. 

Prominent  among  the  sentiments  which  ruled  the  heart 
and  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  was  that  reverential  sense  of  de 
pendence  upon  an  Almighty  Providence,  which  finds 
strong  expression  in  the  following  letter  which  he  ad 
dressed  to  Mrs.  Eliza  P.  Gurney,  an  American  lady  resi 
dent  in  London,  and  wife  of  a  wealthy  Quaker  banker 
of  that  city  : — 

MT  ESTEEMED  FRIEND: — I  have  not  forgotten,  probably  never  shall 
forget,  the  very  impressive  occasion  when  yourself  and  friends  visited  mo 
on  a  Sabbath  forenoon,  two  years  ago ;  nor  had  your  kind  letter,  written 
nearly  a  year  later,  ever  been  forgotten.  In  all  it  has  been  your  purpose 
to  strengthen  my  reliance  in  God.  I  am  much  indebted  to  the  good 
Christian  people  of  the  country  for  their  constant  prayer  and  consolation, 
and  to  no  one  of  them  more  than  to  yourself.  The  purposes  of  the  Al 
mighty  are  perfect  and  must  prevail,  though  we  erring  mortals  may  fail 
to  accurately  perceive  them  in  advance.  We  hoped  for  a  happy  termina 
tion  of  this  terrible  war  long  before  this,  but  God  knows  best,  and  has 
ruled  otherwise.  We  shall  yet  acknowledge  His  wisdom  and  our  own 
errors  therein.  Meanwhile  we  must  work  earnestly  in  the  best  lights 
He  gives  us,  trusting  that  so  working  still  conduces  to  the  great  ends  He 
ordains.  Surely,  He  intends  some  great  good  to  follow  this  mighty  con 
vulsion,  which  no  mortal  could  make,  and  no  mortal  could  stay. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  617 

Your  people — the  Friends — hav  3  had,  and  are  having,  very  great  trials. 
On  principle  and  faith  opposed  to  both  war  and  oppression,  they  can  only 
practically  oppose  oppression  by  war.  In  this  hard  dilemma,  some  have 
chosen  one  horn  and  some  the  other.  For  those  appealing  to  me  on  con 
scientious  grounds,  I  have  done  and  shall  do  the  best  I  could  and  can  in 
my  own  conscience  under  my  oath  to  the  law.  That  you  believe  this,  I 
doubt  not,  and  believing  it,  I  shall  still  receive  for  our  country  and  my 
self  your  earnest  prayers  to  our  Father  in  Heaven. 
Your  sincere  friend, 

A.    LINCOLN. 

This  sense  of  religious  reliance  upon  Providence,  evi 
dent  in  all  his  acts,  as  well  as  in  his  expressions,  and  a 
feeling  of  the  integrity  and  purity  of  purpose  which  per 
vaded  all  his  acts,  had  won  for  Mr.  Lincoln  the  cordial 
support  of  the  various  Christian  churches  of  the  country, 
and  he  had  good  reason,  therefore,  for  thus  expressing 
his  indebtedness  to  the  "  Christian  people  of  the  land  for 
their  constant  prayer  and  consolation."  Though  not  a 
member  of  any  church  or  sect,  he  never  neglected  a 
proper  occasion  for  declaring  his  faith  in  those  great 
principles  on  which  all  Christian  churches  and  sects  are 
built. 

When  a  committee  of  colored  men  from  Baltimore  came 
to  him  to  present  him  an  elegant  copy  of  the  Bible,  he 
made  the  following  brief  speech  in  answer  to  their  ad 
dress  : — 

I  can  only  say  now,  as  I  have  often  said  before,  it  has  always  been  a 
sentiment  with  me,  that  all  mankind  should  be  free.  So  far  as  I  have 
been  able,  so  far  as  came  within  my  sphere,  I  have  always  acted  as  I  be 
lieved  was  just  and  right,  and  done  all  I  could  for  the  good  of  mankind. 
I  have,  in  letters  sent  forth  from  this  office,  expressed  myself  better  than 
I  can  now. 

In  regard  to  the  great  Book,  I  have  only  to  say  it  is  the  best  gift  which 
God  has  ever  given  to  man.  All  the  good  from  the  Saviour  of  the  world 
is  communicated  to  us  through  this  Book.  But  for  that  Book,  we  could  not 
know  right  from  wrong.  All  those  things  desirable  to  man  are  contained 
in  it.  I  return  you  sincere  thanks  for  this  very  elegant  copy  of  this  great 
Book  of  God  which  you  present. 

All  knew  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  man  of  thorough 
honesty  of  speech,  and  his  whole  life  vindicated  his  asser- 


CIS  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

tion  that  lie  had  acted  as  he  believed  was  just  and  right,  and 
had  done  all  he  could  for  the  good  of  mankind.  It  was  not 
strange,  therefore,  that  the  churches  of  the  country  gath 
ered  around  such  a  leader  of  such  a  cause.  When  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church  met  in  May, 
1864,  they  adopted  a  series  of  resolutions,  expressing  the 
loyalty  of  that  church,  and  their  sympathy  with  him. 
These  resolutions  were  presented  to  the  President,  who 
responded  to  the  accompanying  address  as  follows  :— 

GENTLEMEN  : — In  response  to  your  address,  allow  me  to  attest  the 
accuracy  of  its  Mstorical  statements,  indorse  the  sentiments  it  expresses, 
and  thank  you  in  the  nation's  name  for  the  sure  promise  it  gives.  Nobly 
sustained,  as  the  Government  has  been,  by  all  the  churches,  I  would 
utter  nothing  which  might  in  the  least  appear  invidious  against  any. 
Yet  without  this,  it  may  fairly  be  said,  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  not  less  devoted  than  the  best,  is  by  its  greatest  numbers  the 
most  important  of  all.  It  is  no  fault  in  others  that  the  Methodist  Church 
sends  more  soldiers  to  the  field,  more  nurses  to  the  hospitals,  and  more 
prayers  to  Heaven  than  any  other.  God  bless  the  Methodist  Church. 
Bless  all  the  churches ;  and  blessed  be  God,  who  in  this  our  great  trial 
giveth  us  the  churches. 

Similar  action  was  also  taken  by  the  Baptist  Church, 
and  to  their  delegation,  on  the  presentation  of  the  reso 
lutions,  the  President  spoke  as  follows  :— 

In  the  present  very  responsible  position  in  which  I  am  engaged,  I  have 
had  great  cause  of  gratitude  for  the  support  so  unanimously  given  by  all 
Christian  denominations  of  the  country.  I  have  had  occasion  so  fre 
quently  to  respond  to  something  like  this  assemblage,  that  I  have  said  all  I 
had  to  say.  This  particular  body  is,  in  all  respects,  as  respectable  as  any 
that  have  been  presented  to  me.  The  resolutions  I  have  merely  heard 
read,  and  I  therefore  beg  to  be  allowed  an  opportunity  to  make  a  short 
response  in  writing. 

These  expressions  were  not  confined  to  the  religious 
bodies ;  they  came  to  the  President  from  all  quarters. 
His  sense  of  this  sympathy  on  the  part  of  those  engaged 
in  the  educational  interest  was  expressed  in  a  letter  which 
he  wrote  on  learning  that  Princeton  College  had  given 
him  the  degree  of  LL.D.  The  letter  was  as  follows  :— 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  619 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  December  27,  1864. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :— I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  reception  of  your 
note  of  the  20th  of  December,  conveying  the  announcement  that  the  Trus 
tees  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  had  conferred  upon  me  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws. 

The  assurance  conveyed  by  this  high  compliment,  that  the  course  of 
the  Government  which  I  represent  has  received  the  approval  of  a  body  of 
gentlemen  of  such  character  and  intelligence,  in  this  time  of  public  trial, 
is  most  grateful  to  me. 

Thoughtful  men  must  feel  that  the  fate  of  civilization  upon  this  conti 
nent  is  involved  in  the  issue  of  our  contest.  Among  the  most  gratifying 
proofs  of  this  conviction  is  the  hearty  devotion  everywhere  exhibited  by 
our  schools  and  colleges  to  the  national  cause. 

I  am  most  thankful  if  my  labors  have  seemed  to  conduct  to  the 
preservation  of  those  institutions,  under  which  alone  we  can  expect  good 
government,  and  in  its  train  sound  learning,  and  the  progress  of  the 
liberal  arts. 

I  am,  sir,  very  truly,  your  obedient  servant, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Dr.  JOHN  MACLEAN. 

It  was  with,  no  ordinary  interest  that  the  ' '  good  Chris 
tian  people"  of  the  North  had  in  the  political  campaign. 
And  it  was  with  satisfaction  that  they  saw  the  triumph 
of  the  cause,  which  was  so  dear  to  their  hearts,  secured 
"by  the  re-election  of  a  man  so  true,  so  pure,  so  honest, 
BO  kindly,  so  thoroughly  Christian  in  the  true  sense  of 
the  word,  as  President  Lincoln. 


620  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 


CHAPTER      XIX. 

THE  MEETING  OF  CONGRESS  AND  PROGRESS  OF  THE  WAR. 

CONDITION  OF  THE  COUNTRY  AT  THE  MEETING  OF  CONGRESS. — THE  MES 
SAGE. — PROCEEDINGS  IN  CONGRESS. — FORT  FISHER. — DEATH  OF  EDWARD 
EVERETT. — PEACE  CONFERENCE  IN  HAMPTON  ROADS. — MILITARY  AF 
FAIRS. 

THE  condition  of  the  country  when  Congress  met  in 
December,  1864,  was  in  every  way  encouraging.  At  the 
South,  General  Sherman,  taking  advantage  of  Hood's 
having  left  the  way  clear  for  his  march  to  the  sea,  had  de 
stroyed  Atlanta  and  plunged  into  the  heart  of  Georgia. 

His  plans  were  not  positively  known,  but  it  was  known 
that  he  was  making  good  progress,  and  the  greatest  con 
fidence  was  felt  in  his  accomplishing  his  designs,  what 
ever  they  were.  The  President  described  the  position 
of  affairs  exactly  in  the  following  little  speech,  which  he 
made,  on  December  6th,  in  response  to  a  serenade : — 

FRIENDS  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — I  believe  I  shall  never  be  old  enough 
to  speak  without  embarrassment  when  I  have  nothing  to  talk  about.  I 
have  no  good  news  to  tell  you,  and  yet  I  have  no  bad  news  to  tell.  We 
have  talked  of  elections  until  there  is  nothing  more  to  say  about  them. 
The  most  interesting  news  we  now  have  is  from  Sherman.  We  all  know 
where  he  went  in  at,  but  I  can't  tell  where  he  will  come  out  at.  I  will 
now  close  by  proposing  three  cheers  for  General  Sherman  and  his  army. 

Hood  had  marched  into  Tennessee  with  the  hope  of 
overrunning  the  State,  now  that  Sherman's  army  was  out 
of  his  way,  but  found  General  Thomas  an  opponent  not 
to  be  despised,  and  had  already,  in  his  terrible  repulse  at 
Franklin,  received  a  foretaste  of  the  defeats  which  were 
about  to  fall  upon  him  in  front  of  Nashville. 

In  the  East,  Grant  still  held  Lee' s  army  with  deadly 
gripe.  He  had  cut  off  the  Weldon  Railroad  and  was 
slowly  working  to  the  southward,  while  Sheridan  was 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  621 

undisputed  master  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  In  North 
Carolina  a  decided  advantage  had  been  gained  by  the  bold 
exploit  of  Lieutenant  Gushing,  who,  with  a  torpedo-boat, 
sunk  the  rebel  ram  Albemarle  at  her  moorings,  and 
opened  the  way  for  the  recapture  of  Plymouth,  with 
many  guns. 

Many  different  schemes  of  the  rebels,  not  precisely 
military  in  their  character  according  to  the  ordinary  rules 
of  war,  had  been  found  out  and  foiled.  A  plot  to  cap 
ture  steamers  on  the  Pacific  coast  was  discovered  in  time 
to  take  measures  not  only  to  break  it  up,  but  to  capture 
those  who  had  undertaken  it.  Other  attempted  raids 
upon  cities  and  towns  near  the  northern  frontier  had  also 
been  prevented.  And  a  plot  to  set  fire  to  the  city  of  New 
York  failed  of  success,  although  fires  were  set  in  thir 
teen  of  the  principal  hotels. 

The  St.  Albans  raiders  were  in  custody,  and  reasonable 
hopes  were  entertained  that  they  would  be  delivered  over 
to  our  authorities.  The  whole  condition  of  the  country 
was  favorable,  and  the  Thanksgiving  Day  appointed  by 
the  President  for  the  24th  of  November  had  been  kept 
with  joy  and  gladness  of  heart.  Gold,  which  had  been 
up  as  high  as  280,  had  worked  down  nearly  to  200, 
with  every  indication  of  going  steadily  lower.  The  pros 
pects  of  a  relief  from  any  further  draft  were  bright.  And 
measures  had  been  taken  to  effect  the  exchange  of  some 
of  our  prisoners,  whose  dreadful  sufferings  at  the  hands 
of  the  rebel  authorities  had  shocked  the  public  heart  and 
given  a  deeper  tone  to  public  indignation. 

One  slight  indication  of  the  progress  which  we  were 
making  in  the  restoration  of  the  authority  of  the  Union  was 
the  opening  of  the  ports  of  Norfolk,  Virginia,  and  Fernan- 
dina,  Florida,  by  a  proclamation  issued  on  November 
19th. 

A  PROCLAMATION  BY  THE  PRESIDENT. 

WHEREAS,  by  my  proclamation  of  the  19th  of  April,  1861,  it  was  de 
clared  that  the  ports  of  certain  States,  including  those  of  Norfolk,  in  the 
State  of  Virginia,  and  Fernandina  and  Pensacola,  in  the  State  of  Florida, 
were  for  reasons  therein  set  forth  intended  to  be  placed  under  blockade' 


022  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

and  whereas  the  said  ports  were  subsequently  blockaded  accordingly,  but 
having  for  some  time  past  been  in  the  military  possession  of  the  United 
States,  it  is  deemed  advisable  that  they  should  be  opened  to  domestic  and 
foreign  commerce. 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  pursuant  to  the  authority  in  me  vested  by  the  fifth  section 
of  the  act  of  Congress  approved  on  the  13th  of  July,  1861,  entitled  "An 
act  further  to  provide  for  the  collection  of  duties  on  imports  and  for  other 
purposes,"  do  hereby  declare  that  the  blockade  of  the  said  ports  of  Nor 
folk,  Fernandina,  and  Pensacola  shall  so  far  cease  and  determine,  from  and 
after  the  first  day  of  December  next,  that  commercial  intercourse  with 
those  ports,  except  to  persons,  things,  and  information  contraband  of  war, 
may  from  time  to  time  be  carried  on,  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  to  the  limitations  and  in  pursuance  of  the  regulations  which  may 
be  prescribed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  to  such  military  and 
naval  regulations  as  are  now  in  force  or  may  hereafter  be  found  necessary. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington  this  nineteenth  day  of  November,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty  - 

[L.  s.]      four,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty 
ninth.  ABE  AH  AM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President : 

WILLIAM  II.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

Our  foreign  relations  were  also  in  a  satisfactory  condi 
tion.  Our  relations  with  Brazil  had  been  for  a  moment 
threatened  by  the  capture  of  the  rebel  armed  vessel 
Florida,  by  the  Wacliusett,  under  Captain  Collins,  while 
lying  at  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Bahia,  in  the  early 
morning  of  October  5th.  The  act  was  unauthorized  by 
our  Government.  It  caused  a  great  outcry  from  the 
friends  of  the  rebels  abroad,  who  used  every  effort  to  have 
the  European  powers  take  up  the  matter.  No  apprehen 
sion,  however,  was  felt  of  this,  by  our  people,  and  while 
they  regretted  that  any  apparent  insult  should  have  been 
offered  to  Brazil,  they  were  not  insensible  to  the  advan 
tage  of  having  thus  got  rid  of  one  of  the  rebel  pests  of  the 
sea.  The  vessel  was  brought  to  Hampton  Eoads,  where, 
owing  to  injuries  received  by  an  accidental  collision  with 
a  vessel  going  out  of  the  harbor,  coupled  with  the  damage 
she  had  received  when  taken  by  the  Wacliusett,  she  sank 
in  spite  of  every  effort  that  could  be  made  to  save  her. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  623 

Those  of  her  crew  who  were  on  "board  when  she  was 
taken  were  afterwards  restored  to  Brazil,  and  an  ample 
apology  made  for  the  affair. 

Our  relations  with  the  Hawaiian  Islands  had  been 
drawn  more  close  by  the  presence  of  an  envoy  extraor 
dinary  from  that  State.  The  President,  on  the  llth  of 
June,  gave  audience  to  the  envoy,  Hon.  Elisha  H.  Allen, 
and  in  reply  to  the  address  made  by  him,  on  presenting 
his  credentials,  spoke  as  follows  :— 

SIE  : — In  every  light  in  which  the  State  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  can 
be  contemplated,  it  is  an  object  of  profound  interest  for  the  United  States. 
Virtually  it  was  once  a  colony.  It  is  now  a  near  and  intimate  neighbor. 
It  is  a  haven  of  shelter  and  refreshment  for  our  merchants,  fishermen, 
seamen,  and  other  citizens,  when  on  their  lawful  occasions  they  are  nav 
igating  the  eastern  seas  and  oceans.  Its  people  are  free,  and  its  laws, 
language,  and  religion  are  largely  the  fruit  of  our  own  teaching  and 
example.  The  distinguished  part  which  you,  Mr.  Minister,  have  acted 
in  the  history  of  that  interesting  country,  is  well  known  here.  It  gives 
me  pleasure  to  assure  you  of  my  sincere  desire  to  do  what  I  can  to  ren 
der  now  your  sojourn  in  the  United  States  agreeable  to  yourself,  satisfac 
tory  to  your  sovereign,  and  beneficial  to  the  Hawaiian  people. 

In  our  relations  with  the  other  smaller  powers  there 
was  nothing  especially  worthy  of  mention. 

It  was  manifest,  however,  that  the  Great  Powers  of 
Europe  were  less  inclined  to  interfere  with  us  than  they 
had  ever  been.  The  St.  Albans  raid  and  the  proceedings 
for  the  extradition  of  the  raiders,  were  leading  to  a  good 
deal  of  diplomatic  correspondence  between  our  Govern 
ment  and  that  of  England.  But  the  readiness  of  the 
Canadian  authorities  to  take  measures  to  deliver  up  the 
offenders  and  to  prevent  such  incursions  for  the  future, 
gave  great  encouragement  to  the  belief  that  no  serious 
difficulty  would  arise. 

There  had  been  another  change  in  the  Cabinet,  in  addi 
tion  to  that  which  occurred  upon  the  resignation  of  Mr. 
Blair.  Attorney -General  Bates,  on  the  25th  of  Novem 
ber,  tendered  his  resignation,  to  take  effect  on  December 
1st.  The  post  was  afterwards  filled  by  the  appointment 
of  the  Hon.  James  Speed,  of  Kentucky. 


624  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  death  of  Chief- Justice  •  Taney,  which  occurred  on 
the  12th  of  October,  had  left  a  vacancy  in  one  of  the 
most  important  offices  in  the  country.  The  office  was 
filled  on  the  6th  day  of  December,  by  the  appointment  of 
Mr.  Chase,  the  late  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Congress  met  on  Monday,  the  5th  of  December,  but 
the  President' s  message  was  not  sent  in  till  the  next  day. 
It  was  as  follows : — 

PRESIDENT'S    MESSAGE. 
FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  THE  SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  : 

Again  the  blessings  of  health  and  abundant  harvests  claim  our  pro- 
foundest  gratitude  to  Almighty  God. 

The  condition  of  our  foreign  affairs  is  reasonably  satisfactory. 

Mexico  continues  to  be  a  theatre  of  civil  war.  While  our  political  rela 
tions  with  that  country  have  undergone  no  change,  we  have  at  the  same 
time  strictly  maintained  neutrality  between  the  belligerents.  At  the  re 
quest  of  the  States  of  Costa  Kica  and  Nicaraugua,  a  competent  engineer 
has  been  authorized  to  make  a  survey  of  the  River  San  Juan  and  the  port 
of  San  Juan.  It  is  a  source  of  much  satisfaction  that  the  difficulties 
which,  for  a  moment,  excited  some  political  apprehension,  and  caused  a 
closing  of  the  interoceanic  transit  route,  have  been  amicably  adjusted, 
and  that  there  is  a  good  prospect  that  the  route  will  soon  be  reopened 
with  an  increase  of  capacity  and  adaptation.  We  could  not  exagger 
ate  either  the  commercial  or  the  political  importance  of  that  great  im 
provement.  It  would  be  doing  injustice  to  an  important  South  American 
State  not  to  acknowledge  the  directness,  frankness,  and  cordiality  with 
'which  the  States  of  Colombia  have  entered  into  intimate  relations  with  this 
Government.  A  claims  convention  has  been  constituted  to  complete  the 
unfinished  work  of  the  one  which  closed  its  session  in  1861. 

The  new  liberal  Constitution  of  Venezuela  having  gone  into  effect  with 
the  universal  acquiescence  of  the  people,  the  Government  under  it  has 
been  recognized,  and  diplomatic  intercourse  with  it  has  been  opened  in  a 
cordial  and  friendly  spirit. 

The  long  deferred  Aves  Island  claim  has  been  satisfactorily  paid  and 
discharged.  Mutual  payments  have  been  made  of  the  claims  awarded  by 
the  late  joint  commission  for  the  settlement  of  claims  between  the  United 
States  and  Peru.  An  earnest  and  cordial  friendship  continues  to  exist 
between  the  two  countries,  and  such  efforts  as  were  in  my  power  have 
been  used  to  remove  misunderstanding,  and  avert  a  threatened  war  between 
Peru  and  Spain.  Our  relations  are  of  the  most  friendly  nature  with 
Chili,  the  Argentine  Republic,  Bolivia,  Costa  Rica,  Paraguay,  San  Salva 
dor,  and  Ilayti.  During  the  past  year  no  differences  of  any  kind  have 
arisen  with  any  of  these  republics  •  and  on  the  other  hand,  their  sympa 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  625 

thies  with  the  United  States  are  constantly  expressed  with  cordiality  and 
earnestness. 

The  claim  arising  from  the  seizure  of  the  cargo  of  the  brig  Macedonian, 
in  1821,  has  been  paid  in  full  by  the  Government  of  Chili. 

Civil  war  continues  in  the  Spanish  part  of  San  Domingo,  apparently 
without  prospect  of  an  early  close. 

^  Official   correspondence  has   been  freely  opened  with  Liberia,  and  it 
gives  us  a  pleasing  view  of  social  and  political  progress  in  that  republic. 
It  may  be  expected  to  derive  new  vigor  from  American  influence,  iin 
proved  by  the  rapid  disappearance  of  slavery  in  the  United  States. 

I  solicit  your  authority  to  furnish  to  the  republic  a  gunboat,  at  a  mod 
erate  cost,  to  be  reimbursed  to  the  United  States  by  instalments.  Such  a 
vessel  is  needed  for  the  safety  of  that  State  against  the  native  African 
races,  and  in  Liberian  hands  it  would  be  more  effective  in  arresting  the 
African  slave-trade  than  a  squadron  in  our  own  hands.  The  possession 
of  the  least  organized  naval  force  would  stimulate  a  generous  ambition 
m  the  republic,  and  the  confidence  which  we  should  manifest  by  fur 
nishing  it,  would  win  forbearance  and  favor  towards  the  colony  from  al! 
civilized  nations. 

The  proposed  overland  telegraph  between  America  and  Europe,  by  the 
way  of  Behring's  Straits  and  Asiatic  Russia,  which  was  sanctioned  by 
Congress  at  the  last  session,  has  been  undertaken  under  very  favorable 
circumstances  by  an  association  of  American  citizens,  with  the  cordial 
good  will  and  support  as  well  of  this  Government  as  of  those  of  Great 
Britain  and  Russia.  Assurances  have  been  received  from  most  of  the 
South  American  States  of  their  high  appreciation  of  the  enterprise,  and 
their  readiness  to  co-operate  in  constructing  lines  tributary  to  that  world- 
encircling  communication. 

I  learn  with  much  satisfaction  that  the  noble  design  of  a  telegraphic 
communication  between  the  eastern  coast  of  America  and  Great  Britain 
has  been  renewed,  with  the  full  expectation  of  its  early  accomplishment. 
Thus  it  is  hoped  that,  with  the  return  of  domestic  peace,  the  country  will 
be  able  to  resume  with  energy  and  advantage  her  former  high  career 
of  commerce  and  civilization. 

Our  very  popular  and  estimable  representative  in  Egypt  died  in  April 
last.  An  unpleasant  altercation,  which  arose  between  the  temporary  incum 
bent  of  the  office  and  the  Government  of  the  Pacha,  resulted  in  a  suspen 
sion  of  intercourse.  The  evil  was  promptly  corrected  on  the  arrival  of 
the  successor  in  the  consulate,  and  our  relations  with  Egypt,  as  well  as 
our  relations  with  the  Barbary  Powers,  are  entirely  satisfactory. 

The  rebellion  which  has  been  so  long  flagrant  in  China,  has  it  last 
been  suppressed  with  the  co-operating  good  offices  of  this  Government, 
and  of  the  other  Western  commercial  States.  The  judicial  consular 
establishment  has  become  very  difficult  and  onerous,  and  it  will  need 
legislative  revision  to  adapt  it  to  the  extension  of  our  commerce,  and 
to  tho  riore  intimate  intercourse  which  has  been  instituted  with  the  Gov 
40 


626  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

ernmcnt  and  people  of  that  vast  empire.  China  seems  to  bo  accepting 
with  hearty  good  will  the  conventional  laws  which  regulate  commerce 
and  social  intercourse  among  Western  nations. 

Owing  to  the  peculiar  situation  of  Japan,  and  the  anomalous  form  of 
its  government,  the  action  of  that  empire,  in  performing  treaty  stipula 
tions,  is  inconstant  and  capricious.  Nevertheless,  good  progress  has 
been  effected  by  the  Western  powers,  moving  with  enlightened  concert. 
Our  own  pecuniary  claims  have  been  allowed  or  put  in  course  of  settlement, 
and  the  inland  sea  has  been  reopened  to  commerce.  There  is  reason  also 
to  believe  that  these  proceedings  have  increased  rather  than  diminished 
the  friendship  of  Japan  towards  the  United  States. 

The  ports  of  Norfolk,  Fernandina,  and  Pensacola  have  been  opened  by 
proclamation.  It  is  hoped  that  foreign  merchants  will  now  consider 
whether  it  is  not  safer  and  more  profitable  to  themselves,  as  well  as  just 
to  the  United  States,  to  resort  to  them  and  other  open  ports,  than  it 
is  to  pursue,  through  many  hazards,  and  at  vast  cost,  a  contraband  trade 
with  other  ports  which  are  closed,  if  not  by  actual  military  operations,  at 
least  by  a  lawful  and  effective  blockade. 

For  myself,  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  power  and  duty  of  the  Executive, 
under  the  law  of  nations,  to  exclude  enemies  of  the  human  race  from  an 
asylum  in  the  United  States.  If  Congress  should  think  that  proceedings 
in  such  cases  lack  the  authority  of  law,  or  ought  to  be  further  regulated 
by  it,  I  recommend  that  provision  be  made  for  effectually  preventing  for 
eign  slave-traders  from  acquiring  domicile  and  facilities  for  their  criminal 
occupation  in  our  country. 

It  is  possible  that  if  it  were  a  new  and  open  question,  the  maritime 
powers,  with  the  light  they  now  enjoy,  would  not  concede  the  privileges 
of  a  naval  belligerent  to  the  insurgents  of  the  United  States,  destitute  as 
they  are  and  always  have  been  equally  of  ships  and  of  ports  and  harbors. 
Disloyal  emissaries  have  been  neither  less  assiduous  nor  more  successful 
during  the  last  year  than  they  were  before  that  time  in  their  efforts, 
under  favor  of  that  privilege,  to  embroil  our  country  in  foreign  wars.  The 
desire  and  determination  of  the  maritime  States  to  defeat  that  design  are 
believed  to  be  as  sincere  as,  and  cannot  be  more  earnest  than,  our  own. 
Nevertheless,  unforeseen  political  difficulties  have  arisen,  especially  in 
Brazilian  and  British  ports,  and  on  the  northern  boundary  of  the  United 
States,  which  have  required,  and  are  likely  to  cantinue  to  require,  the 
practice  of  constant  vigilance  and  a  just  and  conciliatory  spirit  on  the  part 
of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  of  the  nations  concerned  and  their  Gov 
ernments.  Commissioners  have  been  appointed  under  the  treaty  with 
Great  Britain  on  the  adjustment  of  the  claims  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  and 
Puget's  Sound  Agricultural  Companies  in  Oregon,  and  are  now  proceeding 
to  the  execution  of  the  trust  assigned  to  them. 

In  view  of  the  insecurity  of  life  in  the  region  adjacent  to  the  Canadian 
border  by  recent  assaults  and  depredations  committed  by  inimical  and 
desperate  persons  who  are  harbored  there,  it  has  been  thought  proper  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  627 

give  ouuice  that  after  the  expiration  of  six  months,  the  period  condition 
ally  stipulated  in  the  existing  arrangements  with  Great  Britain,  the 
United  States  must  hold  themselves  at  liberty  to  increase  their  naval 
armament  upon  the  lakes,  if  they  shall  find  that  proceeding  necessary. 
The  condition  of  the  border  will  necessarily  come  into  consideration  in 
connection  with  the  question  of  continuing  or  modifying  the  rights  of 
transit  from  Canada  through  the  United  States,  as  well  as  the  regulation 
of  imports,  which  were  temporarily  established  by  the  Reciprocity  Treaty 
of  the  5th  of  June,  1864. 

I  desire,  however,  to  be  understood,  while  making  this  statement,  that 
the  colonial  authorities  are  not  deemed  to  be  intentionally  unjust  or  un 
friendly  towards  the  United  States ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  there  is  every 
reason  to  expect  that,  with  the  approval  of  the  Imperial  Government, 
they  will  take  the  necessary  measures  to  prevent  new  incursions  across, 
the  border. 

The  act  passed  at  the  last  session  for  the  encouragement  of  immigration 
has,  so  far  as  was  possible,  been  put  into  operation. 

It  seems  to  need  amendment  which  will  enable  the  officers  of  the  Gov 
ernment  to  prevent  the  practice  of  frauds  against  the  immigrants  while 
on  their  way  and  on  their  arrival  in  the  ports,  so  as  to  secure  them  here 
a  free  choice  of  avocations  and  places  of  settlement.  A  liberal  disposition 
towards  this  great  national  policy  is  manifested  by  most  of  the  European 
States,  and  ought  to  be  reciprocated  on  our  part  by  giving  the  immigrants 
effective  national  protection.  I  regard  our  immigrants  as  one  of  the  prin 
cipal  replenishing  streams  which  are  appointed  by  Providence  to  repair 
the  ravages  of  internal  war  and  its  wastes  of  national  strength  and 
health.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  secure  the  flow  of  that  stream  in  its 
present  fulness,  and  to  that  end  the  Government  must  in  every  way  make 
it  manifest  that  it  neither  needs  nor  designs  to  impose  involuntary  military 
service  upon  those  who  come  from  other  lands  to  cast  their  lot  in  our  country. 

The  financial  affairs  of  the  Government  have  been  successfully  admin 
istered  during  the  last  year. 

The  legislation  of  the  last  session  of  Congress  has  beneficially  affected 
the  revenue.  Although  sufficient  time  has  not  yet  elapsed  to  experience 
the  full  effect  of  several  of  the  provisions  of  the  acts  of  Congress  imposing 
increased  taxation,  the  receipts  during  the  year,  from  all  sources,  upon  the 
basis  of  warrants  signed  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  including  loans 
and  the  balance  in  the  treasury  on  the  first  day  of  July,  1863,  were 
$1,394,796,007  62,  and  the  aggregate  disbursements  upon  the  same  basis 
were  $1,298,056,101  89,  leaving  a  balance  in  the  treasury,  as  shown  by 
warrants,  of  $96,739,905  75.  Deduct  from  these  amounts  the  amount  of 
the  principal  of  the  public  debt  redeemed,  and  the  amount  of  issues  in 
substitution  therefor,  and  the  actual  cash  operations  of  the  treasury  were, 
receipts,  $884,076,646  77,  disbursements,  $865,234,087  86,  which  leaves  a 
cash  balance  in  the  treasury  of  $18,842,558  71.  Of  the  receipts,  there 
were  derived  from  customs,  $102,316,152  99;  from  lands,  $588,333  29; 


628  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

from  direct  taxes,  $475,648  96;  from  internal  revenues,  $109,741,134  10; 
from  miscellaneous  sources,  $47,511,448  10;  and  from  loans  applied  to 
actual  expenditures,  including  former  balance,  $623,443,929  13.  There 
were  disbursed,  for  the  civil  service,  $27,505,599  46 ;  for  pensions  and 
Indians,  $7,517,930  97;  for  the  War  Department,  $60,791,842  97;  for  the 
Navy  Department,  $85,733,292  97;  for  interest  of  the  public  debt, 
$53,685,421  69.  Making  an  aggregate  of  $865,234,087  86,  and  leaving  a 
balance  in  the  treasury  of  $18,842,558  71,  as  before  stated. 

For  the  actual  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  first  quarter,  and  the 
estimated  receipts  and  disbursements  for  the  three  remaining  quarters  of 
the  current  fiscal  year,  and  the  general  operations  of  the  Treasury  iii 
detail,  I  refer  you  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  I  con 
cur  with  him  in  the  opinion  that  the  proportion  of  the  moneys  required  to 
meet  the  expenses  consequent  upon  the  war  derived  from  taxation  should 
be  still  further  increased ;  and  I  earnestly  invite  your  attention  to  this 
subject,  to  the  end  that  there  may  be  such  additional  legislation  as  shall 
be  required  to  meet  the  just  expectations  of  the  Secretary.  The  public 
debt  on  the  1st  day  of  July  last,  as  appears  by  the  books  of  the  Treasury, 
amounted  to  one  billion  seven  hundred  and  forty  million  six  hundred  and 
ninety  thousand  four  hundred  and  eighty-nine  dollars  and  forty-nine  cents. 
Probably,  should  the  war  continue  for  another  year,  that  amount  may  be 
increased  by  not  far  from  five  hundred  millions.  Held  as  it  is,  for  the 
most  part,  by  our  own  people,  it  has  become  a  substantial  branch  of 
national  though  private  property.  For  obvious  reasons,  the  more  nearly 
this  property  can  be  distributed  among  all  the  people,  the  better.  To 
favor  such  general  distribution,  greater  inducements  to  become  owners, 
perhaps,  might  with  good  effect  and  without  injury,  be  presented  to  persons 
of  limited  means.  With  this  view,  I  suggest  whether  it  might  not  be 
both  expedient  and  competent  for  Congress  to  provide  that  a  limited 
amount  of  some  future  issue  of  public  securities  might  be  held,  by  any 
lona-fide  purchaser,  exempt  from  taxation  and  from  seizure  for  debt, 
under  such  restrictions  and  limitations  as  might  be  necessary  to  guard 
against  abuse  of  so  important  a  privilege.  This  would  enable  prudent 
persons  to  set  aside  a  small  annuity  against  a  possible  day  of  want. 
Privileges  like  these  would  render  the  possession  of  such  securities  to  the 
amount  limited  most  desirable  to  any  person  of  small  means  who  might 
be  able  to  save  enough  for  the  purpose.  The  great  advantage  of  citizens 
being  creditors  as  well  as  debtors  with  relation  to  the  public  debt  is 
obvious.  Men  readily  perceive  that  they  cannot  be  much  oppressed  by  a 
debt  which  they  owe  to  themselves.  The  public  debt  on  the  1st  day  of  July 
last,  although  somewhat  exceeding  the  estimate  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  made  to  Congress  at  the  commencement  of  last  session,  falls 
short  of  the  estimate  of  that  officer  made  in  the  preceding  December  as  to 
its  probable  amount  at  the  beginning  of  this  year,  by  the  sum  of 
$3,995,079  33.  This  fact  exhibits  a  satisfactory  condition  and  cond  ict  of 
the  operations  of  the  Treasury. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  629 

The  national  banking  system  is  proving  to  be  acceptable  to  capitalists 
and  to  the  people.  On  the  25th  day  of  November,  five  hundred  and 
eighty-four  national  banks  had  been  organized,  a  considerable  number  of 
which  were  conversions  from  State  banks.  Changes  from  the  State  sys 
tem  to  the  national  system  are  rapidly  taking  place,  and  it  is  hoped  that 
very  soon  there  will  be  in  the  United  States  no  banks  of  issue  not  author 
ized  by  Congress,  and  no  bank-note  circulation  not  secured  by  the  Gov 
ernment.  That  the  Government  and  the  people  will  derive  general  ben 
efit  from  this  change  in  the  banking  system  of  the  country  can  hardly  be 
questioned.  The  national  system  will  create  a  reliable  and  permanent 
influence  in  support  of  the  national  credit,  aad  protect  the  people  against 
losses  in  the  use  of  paper  money.  Whether  or  not  any  further  legislation 
is  advisable  for  the  suppression  of  State  bank  issues,  it  will  be  for  Congress 
to  determine.  It  seems  quite  clear  that  the  Treasury  cannot  be  satisfac 
torily  conducted,  unless  the  Government  can  exercise  a  rostra?  ling  power 
over  the  bank-note  circulation  of  the  country. 

The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  accompanying  documents 
will  detail  the  campaigns  of  the  armies  in  the  field  since  the  date  of  the  last 
annual  message,  and  also  the  operations  of  the  several  administrative 
bureaux  of  the  War  Department  during  the  last  year.  It  will  also  specify 
the  measures  deemed  essential  for  the  national  defence,  and  to  keep  up  and 
supply  the  requisite  military  force.  The  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
presents  a  comprehensive  and  satisfactory  exhibit  of  the  affairs  of  that  de 
partment  and  of  the  naval  service.  It  is  a  subject  of  congratulation  and 
laudable  pride  to  our  countrymen  that  a  navy  of  such  proportions  has 
been  organized  in  so  brief  a  period,  and  conducted  with  so  much  efficiency 
and  success.  The  general  exhibit  of  the  navy,  including  vessels  under 
construction  on  the  1st  of  December,  1864,  shows  a  total  of  671  vessels, 
carrying  4,610  guns,  and  510,396  tons,  being  an  actual  increas^  during 
the  year,  over  and  above  all  losses  by  shipwreck  or  in  battle,  of  83  ves 
sels,  167  guns,  and  42,427  tons.  The  total  number  of  men  at  this  time  in 
the  naval  service,  including  officers,  is  about  51,000.  There  have  been 
captured  by  the  navy  during  the  year  324  vessels,  and  the  whole  number 
ef  naval  captures  since  hostilities  commenced  is  1,379,  of  which  267  are 
steamers.  The  gross  proceeds  arising  from  the  sale  of  condemned  prize 
property  thus  far  reported  amounts  to  $14,396,250  51.  A  large  amount 
of  such  proceeds  is  still  under  adjudication,  and  yet  to  be  reported.  The 
total  expenditures  of  the  Navy  Department,  of  every  description,  including 
the  cost  of  the  immense  squadrons  that  have  been  called  into  existence 
from  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  to  the  1st  of  November,  1864,  are 
$238,647,262  35.  Your  favorable  consideration  is  invited  to  the  various 
recommendations  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  especially  in  regard  to  a 
navy-yard  and  suitable  establishment  for  the  construction  and  repair  of 
iron  vessels  and  the  machinery  and  armature  of  our  ships,  to  which  refer 
ence  was  made  in  my  last  annual  message. 

Your  attention  is  also  invited  to  the  views  expressed  in  the  report  in 


630  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

-elation  to  the  legislation  of  Congress,  at  its  last  session,  in  respect  to 
prize  on  our  inland  waters. 

I  cordially  concur  in  the  recommendations  of  the  Secretary  as  to  the 
propriety  of  creating  the  new  rank  of  vice-admiral  in  our  naval  service. 

Your  attention  is  invited  to  the  report  of  the  Postmaster-General  for  a 
detailed  account  of  the  operations  and  financial  condition  of  the  Post- 
Office  Department. 

The  postal  revenues  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1864,  amounted  to 
$12,468,25378,  and  the  expenditures  to  $12,644,78620;  the  excess  of 
expenditures  over  receipts  being  $206,652  42. 

The  views  presented  by  the  Postmaster-General  on  the  subject  of 
special  grants  by  the  Government,  in  aid  of  the  establishment  of  new 
lines  ot  oceuu  mail  steamships,  and  the  policy  he  recommends  for  the 
development  of  increased  commercial  intercourse  with  adjacent  and 
neighboring  countries,  should  receive  the  careful  consideration  of  Con 
gress. 

It  is  of  noteworthy  interest,  that  the  steady  expansion  of  population, 
improvement,  and  governmental  institutions  over  the  new  and  unoccupied 
portions  of  our  country,  has  scarcely  been  checked,  much  less  impeded 
or  destroyed  by  our  great  civil  war,  which  at  first  glance  would  seem  to 
have  absorbed  almost  the  entire  energies  of  the  nation. 

The  organization  and  admission  of  the  State  of  Nevada  has  been  com 
pleted  in  conformity  with  law,  and  thus  our  excellent  system  is  firmly 
established  in  the  mountains  which  once  seemed  a  barren  and  uninhabita 
ble  waste  between  the  Atlantic  States  and  those  which  have  grown  up 
on  the  coast  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

The  Territories  of  the  Union  are  generally  in  a  condition  of  prosperity 
and  rapid  growth.  Idaho  and  Montana,  by  reason  of  their  great  distance 
and  tho  interruption  of  communication  with  them  by  Indian  hostilities, 
have  been  only  partially  organized  ;  but  it  is  understood  that  these  diffi 
culties  are  about  to  disappear,  which  will  permit  their  Governments  liko 
those  of  the  others  to  go  into  speedy  and  full  operation. 

As  intimately  connected  with  and  promotive  of  this  material  growth  of 
the  nation,  I  ask  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  valuable  information 
and  important  recommendations  relating  to  the  public  lands,  Indian  affairsv 
the  Pacific  Railroads,  and  mineral  discoveries  contained  in  the  report  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  which  is  herewith  transmitted,  and  which 
report  also  embraces  the-subjects  of  patents,  pensions,  and  other  topics  of 
public  interest  pertaining  to  his  department.  The  quantity  of  public  land 
disposed  of  during  the  five  quarters  ending  on  the  thirtieth  of  September 
last,  was  4,221,342  acres,  of  which  1,538,614  acres  were  entered  under 
the  homestead  law.  The  remainder  was  located  with  military  land  war 
rants,  agricultural  scrip  certified  to  States  for  railroads,  and  sold  for 
cash.  The  cash  received  from  sales  and  location  fees  was  $1,019,446. 
The  income  from  ^ales  during  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1864, 
was  $678,007  21,  against  $136,077  95  received  during  the  preceding 


STATE  PAPEKS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.         631 

year.  The  aggregate  number  of  acres  surveyed  during  the  year  has  beer, 
equal  to  the  quantity  disposed  of,  and  there  is  open  to  settlement  about 
133,000,000  acres  of  surveyed  land. 

The  great  enterprise  of  connecting  the  Atlantic  with  the  Pacific 
States  by  railways  and  telegraph  lines  has  been  entered  upon  with  a 
vigor  that  gives  assurance  of  success,  notwithstanding  the  embarrass 
ments  arising  from  the  prevailing  high  prices  of  materials  and  labor. 
The  route  of  the  main  line  of  the  road  has  been  definitely  located 
for  one  hundred  miles  westward  from  the  central  point  at  Omaha  City, 
Nebraska,  and  a  preliminary  location  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  of  Califor 
nia  has  been  made  from  Sacramento,  eastward,  to  the  great  bend  of 
Mucker  River,  in  Nevada.  Numerous  discoveries  of  gold,  silver,  and 
cinnabar  mines  have  been  added  to  the  many  heretofore  known,  and  the 
country  occupied  by  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Rocky  Mountains  and  the 
subordinate  ranges  now  teems  with  enterprising  labor  which  is  richly 
remunerative.  It  is  believed  that  the  product  of  the  mines  of  precious 
metals  in  that  region  has  during  the  year  reached,  if  not  exceeded, 
$100,000,000  in  value. 

It  was  recommended  in  my  last  annual  message  that  our  Indian 
system  be  remodelled.  Congress  at  its  last  session,  acting  upon  the 
recommendation,  did  provide  for  reorganizing  the  system  in  California, 
and  it  is  believed  that,  under  the  present  organization,  the  management 
of  the  Indians  there  will  be  attended  with  reasonable  success.  Much  yet 
remains  to  be  done  to  provide  for  the  proper  government  of  the  Indians 
in  other  parts  of  the  country,  to  render  it  secure  for  the  advancing  settler 
and  to  provide  for  the  welfare  of  the  nation.  The,  Secretary  reiterates 
his  recommendations,  and  to  them  the  attention  of  Congress  is  invited. 

The  liberal  provisions  made  by  Congress  for  paying  pensions  to  invalid 
soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  Republic,  and  to  the  widows,  orphans,  and 
dependent  mothers  of  those  who  have  fallen  in  battle,  or  died  of  disease 
contracted,  or  of  wounds  received  in  the  service  of  their  country,  have 
been  diligently  administered. 

There  have  been  added  to  the  pension-rolls,  during  the  year  ending 
the  30th  day  of  June  last,  the  names  of  16,770  invalid  soldiers,  and  of 
271  disabled  seamen ;  making  the  present  number  of  army  invalid  pen 
sioners  22,767,  and  of  the  navy  invalid  pensioners,  712.  Of  widows, 
orphans,  and  mothers,  22,198  have  been  placed  on  the  army  pension-rolls, 
and  248  on  the  navy  rolls.  The  present  number  of  army  pensioners  of 
this  class  is  25,443,  and  of  the  navy  pensioners,  793.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  year  the  number  of  Revolutionary  pensioners  was  1,430;  only 
twelve  of  them  were  soldiers,  of  whom  seven  have  since  died.  The 
remainder  are  those  who  under  the  law  receive  pensions  because  of  rela 
tionship  to  Revolutionary  soldiers. 

During  the  year  ending  the  30th  of  June,  1864,  $4,504,616.92  have 
been  paid  to  pensioners  of  all  classes. 

I   cheerfully  commend  to  your  continued   patronage  the   benevolent 


632  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

institutioi.s  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  which  have  hitherto  been  estab 
lished  or  fostered  by  Congress,  and  respectfully  refer  for  information  con 
cerning  them,  and  in  relation  to  the  Washington  Aqueduct,  the  Capitol, 
and  other  matters  of  local  interest,  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary. 

The  Agricultural  Department,  under  the  supervision  of  its  present 
energetic  and  faithful  head,  is  rapidly  commending  itself  to  the  great  and 
vital  interest  it  was  created  to  advance.  It  is  peculiarly  the  people's 
department,  in  which  they  feel  more  directly  concerned  than  in  any  other. 
I  commend  it  to  the  continued  attention  and  fostering  care  of  Congress. 

The  war  continues.  Since  the  last  annual  message,  all  the  important 
lines  and  positions  then  occupied  by  our  forces  have  been  maintained,  and 
our  armies  have  steadily  advanced,  thus  liberating  the  regions  left  in  the 
rear ;  so  that  Missouri,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  parts  of  other  States 
have  again  produced  reasonably  fair  crops. 

The  most  remarkable  feature  in  the  military  operations  of  the  year  is 
General  Sherman's  attempted  march  of  three  hundred  miles,  directly 
through  an  insurgent  region.  It  tends  to  show  a  great  increase  of  our 
relative  strength,  that  our  General-in-Chief  should  feel  able  to  confront 
and  hold  in  check  every  active  force  of  the  enemy,  and  yet  to  detach  a 
well-appointed  large  army  to  move  on  such  an  expedition.  The  result 
not  yet  being  known,  conjecture  in  regard  to  it  cannot  here  be  indulged. 

Important  movements  have  also  occurred  during  the  year,  to  the  effect 
of  moulding  society  for  durability  in  the  Union.  Although  short  of  com 
plete  success,  it  is  much  in  the  right  direction  that  12,000  citizens  in  each 
of  the  States  of  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  have  organized  loyal  State  Govern 
ments,  with  free  constitutions,  and  are  earnestly  struggling  to  maintain  and 
administer  them. 

The  movements  in  the  same  direction,  more  extensive  though  less 
definite,  in  Missouri,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee,  should  not  be  overlooked. 

But  Maryland  presents  the  example  of  complete  success.  Maryland  is 
secure  to  liberty  and  Union  for  all  the  future.  The  genius  of  rebellion 
will  no  more  claim  Maryland.  Like  another  foul  spirit,  being  driven  out, 
it  may  seek  to  tear  her,  but  it  will  woo  her  no  more. 

At  the  last  session  of  Congress,  a  proposed  amendment  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  United  States,  passed  the  Senate, 
but  failed  for  lack  of  the  requisite  two-thirds  vote  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  Although  the  present  is  the  same  Congress,  and  nearly  the 
same  members,  and  without  questioning  the  wisdom  or  patriotism  of  those 
who  stood  in  opposition,  I  venture  to  recommend  the  reconsideration  and 
passage  of  the  measure  at  the  present  session.  Of  course  the  abstract  ques 
tion  is  not  changed,  but  an  intervening  election  shows  almost  certainly  that 
the  next  Congress  will  pass  the  measure,  if  this  does  not.  Hence  there  is 
only  a  question  of  time  as  to  when  the  proposed  amendment  will  goto  the 
States  for  their  action,  and  as  it  is  to  go  at  all  events,  may  we  not  agree 
that  the  sooner  the  better?  It  is  not  claimed  that  the  election  has  im 
posed  a  duty  on  members  to  change  their  views  or  their  votes  any  further 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  633 

than  as  an  additional  element  to  be  considered.     Their  judgment  may  be 
affected  by  it.     It  is  tlie  voice  of  the  people  now  for  the  first  time  heard 
upon  the  question.     In  a  great  national  crisis  like  ours,  unanimity  of 
action  among  those  seeking  a  common  end  is  very   desirable — almost 
indispensable;  and  yet  no  approach  to  such  unanimity  is  attainable  unless 
some  deference  shall  be  paid  to  the  will  of  the  majority.     In  this  case  the 
common  end  is  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  and  among  the  means  to 
secure  that  end,  such  will,  through  the  election,  is  most  clearly  declared 
in  favor  of  such  constitutional  amendment.     The  most  reliable  indication 
of  public  purpose  in  this  country  is  derived  through  our  popular  elections. 
Judging  by  the  recent  canvass  and  its  results,  the  purpose  of  the  people 
within  the  loyal  States  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Union  was  never 
more  firm  nor  more  nearly  unanimous  than  now.    The  extraordinary  calm 
ness  and  good  order  with  which  the  millions  of  voters  met  and  mingled 
at  the  polls,  give  strong  assurance  of  this.     Not  only  all  those  who  sup 
ported  the  Union  ticket  (so  called),  but  a  great  majority  of  the  opposing 
party  also,  may  be  fairly  claimed  to  entertain  and  to  be  actuated  by  the  same 
purpose.     It  is  an  unanswerable  argument  to  this  effect  that  no  candidate 
for  any  office  whatever,  high  or  low,  has  ventured  to  seek  votes  on  the 
avowal  that  he  was  for  giving  up  the  Union.     There  has  been  much  im 
pugning  of  motives,  and  much  heated  controversy  as  to  the  proper  means 
and  best  mode  of  advancing  the  Union  cause;  but  in  the  distinct  issue  of 
Union  or  no  Union,  the  politicians  have  shown  their  instinctive  knowledge 
that  there  is  no  diversity  among  the  people.     In  affording  the  people  the 
fair  opportunity  of  showing  one  to  another,  and  to  the  world,  this  firm 
ness  and  unanimity  of  purpose,  the  election  has  been  of  vast  value  to  the 
national  cause.     The  election  has  exhibited  another  fact,  not  less  valuable 
to  be  known — the  fact  that  we  do  not  approach  exhaustion  in  the  most 
important  branch  of  the  national  resources — that  of  living  men.   While  it  is 
melancholy  to  reflect  that  the  war  has  filled  so  many  graves,  and  caused 
mourning  to  so  many  hearts,  it  is  some  relief  to  know  that,  compared  with 
the  surviving,  the  fallen  have  been  so  few.    While  corps  and  divisions  and 
regiments  have  formed  and  fought  and  dwindled  and  gone  out  of  exist 
ence,  a  great  majority  of  the  men  who  composed  them  are  still  living. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  naval  service.     The  election  returns  prove  this. 
So  many  voters  could  not  else  be  found.     The  States  regularly  holding 
elections,   both  now   and  four  years  ago — to  wit:    California,  Connecti 
cut,  Delaware,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kentucky,  Maine,  Maryland,  Mas 
sachusetts,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey, 
New  York,  Ohio,  Oregon,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  West 
Virginia,  and  Wisconsin— cast  3,982,011  votes  now,  against  3,870,222  cast 
then;  showing  an  aggregate  now  of  3,982,011,  to  which  is  to  be  added 
33,762  cast  now  in  the  new  States  of  Kansas  and  Nevada,  which  States 
did  not  vote  in  1860;  thus  swelling  the  aggregate  to  4,015,773,  and  the 
net  increase,  during  the  three  years  and  a  half  of  war,  to  145,551.  A  table 
is  appended,  showing  particulars.     To  this  again  should  be  added  the 


634  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

numbers  of  all  soldiers  in  the  field  belonging  to  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  California,  who  by 
the  laws  of  those  States  could  not  vote  away  from  their  homes,  and  which 
number  cannot  be  less  than  90,000.  Nor  yet  is  this  all.  The  number  in 
organized  Territories  is  triple  now  what  it  was  four  years  ago,  while 
thousands,  white  and  black,  join  us  as  the  national  arms  press  back  the 
insurgent  lines.  So  much  is  shown  affirmatively  and  negatively  by  the  elec 
tion.  It  is  not  material  to  inquire  how  the  increase  has  been  produced,  or  to 
show  that  it  would  have  been  greater  but  for  the  war,  which  is  probably 
true.  The  important  fact  remains  demonstrated  that  we  have  more  men 
now  than  we  had  when  the  war  began ;  that  we  are  not  exhausted,  nor 
in  process  of  exhaustion ;  that  we  are  gaining  strength,  and  may,  if  need 
be,  maintain  the  contest  indefinitely.  This  as  to  men. 

COMPARATIVE  VOTE,  1860  AND  1804. 

I860.  1864 

Kentucky 148,216  91,300 

Maine 97,918  115,141 

Maryland 92,502  72,703 

Massachusetts 169,533  175,487 

Michigan 154,747  162,41? 

Minnesota 34,799  42,534 

Missouri 165,538  *  90,000 

New  Hampshire 65,953  69,111 

New  Jersey 121,125  1 28,C80 

New  York 675,156  730,CG! 

Ohio 442,441  470,745 

Oregon 14,410  f  14,410 

Pennsylvania 476,442  672,697 

Khode  Island 19,931  22,187 

Vermont 42,844  55,811 

West  Virginia 46,195  33,874 

Wisconsin 152,180  148,513 


Total 3,870,222  3,982,011 

Kansas 17,234 

Nevada 16,528  33,'.  52 

Total 4,015.773 

Material  resources  are  now  more  complete  and  abundant  than  ever. 
The  national  resources,  •  then,  are  unexhausted,  and,  as  we  believe,  inex 
haustible.  The  public  purpose  to  re-establish  and  maintain  the  national 
authority  is  unchanged,  and,  as  we  believe,  unchangeable.  The  manner 
of  continuing  the  effort  remains  to  choose.  On  careful  consideration  of 
all  the  evidence  accessible,  it  seems  to  me  that  no  attempt  at  negotiation 
with  the  insurgent  leader  could  result  in  any  good.  He  would  accept  of 
nothing  short  of  the  severance  of  the  Union.  His  declarations  to  this 
effect  are  explicit  and  oft  repeated.  He  does  not  attempt  to  deceive  us. 
He  affords  us  no  excuse  to  deceive  ourselves.  We  cannot  voluntarily  yield 

*  Nearly.  f  Estimated 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  635 

it.  Between  him  and  us  the  issue  is  distinct,  simple,  and  inflexible.  It 
is  an  issue  which  can  only  be  tried  by  war,  and  decided  by  victory.  If 
we  yield,  we  are  beaten.  If  the  Southern  people  fail  him,  he  is  beaten. 
Either  way  it  would  be  the  victory  and  defeat  following  war.  What  is 
true,  however,  of  him  who  heads  the  insurgent  cause,  is  not  necessarily 
true  of  those  who  follow.  Although  he  cannot  reaccept  the  Union,  they 
can.  Some  of  them  we  know  already  desire  peace  and  reunion.  The 
number  of  such  may  increase.  They  can  at  any  moment  have  peace 
simply  by  laying  down  their  arms  and  submitting  to  the  national 
authority  under  the  Constitution.  After  so  much  the  Government  could 
not,  if  it  would,  maintain  war  against  them.  The  loyal  people  would  not 
sustain  or  allow  it.  If  questions  should  remain,  we  would  adjust  them  by 
the  peaceful  means  of  legislation,  conference,  courts,  and  votes,  operating 
only  in  constitutional  and  lawful  channels.  Some  certain  and  other  pos 
sible  questions  are,  and  would  be.  beyond  the  executive  power  to  adjust — 
as,  for  instance,  the  admission  of  members  into  Congress,  and  whatever 
might  require  the  appropriation  of  money.  The  executive  power  itself 
would  be  greatly  diminished  by  the  cessation  of  actual  war.  Pardons  and 
remissions  of  forfeiture,  however,  would  still  be  within  the  executive  con 
trol.  In  what  spirit  and  temper  this  control  would  be  exercised,  can  be 
fairly  judged  of  by  the  past.  A  year  ago  general  pardon  and  amnesty, 
upon  specified  terms,  were  offered  to  all  except  certain  designated  classes, 
and  it  was  at  the  same  time  made  known  that  the  excepted  classes  were 
still  within  contemplation  of  special  clemency.  During  the  year  many 
availed  themselves  of  the  general  provision,  and  many  more  would,  only 
that  the  signs  of  bad  faith  in  some  led  to  such  precautionary  measures  as 
rendered  the  practical  process  less  easy  and  certain.  During  the  same 
time,  also,  special  pardons  have  been  granted  to  individuals  of  excepted 
classes,  and  no  voluntary  application  has  been  denied. 

Thus  practically  the  door  has  been  for  a  full  year  open  to  all,  except 
Bach  as  were  not  in  condition  to  make  free  choice — that  is  such  as  were  in 
custody  or  under  constraint.  It  is  still  so  open  to  all ;  but  the  time  may 
come,  probably  will  come,  when  public  duty  shall  demand  that  it  be  closed, 
and  that  in  lieu  more  vigorous  measures  than  heretofore  shall  be  adopted. 

In  presenting  the  abandonment  of  armed  resistance  to  the  national  au 
thority  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents  as  the  only  indispensable  condition 
to  ending  the  war  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  I  retract  nothing 
heretofore  said  as  to  slavery.  I  repeat  the  declaration  made  a  year  ago, 
that  while  I  remain  in  my  present  position  I  shall  not  attempt  to  re 
tract  or  modify  the  Emancipation  Proclamation.  Nor  shall  I  return  to 
slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that  proclamation  or  by 
any  of  the  acts  of  Congress. 

If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means,  make  it  an  executive 
duty  to  re-enslave  such  persons,  another,  and  not  I,  must  be  their  instru 
ment  to  perform  it. 

In  stating  a  single  condition  of  peace,  I  mean  simply  to  say,  that  the 


636  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

war  will  cease  on  the  part  of  the  Government  whenever  it  shall  have 
ceased  on  the  part  of  those  who  began  it. 

(Signed)  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

But  little  business  of  importance  was  transacted  in  Con 
gress  "before  the  holidays.  The  question  of  the  admission 
of  senators  and  representatives  from  Louisiana  made  its 
appearance  at  once,  but  the  credentials  of  the  applicants 
for  admission  were  referred  to  appropriate  committees,  and 
no  other  action  was  taken  on  them. 

On  the  12th  of  December  the  House  passed  a  resolution 
requesting  the  President  to  give  notice  of  the  intention  of 
the  Government  to  terminate  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  be 
tween  this  country  and  Canada.  A  resolution  to  the  same 
effect,  but  differing  in  words,  was  reported  in  the  Senate 
by  Mr.  Simmer,  but  no  action  was  taken  on  it  until  Con 
gress  reassembled  after  the  holidays. 

We  may  mention  also  the  attack  made  upon  the  Ad 
ministration  by  Mr.  H.  Winter  Davis,  on  the  15th  of 
December,  for  its  course  in  relation  to  Mexico,  by  offering, 
as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  the 
following  resolution :  — 

Resolved,  That  Congress  has  a  constitutional  right  to  an  authoritative 
voice  in  declaring  and  prescribing  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States, 
as  well  in  the  recognition  of  new  powers  as  in  other  matters,  and  it  is  the 
constitutional  duty  of  the  President  to  respect  that  policy,  not  less  in 
diplomatic  relations  than  in  the  use  of  the  national  forces  when  author 
ized  by  law,  and  the  propriety  of  any  declaration  of  foreign  policy  by 
Congress  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  vote  which  pronounces  it ;  and  such 
proposition,  while  pending  and  undetermined,  is  not  a  fit  topic  of  diplo 
matic  explanation  with  any  foreign  power. 

The  House  laid  the  resolution  on  the  table  by  a  vote  of 
sixty-nine  to  sixty-three,  whereupon  Mr.  Davis  requested 
to  be  excused  from  further  service  on  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Affairs  ;  his  request  was  granted  accordingly. 

Five  days  later,  however,  Mr.  Davis  renewed  the  attack, 
offering  the  same  resolution,  and  this  time  with  better  suc 
cess.  The  first  branch  of  the  resolution  was  adopted  by 
a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  eighteen  to  eight,  and  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  637 

second  by  a  vote  of  sixty-eight  to  fifty-eight.  ISTo  furthei 
action  was  taken  Iby  Congress  in  the  matter,  nor  was  it 
ever  publicly  referred  to  by  the  President. 

Congress  adjourned  on  the  23d  of  December  for  the 
holidays.  The  Presidential  reception  on  New  Year' s  day 
was  the  occasion  of  a  remarkable  spectacle  for  Washing 
ton,  in  the  appearance  of  the  colored  people  at  the  White 
House.  They  waited  around  the  doors  till  the  crowd  of 
white  visitors  diminished,  when  they  made  bold  to  enter 
the  hall.  Some  of  them  were  richly  dressed,  while  others 
wore  the  garb  of  poverty  ;  but  alike  intent  on  seeing  the 
man  who  had  set  their  nation  free,  they  pressed  forward, 
though  with  hesitation,  into  the  presence  of  the  President. 
Says  an  eye-witness — 

For  nearly  two  hours  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  shaking  the  hands  of  the 
'sovereigns,"  and  had  become  excessively  weary,  and  his  grasp  became 
languid ;  but  here  his  nerves  rallied  at  the  unwonted  sight,  and  he  wel 
comed  this  motley  crowd  with  a  heartiness  that  made  them  wild  with  ex 
ceeding  joy.     They  laughed  and  wept,  and  wept  and  laughed,  exclai 


imiincr, 


through  their  blinding  tears,  "God  bless  you!"     "God  bless  Abraham 
Lincoln !"     "  God  bress  Massa  Linkum !" 

The  proceedings  pending  before  the  Canadian  court, 
when  Congress  met,  for  the  extradition  of  the  St.  Albans 
raiders,  were  brought  to  an  unexpected  termination  on  the 
13th  of  December,  by  the  decision  of  Mr.  Justice  Coursol, 
by  whom  the  case  was  heard,  discharging  the  accused 
from  custody  on  the  alleged  ground  of  want  of  jurisdic 
tion.  Not  only  were  these  men  thus  discharged,  but 
the  money  which  they  had  stolen  from  the  banks  was 
given  up  to  them,  under  circumstances  which  cast 
great  suspicion  upon  prominent  members  of  the  Cana 
dian  Government.  This  result  caused  the  most  intense 
indignation  throughout  the  States.  General  Dix,  com 
manding  the  Eastern  Department,  immediately  issued 
an  order  referring  to  it,  and  directing  all  military  com 
manders  on  the  frontiers,  in  case  of  any  future  raids,  to 
shoot  down  the  perpetrators;  "or,  if  it  be  necessary, 
with  a  view  to  their  capture,  to  cross  the  boundary 


638  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

between  the  United  States  and  Canada,  said  commanders 
are  hereby  directed  to  pursue  them  wherever  they  may 
find  refuge,  and  if  captured,  they  are  under  no  circum 
stances  to  be  surrendered,"  &c.,  &c.  This  part  of  the 
order  was,  however,  at  once  disapproved  by  the  Ad 
ministration,  and  General  Dix  accordingly  modified  his 
order  so  as  to  require  that,  before  crossing  the  fron 
tier,  military  commanders  should  report  to  him  for 
orders. 

The  prompt  action  of  the  Canadian  Government,  which 
at  once  caused  the  rearrest  of  such  of  the  raiders  as 
had  not  made  their  escape,  and  gave  a  cordial  assistance 
to  the  new  proceedings  which  were  begun  with  a  view 
to  their  extradition,  tended  somewhat  to  allay  public 
feeling.  But  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  take  some 
measures  of  precaution  along  the  frontier,  and  accord 
ingly  on  the  17th  of  December  an  order  was  issued  that 
no  person  should  be  allowed  to  enter  the  United  States 
from  a  foreign  country  without  a  passport,  except  immi 
grants  coming  directly  in  by  sea.  This  order  was  made 
with  especial  reference  to  those  coming  into  the  United 
States  from  the  British  Provinces,  and  the  people  of 
Canada  were  excessively  indignant  at  it,  but  found  no 
remedy. 

Military  affairs  during  this  month  made  good  progress. 
The  call  which  had  been  made  in  July  for  five  hundred 
thousand  men,  although  it  produced  a  good  number  of  re 
cruits,  so  that  military  operations  had  not  suffered  for  lack 
of  re-enforcements,  yet  had  been  in  great  measure  filled 
by  giving  credits  for  men  already  put  into  the  army  or 
the  navy.  Accordingly,  on  the  19th  of  December,  the 
President  issued  the  following  proclamation  calling  for 
two  hundred  thousand  more  men  :— 

PROCLAMATION. 

WHEREAS,  by  the  act  approved  July  4,  1864,  entitled  "  An  act  fur 
ther  to  regulate  and  provide  for  the  enrolling  and  calling  out  of  the 
national  forces  and  for  other  purposes,"  it  is  provided  that  the  President 
of  the  United  States  may,  at  his  discretion,  at  any  time  hereafter,  call  for 
any  number  of  men  as  volunteers  for  the  respective  terms  of  one,  two,  or 


STAT/  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  639 

three  years  of  military  service ;  and  that  in  case  the  quota  or  any  part 
thereof  of  any  town,  township,  ward  of  a  city,  precinct,  or  election  district, 
or  of  a  county  not  so  subdivided,  shall  not  be  filled  within  the  space  of 
fifty  days  after  such  call,  the  President  shall  immediately  order  a  draft 
for  one  year  to  fill  such  quota,  or  any  part  thereof  which  may  be  un- 
alled  ;  and  whereas  by  the  credits  allowed  in  accordance  with  act  of  Con 
gress  on  the  call  for  five  hundred  thousand  men  made  July  18,  1864, 
Jie  number  of  men  to  be  obtained  was  reduced  to  two  hundred  and 
eighty  thousand ;  and  whereas  the  operations  of  the  enemy  in  certain 
States  have  rendered  it  impracticable  to  procure  from  them  their  full 
quotas  of  troops  under  said  call ;  and  whereas,  from  the  foregoing  causes, 
but  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  have  been  put  into  the  army,  navy, 
and  marine  corps  under  the  said  call  of  July  18,  1864,  leaving  a  deficiency 
under  the  said  call  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  thousand :  Now,  there 
fore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  in 
order  to  supply  the  aforesaid  deficiency,  and  to  provide  for  casualties 
in  the  military  and  naval  service  o'f  the  United  States,  do  issue  this  my 
call  for  three  hundred  thousand  volunteers,  to  serve  for  one,  two,  or  three 
years. 

The  quotas  of  the  States,  districts,  and  sub-districts,  under  this  call, 
will  be  assigned  by  the  War  Department  through  the  Provost-Marshal  • 
General  of  the  United  States:  and  in  case  the  quota,  or  any  part  thereof, 
of  any  town,  township,  ward  of  a  city,  precinct  or  election  district,  or  oi 
a  county  not  so  sub-divided,  shall  not  be  filled  before  the  15th  day  of 
February,  1865,  then  a  draft  shall  be  made  to  fill  such  quota,  or  any  part 
thereof,  under  this  call,  which  may  be  unfilled  on  the  said  15th  day  of 
February,  1865. 

In  testimony  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  nineteenth  day  of  December,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty- 

[L.  s.]  four,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty- 
ninth.  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President :  WM.  H.  SEWAED,  Secretary  of  State. 

Operations  in  the  field  continued  to  meet  with  great  suc 
cess.  General  Sherman,  after  an  almost  unobstructed  march 
across  the  State  of  Georgia,  burst  through  to  the  sea  by 
the  capture,  on  December  13th,  of  Fort  McAllister,  on  the 
Ogeechee  River,  whose  fall  opened  communications  for 
him  with  the  fleet.  Operations  to  assist  him  by  an  attack 
upon  the  line  of  railroad  from  Savannah  to  Charleston, 
had  succeeded  in  retaining  a  heavy  force  of  the  rebels 
there,  although  there  seems  to  have  been  little  effort  to 


640  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

concentrate  forces  to  clieck  Sherman's  march.  It  threat 
ened  so  many  and  so  diverse  points  that  the  lebeJs  were 
bewildered  and  were  not  able  to  make  any  successful  re 
sistance.  General  Hardee,  who  commanded  in  Savannah, 
determined  not  to  await  a  siege,  but,  as  soon  as  Sherman 
began  to  get  his  guns  in  position,  abandoned  the  city, 
crossing  the  Savannah  River  at  night  on  a  pontoon  bridge 
and  making  his  escape,  with  about  fifteen  thousand  men, 
into  South  Carolina.  Savannah,  thus  abandoned,  surren 
dered  at  once  on  the  21st  of  December  to  General  Sherman, 
who  on  the  22d  sent  a  dispatch  to  the  President,  present 
ing  to  him  "  as  a  Christmas  gift,  the  city  of  Savannah  with 
one  hundred  and  fifty  heavy  guns  and  plenty  of  ammuni 
tion,  and  also  about  twenty-five  thousand  bales  of  cotton." 

The  fall  of  Savannah  was  not  the  only  success  which 
made  the  month  of  December  glorious.  It  was  preceded 
by  the  three  days'  fight  in  front  of  Nashville,  when  Hood's 
army  was  crushed  by  the  attack  of  General  Thomas,  and 
that  northward  campaign,  for  the  purpose  of  entering 
upon  which  he  had  left  the  way  open  for  Sherman  to 
pierce  the  very  vitals  of  the  Confederacy,  and  by  which 
he  had  hoped  in  some  degree  to  neutralize  the  value  of 
Sherman's  progress,  was  turned  at  once  into  utter  de 
struction.  His  losses  coring  this  brief  campaign  were 
estimated  at  more  than  twenty  thousand  men. 

Several  expeditions  were  also  sent  out  by  our  generals 
into  various  parts  of  the  rebel  territory — into  Mississippi, 
the  south  west  parts  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina — which 
met  with  success,  and  inflicted  great  loss  upon  the  rebels. 
In  front  of  Petersburg  General  Grant  still  maintained 
his  position.  A  heavy  force  under  General  Warren  was 
sent  out  during  the  early  part  of  the  month  in  the 
direction  of  Weldon.  The  Weldon  Railroad  was  thor 
oughly  destroyed  nearly  as  far  as  Hicksford,  and  the  ex 
pedition  returned  without  serious  loss.  The  weather, 
which  was  extremely  inclement,  was  the  principal  obstacle 
which  they  encountered.  A  far  more  important  movement, 
however,  was  the  attack  upon  Fort  Fisher,  which  com 
manded  the  main  entrance  to  the  port  of  Wilmington,  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  641 

great  head- quarters  of  blockade  running.    This  expedi 
tion  sailed  from  Fortress  Monroe  on  the  13th  of  Decem 
ber.     It  consisted  of  a  strong  fleet  under  Rear- Admiral 
D.  D.  Porter,  assisted  by  a  land  force  under  command  of 
General  Butler.     A  prominent  feature  of  it  was  a  vessel 
loaded  with  several  hundred  tons  of  powder,  which  it  was 
intended  to  run  ashore  as  near  as  possible  to  the  fort  and 
there  explode.     It  was  supposed,  from  the  terrible  effects 
caused  by  the  accidental  firing  some  months  before  of  a 
magazine  in  England  containing  about  that  amount,  that 
the  explosion  of  so  large  a  quantity  of  powder  would 
entirely  destroy  or  greatly  damage  the  fort  and  utterly  de 
moralize  the  garrison.    The  vessels  rendezvoused  at  Beau, 
fort,  North  Carolina,  and  thence  sailed  for  Fort  Fisher. 
But  there  seems  to  have  been  a  lack  of  concert  of  action 
between  the  navy  and  the  army.      The   powder  boat 
was  exploded  before  the  army  transports  arrived,  and 
whether  the  work  was  so  imperfectly  done  that  only  a 
small  portion  of  the  powder  was  fired,  or  whether  a  dif 
ference  of  circumstances  led  to  a  different  result,  it  pro 
duced  little  or  no  effect.     A  heavy  bombardment  by 
the  fleet  followed,  lasting  for  a  day  and  a  half,  under  cover 
of  which  the  troops  were  landed  above  the  fort.     An 
outlying  battery  was  captured  by  them,  but  on  a  recon- 
noissance  of  the  main  works  they  were  reported  to  be 
but  little  injured  by  the  fire  of  the  fleet,  and  too  strong 
to  be  attacked  by  the  force  under  General  Butler's  com 
mand  ;    and  he  accordingly  re-embarked  and  returned 
with  them  to  Fortress  Monroe,  and  the  attack  was  aban 
doned. 

The  persistency  of  General  Grant  showed  itself  here, 
however,  as  it  had  done  so  many  times  before.  He  imme 
diately  sent  a  somewhat  larger  force,  under  the  command 
of  General  Terry,  to  renew  the  attack.  The  fleet,  which 
had  replenished  its  magazines,  renewed  the  bombardment 
more  terribly  than  before,  this  time  causing  great  injury 
to  the  works,  and  the  troops  were  again  landed  for  a  second 
assault  upon  the  fort,  whose  garrison  had  been  in  the  mean 
time  greatly  strengthened. 

'41 


642  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SEKVICES,  AND 

The  failure  of  the  former  assault  had  caused  great  vexa 
tion  and  disgust  throughout  the  country.  It  was  thought 
that  even  if  the  forces  were  not  heavy  enough  to  make  a 
successful  assault,  they  might  at  least  have  maintained 
their  ground  on  shore  until  a  stronger  force  could  be  sent, 
and  it  was  intimated  pretty  broadly  that  the  assault  should 
have  been  ordered. 

General  Butler  was  removed  from  the  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  James  on  the  8th  of  January.  In  his  fare 
well  order  he,  on  his  part,  assumed  and  asserted  that  his 
removal  was  because  he  had  been  too  chary  of  the  lives 
of  his  men. 

Great  controversy  arose  on  this  point,  and  assumed  at 
once  a  political  aspect.  General  Butler  was  called  before 
the  Congressional  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War, 
and  was  in  the  very  act  of  giving  his  testimony  as  to  the 
facts  and  his  reasons  for  judging  an  assault  impracticable, 
when  the  news  arrived  of  the  capture  of  the-  fort  on  the 
night  of  the  15th  of  January,  after  the  most  desperate  as 
sault  of  the  war.  This  result  put  a  stop  to  the  contro 
versy  which  was  rising,  and  spread  the  greatest  joy 
through  the  country,  as  it  was  at  once  seen  that  the  result 
must  be  the  closing  of  the  only  port  which  had  remained 
open  to  the  blockade  runners,  and  the  capture  of  Wilming 
ton  itself.  The  Richmond  papers  endeavored  to  make 
light  of  it,  and  spoke  of  it  as  a  "blessing  in  disguise  ;"  but 
this  deceived  no  one.  It  was  felt  that  the  last  breathing- 
hole  of  the  rebellion  was  closed,  and  that  its  power  must 
speedily  succumb  between  the  mighty  forces  of  the  army 
which  Grant  held  immovable  before  Petersburg  and 
General  Lee,  and  that  other  army  which  General  Sher 
man  was  already  moving  forward  on  its  destructive  march 
through  South  Carolina  towards  the  rear  of  Richmond. 

The  death  of  Edward  Everett,  which  occurred  on 
the  day  of  the  fall  of  Fort  Fisher,  was  felt  to  be  a 
great  loss  to  the  country.  The  patriotic  position  which 
he  had  taken  at  the  beginning  of  the  rebellion  and 
steadily  maintained,  the  uniform  support  which  he  had 
given  to  the  Administration,  lending  even  the  weight  of 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  643 

his  name  to  the  electoral  ticket  in  Massachusetts,  and  his 
constant  and  valuable  labors  for  the  cause,  fully  justified 
the  following  order,  issued  at  Washington  on  the  receipt 
of  the  news  of  his  death  : — 

DEPARTMENT  or  STATE,  WASHINGTON,  Sunday,  January  15. 

The  President  directs  the  undersigned  to  perform  the  painful  duty  of 
announcing  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  that  EDWARD  EVERETT, 
distinguished  not  more  by  learning  and  eloquence  than  by  unsurpassed 
and  disinterested  labors  of  patriotism  at  a  period  of  political  disorder, 
departed  this  life  at  four  o'clock  this  morning.  The  several  Executive 
Departments  of  the  Government  will  cause  appropriate  honors  to  be 
rendered  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased,  at  home  and  abroad,  wherever 
the  national  name  and  authority  are  recognized. 

(Signed)  WILLIAM  H.  SEWAED. 

The  President  referred  to  this  death  in  some  remarks 
which  he  made  on  the  24th  of  January,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  presentation  to  him  of  a  vase  of  skeleton  leaves 
gathered  on  the  battle-field  of  Gettysburg,  which  had 
been  one  of  the  ornaments  of  the  Sanitary  Fair  at  Phila 
delphia.  The  chairman  of  the  committee  having  pre 
sented  the  gift,  the  President  acknowledged  its  receipt  as 
follows : — 

REVEREND  SIR,  AND  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — I  accept  with  emotions 
of  profoundest  gratitude,  the  beautiful  gift  you  have  been  pleased  to  pre 
sent  to  me.  You  will,  of  course,  expect  that  I  acknowledge  it.  So  much  has 
been  said  about  Gettysburg,  and  so  well,  that  for  me  to  attempt  to  say 
more  may  perhaps  only  serve  to  weaken  the  force  of  that  which  has  already 
been  said.  A  most  graceful  and  eloquent  tribute  was  paid  to  the  patriotism 
and  self-denying  labors  of  the  American  ladies,  on  the  occasion  of  the  con 
secration  of  the  National  Cemetery  at  Gettysburg,  by  our  illustrious  friend, 
Edward  Everett,  now,  alas !  departed  from  earth.  His  life  was  a  truly 
great  one,  and  I  think  the  greatest  part  of  it  was  that  which  crowned 
its  closing  years.  I  wish  you  to  read,  if  you  have  not  already  done  so, 
the  eloquent  and  truthful  words  which  he  then  spoke  of  the  women  of 
America.  Truly,  the  services  they  have  rendered  to  the  defenders  of  our 
country  in  this  perilous  time,  and  are  yet  rendering,  can  never  be  esti 
mated  as  they  ought  to  be.  For  your  kind  wishes  to  me  personally,  I 
beg  leave  to  render  you  likewise  my  sincerest  thanks.  I  assure  you  they 
are  reciprocated.  And  now,  gentlemen  and  ladies,  may  God  bless  you 
all. 

Several  important  matters  were  brought  before  Con 
gress  during  January. 


644  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  Senate  passed  the  House  resolution  requesting 
the  President  to  giye  notice  of  the  termination  of  the  Re 
ciprocity  Treaty,  but  with  amendments,  in  which  the 
House  concurred. 

The  question  of  retaliation  came  up  in  the  Senate,  and 
after  a  lengthy  debate  a  resolution  passed  the  Senate,  on 
the  31st  of  January,  advising  retaliation,  but  such  as  was 
conformable  to  the  usages  of  war  as  practised  among  civ 
ilized  nations. 

Great  excitement  was  aroused  in  the  House  by  a  de 
bate  upon  the  conduct  of  General  Butler  in  New  Orleans, 
arising  out  of  a  speech  by  Mr.  Brooks,  of  New  York,  in 
which  he  spoke  of  the  General  as  "a  gold  robber." 
General  Butler,  hearing  of  this,  sent  one  of  his  aids  to 
Mr.  Brooks  with  a  letter,  asking  whether  he  was  correctly 
reported,  and  whether  there  was  any  explanation,  other 
than  what  appeared  in  the  report,  of  his  language,  say 
ing  that  the  bearer  would  call  for  his  answer  at  any 
place  or  time  he  might  designate.  Mr.  Brooks  chose  to 
regard  this  as  a  challenge,  and  therefore  an  invasion 
of  his  privileges  as  a  member  of  the  House,  and  he  ac 
cordingly  sought  to  bring  it  before  that  body.  The 
Speaker  decided  that  the  letter  was  no  invasion  of  privi 
lege.  Mr.  Brooks  appealed  from  the  decision  of  the 
chair,  and  a  heated  debate  followed,  which  was  closed 
by  the  withdrawal  of  the  appeal. 

A  very  important  resolution,  reported  by  the  Judiciary 
Committee,  passed  the.  House  on  the  30th  of  January, 
setting  forth  that  as  the  local  authorities  of  the  States  of 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Flori 
da,  Alabama,  Tennessee,  Louisiana,  and  Arkansas  had 
rebelled  against  the  Government,  and  were  in  rebellion 
on  the  9th  of  November,  1864,  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  States  mentioned  in  the  preamble  to  this  resolution 
shall  not  be  entitled  to  representation  in  the  Electoral  College  for  the 
choice  of  President  and  Vice- President  of  the  United  States,  for  the 
term  of  office  commencing  on  the  4th  of  March  next,  and  no  electoral 
votes  shall  be  received  or  counted  from  those  States. 

But  by  far  the  most  important  action  which  was  taken 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  645 

during  the  whole  session  was  the  passage,  on  the  31st  of 
January,  of  the  resolution  for  the  constitutional  amend 
ment  prohibiting  slavery.  This  resolution,  as  will  be 
recollected,  passed  the  Senate  early  in  the  previous  session, 
but  coining  up  in  the  House,  it  failed  at  that  time  to  receive 
the  requisite  two-thirds  vote.  A  motion  for  a  reconsid 
eration  was  made  and  laid  upon  the  table.  It  was  taken 
from  the  table  early  in  this  session,  and  was  debated  at 
great  length.  It  was  very  soon  manifest  that  by  the  prog 
ress  of  events  the  amendment  had  gained  strength  since 
the  previous  attempt  to  pass  it.  The  debate  was  closed  by 
a  call  for  the  previous  question,  for  it  was  a  subject  on 
which  debate  could  never  be  exhausted.  The  motion  to  re 
consider  was  carried,  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  twelve 
to  fifty-seven.  The  question  then  recurred  on  the  passage 
of  the  resolution,  on  which  the  vote  was  taken  amid  the 
deepest  interest.  The  Speaker  directed  his  own  name  to 
be  called  as  a  member  of  the  House,  and  voted  aye.  His 
vote  was  received  with  loud  applause,  which  he  promptly 
checked  ;  and  when  the  votes  of  several  Democrats  were 
given  in  favor  of  the  resolution,  they  were  also  greeted 
with  applause,  and  the  hopes  of  the  friends  of  the  meas 
ure  rose,  for  although  two-thirds  had  not  voted  in  favor 
of  the  reconsideration,  it  was  manifest  that  the  vote  on 
the  resolution  was  gaining  in  strength.  When  the  vote 
was  declared,  and  it  was  announced  that  the  resolution 
was  passed  by  a  vote  of  one  hundred  and  nineteen  yeas 
to  lifty-six  nays,  tumultuous  applause  broke  forth,  not 
only  in  the  galleries,  but  also  on  the  floor  of  the  House, 
which  immediately  adjourned. 

The  adoption  of  this  amendment  was  hailed  with  uni 
versal  satisfaction.  Those  who  had  from  the  beginning 
regarded  slavery  as  the  cause  of  the  rebellion,  and  had, 
therefore,  made  its  extinction  the  indispensable  condition 
of  peace,  saw  in  the  action  of  Congress  the  fruition  of 
their  hopes  and  labors  ;  while  the  great  body  of  the  peo 
ple,  wearied  by  the  protracted  contest  and  satisfied  that 
none  but  the  extremest  measures  would  bring  it  to  a  close, 
acquiesced  in  the  prohibition  of  slavery  as  a  legitimate 


646  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

consequence  of  the  rebellion,  and  as  promising  substan 
tial  compensation  to  the  nation  for  the  ravages  of  war. 

President  Lincoln  had  regarded  the  passage  of  the 
amendment  with  special  interest.  He  regarded  it  as  cov 
ering  whatever  defects  a  rigid  construction  of  the  Consti 
tution  might  find  in  his  proclamation  of  emancipation,  and 
as  the  only  mode  in  which  the  perpetual  prohibition  of 
slavery  could  be  placed  beyond  doubt  or  cavil.  His  view 
of  the  subject  was  indicated  in  the  remarks  which  he  ad 
dressed  to  an  enthusiastic  crowd,  which  gathered  before 
the  executive  mansion,  on  the  evening  of  the  adoption  of 
the  resolution,  to  congratulate  him  upon  this  auspicious 
triumph.  In  response  to  their  calls,  he  said  : — 

He  supposed  the  passage  through  Congress  of  the  constitutional  amend 
ment  for  the  abolishing  of  slavery  throughout  the  United  States  was  the 
occasion  to  which  he  was  indebted  for  the  honor  of  this  call. 

The  occasion  was  one  of  congratulation  to  the  country,  and  to  the 
whole  world.  But  there  is  a  task  yet  before  us — to  go  forward  and  con 
summate  by  the  votes  of  the  States  that  which  Congress  so  nobly  began 
yesterday.  (Applause  and  cries,  "  They  will  do  it,"  &c.)  He  had  the 
honor  to  inform  those  present  that  Illinois  had  already  done  the  work. 
Maryland  was  about  half  through,  but  he  felt  proud  that  Illinois  was  a 
little  ahead. 

He  thought  this  measure  was  a  very  fitting  if  not  an  indispensable 
adjunct  to  the  winding  up  of  the  great  difficulty.  He  wished  the 
reunion  of  all  the  States  perfected,  and  so  eifected  as  to  remove  all 
causes  of  disturbance  in  the  future;  and,  to  attain  this  end,  it  was 
necessary  that  the  original  disturbing  cause  should,  if  possible,  be  root 
ed  out.  He  thought  all  would  bear  him  witness  that  he  had  never 
shrunk  from  doing  all  that  he  could  to  eradicate  slavery,  by  issuing  an 
Emancipation  Proclamation.  But  that  proclamation  falls  short  of  what 
the  amendment  will  be  when  fully  consummated.  A  question  might  be 
raised  whether  the  proclamation  was  legally  valid.  It  might  be  added, 
that  it  only  aided  those  who  came  into  our  lines,  and  that  it  was 
inoperative  as  to  those  who  did  not  give  themselves  up;  or  that  it 
would  have  no  effect  upon  the  children  of  the  slaves  born  hereafter ;  in 
fact,  it  would  be  urged  that  it  did  not  meet  the  evil.  But  this  amend 
ment  is  a  king's,  cure  for  all  evils.  It  winds  the  whole  thing  up.  He 
would  repeat,  that  it  was  the  fitting  if  not  the  indispensable  adjunct  to 
the  consummation  of  the  great  game  we  are  playing.  He  could  not  but 
congratulate  all  present — himself,  the  country,  and  the  whole  world — 
upon  this  great  moral  victory. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  647 

In  addition  to  tlie  general  satisfaction  felt  by  the  whole 
country  at  the  passage  of  this  amendment,  it  carried 
special  joy  to  that  very  large  class  of  people  who  had 
feared  that  the  war  might  end  without  securing  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery.  From  the  very  beginning  there  had  been 
a  powerful  pressure  in  favor  of  an  adjustment  with  the 
discontented  and  rebellious  South,  and  this  had  led,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  to  repeated  attempts  at  negotiation 
on  behalf  of  the  contending  forces.  The  organized 
authorities  on  either  side  maintained  their  attitude  of 
mutual  defiance  ;  but  individuals  on  both  sides  kept  up  a 
steady  and  confident  attempt,  by  personal  effort,  to  bring 
the  parties  into  such  a  position  that  they  could  not  avoi£ 
negotiations  for  peace,  without  subjecting  themselves  to 
the  injurious  imputation  of  preferring  war.  It  was  re 
membered  that  during  our  war  with  Mexico,  while  neither 
party  sued  for  peace,  and  while  both  Governments  repu 
diated  all  thought  of  desiring  it,  peace  was  forced  upon 
them  by  the  unauthorized  and  irresponsible  negotiations 
of  a  private  citizen,*  who  secured  from  the  Mexican  Gov 
ernment  terms  which  the  American  authorities,  out  of 
deference  to  the  sentiments  of  their  own  people,  did  not 
dare  refuse.  The  incident  was  a  perpetual  stimulant  to 
personal  ambition,  and  the  country  was  scarcely  ever  free, 
for  a  month  at  a  time,  from  rumors  of  pending  negotiations 
for  a  speedy  peace.  During  the  months  of  December  and 
January  these  rumors  had  been  especially  rife,  and  had 
created  a  good  deal  of  public  anxiety. 

The  whole  country  had  come  to  regard  the  strength  of 
the  rebellion  as  substantially  broken.  In  men,  in  re 
sources  of  every  kind,  in  modes  of  communication,  and 
in  the  spirit  with  which  the  contest  was  carried  on,  the 
rebels  were  known  to  be  rapidly  and  fatally  failing  ;  and 
it  was  almost  universally  believed  that  a  vigorous  and 
steady  prosecution  of  the  war  would  speedily  destroy  the 
rebel  organization,  capture  its  capital,  disperse  its  armies, 
and  compel  an  absolute  and  unconditional  submission  to 

*  Nicholas  P.  Trist. 


648  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  national  authority.  It  was  not,  therefore,  without  a 
good  deal  of  solicitude  that  the  public  learned  that  Mr. 
Francis  P.  Blair,  an  able,  resolute,  and  experienced  poli 
tician,  had  left  Washington  for  Richmond,  armed  with  a 
pass  from  President  Lincoln,  and  that  the  real  object  of 
his  visit  was  to  prevail  upon  Jefferson  Davis  to  send,  or 
receive,  commissioners  to  treat  of  peace  between  the  con 
tending  parties.  The  rumor  proved  to  be  substantially 
true.  The  President  had  given  Mr.  Blair  a  pass  through 
our  lines  and  back.  He  had  gone  to  Richmond,  and  had 
held  free  conferences  with  Mr.  Davis  and  other  members 
of  the  Rebel  Government.  He  returned  to  Washington 
on  the  16th  of  January,  bringing  with  him  a  written  as 
surance,  addressed  to  himself,  from  Jefferson  Davis,  of 
his  willingness  to  enter  into  negotiations  for  peace,  to 
receive  a  commissioner  whenever  one  should  be  sent, 
and  of  his  readiness,  whenever  Mr.  Blair  could  promise 
that  he  would  be  received,  to  appoint  such  a  commis 
sioner,  minister,  or  other  agent,  and  thus  "renew  the  effort 
to  enter  into  a  conference  with  a  view  to  secure  peace  be 
tween  the  two  countries"  Mr.  Blair  presented  this  letter 
to  President  Lincoln,  who  at  once  authorized  him  to  re 
turn  to  Richmond,  carrying  with  him  his  written  assur 
ance  that  he  had  constantly  been,  was  then,  and  should  con 
tinue  to  be,  "  ready  to  receive  any  agent  whom  Mr.  Davis, 
or  any  other  influential  person  now  resisting  the  national 
authority,  may  informally  send  me,  with  a  view  of  secur 
ing  peace  to  the  people  of  our  common  country."  Mr. 
Blair  left  Washington  on  the  20th  of  January  for  Rich 
mond,  and  on  the  next  day  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Davis  this  response  of  President  Lincoln  to  his  previous 
assurance  ;  and  Mr.  Davis  then  learned  that  commission 
ers  from  him  could  be  received  to  treat  of  peace,  only  on 
the  assumption  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  still 
had  one  "  common  country,"  and  not  on  the  assumption, 
which  Mr.  Davis  had  advanced,  that  they  were  divided 
into  two  independent  powers. 

Tn  consequence  of  these  communications,  on  the  29th 
of  January,  three  persons,  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  R.  M. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  649 

T.  Hunter,  and  J.  A.  Campbell,  made  application  to  Gen 
eral  Ord,  the  commander  of  the  advanced  portion  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  for  permission  to  enter  our  lines, 
and  to  proceed  to  Washington  as  peace  commissioners. 
The  application  was  referred  to  the  President,  who  grant 
ed  permission  for  the  three  persons  named  to  proceed  to 
Portress  Monroe  and  there  hold  an  informal  conference, 
with  some  person  or  persons  to  be  designated  for  that  pur 
pose,  on  the  express  condition  that  the  peace  proposed  to  be 
secured  should  be  "  for  the  people  of  our  common  coun 
try."     This  response  led  the  commissioners,  on  the  1st  of 
February,  to  make  an  application  directly  to  Lieutenant- 
General  Grant  for  the  permission  they  had  solicited,  viz., 
to  go  to  Washington  to  confer  with  President  Lincoln 
concerning  peace  on  the  basis  of  his  letter  to  Mr.  Blair, 
but  "  without  any  personal  compromise  on  any  question 
in  the  letter."     Not  anticipating  such  a  proviso,  which  in 
effect  waived  entirely  what  he  had  laid  down  as  the  sine 
qua  non  of  even  an  informal  conference  on  the  subject  of 
peace,  the  President  had  on  the  31st  of  January  directed 
Mr.  Seward,  the  Secretary  of  State,  to  proceed  to  Fortress 
Monroe  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  with  the  three  com 
missioners.    He  was  instructed  to  insist  upon  three  things 
as  indispensable  :— 1.  The  restoration  of  the  national  au 
thority  throughout  all  the  States.     2.  No  receding  from 
the  position  of  the  National  Executive  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.     3.  No  cessation  of  hostilities  short  of  an  end 
of  the  war  and  the  disbanding  of  the  forces  hostile  to  the 
Government     Upon  this  basis  Mr.  Seward  was  to  hear 
whatever  the  commissioners  might  have  to  say,  and  report 
it  to  the  President ;  but  he  was  not  to  definitely  consum 
mate  any  thing.     Under  these  instructions,   Mr.  Seward 
reached  Fortress  Monroe,  where  he  arrived  at  ten  o'clock 
on  the  evening  of  the  1st  of  February.     Upon  the  receipt 
at  the  hands  of  Major  Eckert,  his  messenger,  of  the  terms 
in  which  the  rebel  commissioners  had  couched  their  request 
to  General  Grant  for  a  conference,  the  President  decided 
to  recall  the 'Secretary  of  State  and  terminate  the  attempted 
negotiation;  bat  on  the  receipt  of  a  dispatch  from  Gen- 


650  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

eral  Grant,  expressing  his  personal  "belief  that  the  com 
missioners  were  sincere  in  their  desire  for  peace,  and  his 
strong  conviction  that  a  personal  interview  with  them  on 
the  part  of  the  President  was  highly  desirable,  President 
Lincoln  changed  his  purpose  and  proceeded  at  once  to 
Fortress  Monroe,  where  he  arrived  on  the  evening  of  Feb 
ruary  3d.      A  letter  from  the   three   commissioners  to 
Major  Eckert  was  here  shown  to  him,  in  which  was  em 
bodied  the  note  of  their  instructions  from  Mr.  Davis,  in 
which  they  were  directed  to  confer  concerning  peace  be 
tween  the  "  two  countries."     But  a  subsequent  note,  ad 
dressed  by  them  to  General  Grant,  declared  their  readiness 
to  confer  with  the  President  upon  the  terms  which  he  had 
prescribed,  or  any  terms  and  conditions  which  he  might 
propose,   "not  inconsistent  with  the  essential  principles 
of  self-government  and  popular  rights  on  which  our  in 
stitutions  are  founded."      They   declared  their  earnest 
wish  to  ascertain,  after  a  free  interchange  of  ideas  and 
information,   upon  what  principles  and  terms,  if  any,  a 
just  and  honorable  peace  might  be  secured  without  the 
further  effusion  of  blood ;  and  they  sought  the  conference 
for  that  purpose  and  with  these  views. 

On  the  morning  of  the  3d  of  February,  President  Lin 
coln  and  Secretary  Seward  held  a  conference  with  the 
three  commissioners  of  several  hours'  duration.  It  ended 
without  result.  The  most  authentic  statement  of  what 
occurred  on  that  occasion  is  given  in  the  following  ex 
tract  from  a  dispatch  immediately  transmitted  by  the 
Secretary  of  State  to  Mr.  Adams,  our  minister  in  Eng 
land  :— 

The  Eichmond  party  approached  the  discussion  rather  indirectly,  and 
at  no  time  did  they  make  categorical  demands,  or  tender  formal  stipula 
tions  or  absolute  refusals.  Nevertheless,  during  the  conference,  which 
lasted  four  hours,  the  several  points  at  issue  between  the  Government  and 
the  insurgents  were  distinctly  raised,  and  discussed  fully,  intelligently,  and 
in  an  amicable  spirit.  What  the  insurgent  party  seemed  chiefly  to  favor 
was  a  postponement  of  the  question  of  separation  upon  which  the  war  is 
waged,  and  a  mutual  direction  of  the  efforts  of  the  Government,  as  well 
as  those  of  the  insurgents,  to  some  extrinsic  policy  or  scheme  for  a  sea- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  651 

son,  during  which  passions  might  be  expected  to  subside,  and  the  armies 
be  reduced,  and  trade  and  intercourse  between  the  people  of  the  two  sec 
tions  be  resumed.  It  was  suggested  by  them  that  through  such  postpone 
ment  we  might  now  have  immediate  peace,  with  some  not  very  certain 
prospect  of  an  ultimate  satisfactory  adjustment  of  political  relations  be 
tween  the  Government  and  the  States,  section,  or  people  now  engaged  in 
conflict  with  it. 

The  suggestion,  though  deliberately  considered,  was  nevertheless  re 
garded  by  the  President  as  one  of  armistice  or  truce,  and  he  announced 
that  we  can  agree  to  no  cessation  or  suspension  of  hostilities,  except  on 
the  basis  of  the  disbaudment  of  the  insurgent  forces  and  the  recognition 
of  the  national  authority  throughout  all  the  States  in  the  Union.  Collat 
erally,  and  in  subordination  to  the  proposition  which  was  thus  announced, 
the  anti-slavery  policy  of  the  United  States  was  reviewed  in  all  its  bearings, 
and  the  President  announced  that  he  must  not  be  expected  to  recede  from 
the  positions  he  had  heretofore  assumed  in  his  Proclamation  of  Emancipa 
tion,  and  other  documents,  as  these  positions  were  reiterated  in  his  annual 
message.  It  was  further  declared  by  the  President  that  the  complete 
restoration  of  the  national  authority  everywhere  was  an  indispensable 
condition  of  any  assent  on  our  part  to  whatever  form  of  peace  might  be 
proposed.  The  President  assured  the  other  party  that  while  he  must 
adhere  to  these  positions,  he  would  be  prepared,  so  far  as  power  is  lodged 
with  the  Executive,  to  exercise  liberality.  Its  power,  however,  is  limited 
by  the  Constitution;  and,  when  peaco  should  be  made,  Congress  must 
necessarily  act  in  regard  to  appropriations  of  money,  and  to  the  admission 
of  representatives  from  the  insurrectionary  States. 

The  Richmond  party  were  then  informed  that  Congress  had,  on  the 
31st  ult.,  adopted  by  a  constitutional  majority  a  joint  resolution  submit 
ting  to  the  several  States  the  proposition  to  abolish  slavery  throughout 
the  Union,  and  that  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  that  it  will  be  accept 
ed  by  three-fourths  of  the  States,  so  as  to  become  a  part  of  the  national 
organic  law. 

The  report  of  the  conference  and  its  results,  made  "by 
the  rebel  authorities,  is  embodied  in  the  following  mes 
sage  from  Jefferson  Davis,  which  was  sent  in  to  the  rebel 
Legislature  on  the  5th  of  February  :— 

To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Confederate  States  of 
America : 

Having  recently  received  a  written  notification  which  satisfied  me  that 
the  President  of  the  United  States  was  disposed  to  confer  informally  with 
unofficial  agents  that  might  be  sent  by  me  with  a  view -to  the  restoration 
of  peace,  I  requested  Hon.  Alexander  II.  Stephens,  Hon.  E.  M.  T.  Hun 
ter,  and  Hon.  John  A.  Campbell  to  proceed  through  our  lines  to  hold  a 


652  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

conference  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  or  such  persons  as  he  might  depnto  to  rep 
resent  him. 

I  herewith  submit,  for  the  information  of  Congress,  the  report  of  the 
eminent  citizens  above  named,  showing  that  the  enemy  refuse  to  enter 
into  negotiations  with  the  Confederate  States,  or  any  one  of  them  separately, 
or  to  give  our  people  any  other  terms  or  guarantees  than  those  which  a 
conqueror  may  grant,  or  permit  us  to  have  peace  on  any  other  basis  than 
our  unconditional  submission  to  their  rule,  coupled  with  the  acceptance 
of  their  recent  legislation,  including  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
for  the  emancipation  of  negro  slaves,  and  with  the  right  on  the  part  of 
the  Federal  Congress  to  legislate  on  the  subject  of  the  relations  between 
the  white  and  black  population  of  each  State. 

Such  is,  as  I  understand,  the  effect  of  the  amendment  to  the  Constitution 
which  has  been  adopted  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 

(Signed)  JEFFEKSON  DAVIS. 

EXECUTIVE  OFFICE,  RICHMOND,  February  5,  1805. 

REPORT  OF  THE  REBEL  COMMISSIONERS. 

BICHMOXD,  VIRGINIA,  February  5,  1865. 
To  the  President  of  tlie  Confederate  States : 

SIE  : — Under  your  letter  of  appointment  of  28th  ult.,  we  proceeded  to 
seek  an  informal  conference  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  upon  the  subject  mentioned  in  your  letter. 

The  conference  was  granted,  and  took  place  on  the  3d  inst.,  on  board  a 
steamer  anchored  in  Hampton  Roads,  where  we  met  President  Lincoln 
and  Hon.  Mr.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States.  It  con 
tinued  for  several  hours,  and  was  both  full  and  explicit. 

We  learned  from  them  that  the  message  of  President  Lincoln  to  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  in  December  last  explains  clearly  and  dis 
tinctly  his  sentiments  as  to  terms,  conditions,  and  method  of  proceeding  by 
which  peace  can  be  secured  to  the  people,  and  we  were  not  informed  that 
they  would  be  modified  or  altered  to  obtain  that  end.  We  understood 
from  him  that  no  terms  or  proposals  of  any  treaty  or  agreement  looking 
to  an  ultimate  settlement  would  be  entertained  or  made  by  him  with  the 
authorities  of  the  Confederate  States,  because  that  would  be  a  recognition 
of  their  existence  as  a  separate  power,  which  under  no  circumstances 
would  be  done ;  and  for  like  reasons,  that  no  such  terms  would  be  enter 
tained  by  him  from  States  separately ;  that  no  extended  truce  or  armistice, 
as  at  present  advised,  would  be  granted  or  allowed  without  satisfactory 
assurances  in  advance  of  cozriplete  restoration  of  the  authority  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  over  all  places  within  the  States  of 
the  Confederacy ;  that  whatever  consequences  may  follow  from  the  re-es 
tablishment  of  that  authority  must  be  accepted,  but  the  individuals  subject 
to  pains  and  penalties  under  the  laws  of  the  United  States  might  rely 
upon  a  very  liberal  use  of  the  power  confided  to  him  to  remit  those  pains 
and  penalties,  if  peace  be  restored. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  653 

During  the  conference  the  proposed  amendments  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  adopted  by  Congress  on  the  31st  ult.,  were  brought  to 
our  notice.  These  amendments  provide  that  neither  slavery  nor  involun 
tary  servitude,  except  for  crime,  should  exist  within  the  United  States,  or 
any  place  within  their  jurisdiction,  and  that  Congress  should  have  tho 
power  to  enforce  this  amendment  by  appropriate  legislation. 

Of  all  the  correspondence  that  preceded  the  conference  herein  mention 
ed  and  leading  to  the  same,  you  have  heretofore  been  informed. 
Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servants, 

ALEX.  H.  STEPHENS, 
E.  M.  T.  HUNTER, 
J.  A.  CAMPBELL. 

The  public  rumors  which  were  current  upon  this  sub 
ject  led  to  the  adoption  on  the  8th,  by  the  House  of 
Representatives,  of  a  resolution  calling  upon  the  Presi 
dent  for  information  concerning  the  conference.  To  this 
request  President  Lincoln  responded  on  the  10th,  by 
transmitting  the  following  message  : — 

WASHINGTON,  Febniary  10. 

To  the  Honorable  the  House  of  Representatives : 

In  response  to  your  resolution  of  the  8th  inst.,  requesting  information 
in  relation  to  a  conference  recently  held  in  Hampton  Roads,  I  have  the 
honor  to  state  that  on  the  day  of  the  date,  I  gave  Francis  P.  Blair,  Sr.,  a 
card  written  on  as  follows,  to  wit : — 

Allow  the  bearer,  F.  P.  Blair,  Sr.,  to  pass  our  lines,  go  South,  and 
return.  A.  LINCOLN. 

December  26, 1S64. 

That  at  the  time,  I  was  informed  that  Mr.  Blair  sought  the  card  as  a 
means  of  getting  to  Eichmond,  Va.,  but  he  was  given  no  authority  to 
speak  or  act  for  the  Government,  nor  was  I  informed  of  any  thing  lie 
would  say  or  do,  on  his  own  account  or  otherwise.  Mr.  Blair  told  me 
that  he  had  been  to  Richmond,  and  h.ad  seen  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis,  and  he 
(Mr.  Blair)  at  the  same  time  left  with  me  a  manuscript  letter  as  follows, 
to  wit : — 

RICHMOND,  VA.,  January  12, 1S65. 

F.  P.  BLAIR,  Esq. :  Sir : — I  have  deemed  it  proper,  and  probably  desirable 
to  you,  to  give  you  in  this  form  the  substance  of  the  remarks  made  by 
me  to  be  repeated  by  you  to  President  Lincoln,  &c.,  &c. 

I  have  no  disposition  to  find  obstacles  in  forms,  and  am  willing  now  as 
heretofore  to  enter  into  negotiations  for  the  restoration  of  peace. 

I  am  ready  to  send  a  commission,  whenever  I  have  reason  to  suppose 
it  will  be  received,  or  to  receive  a  commission,  if  the  United  States  Gov 
ernment  shall  choose  to  send  one. 


654  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Notwithstanding  the  rejection  of  our  former  offers,  I  would,  if  yon 
could  promise  that  a  commissioner,  minister,  or  other  agent  would  be 
received,  appoint  one  immediately,  and  renew  the  effort  to  enter  into 
a  conference  with  a  view  to  secure  peace  to  the  two  countries. 

Yours,  &c.,  JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 

Afterwards,  with  the  view  that  it  should  be  shown  to  Mr.  Davis,  I 
wrote,  and  delivered  to  Mr.  Blair,  a  letter  as  follows,  to  wit : — 

"WASHINGTON-,  January  18, 1865. 

F.  P.  BLAIR,  Esq. :  Sir  : — You  having  shown  me  Mr.  Davis's  letter  to  you 
of  the  12th  inst.,  you  may  say  to  him  that  I  have  constantly  been,  am 
now,  and  shall  continue  ready  to  receive  any  agent  whom  he,  or  any 
other  influential  person,  now  resisting  the  national  authority,  may 
informally  send  me,  with  a  view  of  securing  peace  to  the  people  of  our 
common  country.  Yours,  &c.,  A.  LINCOLN. 

Afterwards  Mr.  Blair  dictated  for  and  authorized  me  to  make  an  entry, 
on  the  back  of  my  retained  copy  of  the  letter  last  above  recited,  which 
is  as  follows: — 

January  23,  1S65. 

To-day  Mr.  Blair  tells  me  that  on  the  21st  inst.  he  delivered  to  Mr. 
Davis  the  original,  of  which  the  within  is  a  copy,  and  left  it  with  him ; 
that  at  the  time  of  delivering,  Mr.  Davis  read  it  over  twice,  in  Mr.  Blair's 
presence ;  at  the  close  of  which  he  (Mr.  B.)  remarked,  that  the  part 
about  our  one  common  country  referred  to  the  part  of  Mr.  Davis's  letter 
about  the  two  countries ;  to  which  Mr.  D.  replied  that  he  so  under 
stood  it.  A.  LINCOLN. 

Afterwards  the  Secretary  of  War  placed  in  my  hands  the  following 
telegram,  indorsed  by  him,  as  appears : — 

(Cipher.) 

OFFICE  U.  S.  MILITARY  TELEGRAPH,  WAR  DEPARTMENT. 

The  following  telegram,  was  received  at  Washington,  January  29, 
1865:— 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  JAMES,  6.30  P.  si.,  January  29, 1865. 

Hon.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War : 

The  following  dispatch  is  just  received  from  Major-General  Parke,  who 
refers  to  me  for  my  action.  I  refer  it  to  you,  in  lieu  of  General  Grant's 
absence.  E.  O.  0.  OED,  Major-General  Commanding. 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC,  4  p.  M.,  January  29,  1865. 

Major-General  E.  O.  C.  ORD,  Head-Quarters  of  the  Army  of  the  James : 

The  following  dispatch  is  forwarded  to  you  for  your  action,  since  I 
have  no  knowledge  of  General  Grant's  having  had  any  understanding  of, 
this  kind.  I  refer  the  matter  to  you  as  the  ranking  officer  present  in  the 
two  armies.  JOHN  G.  PARKE,  Major-General  Commanding. 

From  HEAD-QUARTERS  NINTH  ARMY  CORPS,  January  29,  1865. 

Major-General  JOHN  C.  PARKE,  Head-Quarters  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac  : 

Alexander  H.  Stephens,  B.  M.  T.  Hunter,  and  J.  A.  Campbell  desire  to 
cross  my  lines,  in  accordance  with  an  understanding  claimed  to  exist  with 


STATE  PAPEKS  OF  ABRAHAM  LDJCOLN.  655 

v 

Lieutenant-General  Grant,  on  their  way  to  Washington  as  Peace  Com 
missioners.  Shall  they  be  admitted  ?  They  desire  an  early  answer  so  a- 
to  come  through  immediately.  They  would  like  to  reach"  City  Point  to 
night  it  they  can.  If  they  cannot  do  this,  they  would  like  to  come  through 
•it  10  A.  M.  to-morrow. 

O.  B.  WILOOX,  Major- General  Commanding  Ninth  Corps. 

Respectfully  referred  to  the  President,  for  such  instructions  as  he  may 
DC  pleased  to  give.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War 

Jan.  29th,  18G5— 8.30  p.  M. 

It  appears  that  about  the  time  of  placing  the  foregoing  telegram  in 
my  hands,  the  Secretary  of  War  dispatched  General  Ord  as  follows  to 
wit  :— 

WAE  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON  CITY,  January  29,  1865—10  p.  M. 

Major-General  ORD  .-—This  department  has  no  knowledge  of  any  under 
standing  by  General  Grant  to  allow  any  person  to  come  within  his  lines 
as  commissioners  of  any  sort.  You  will  therefore  allow  no  one  to  come 
into  your  lines  under  such  character  or  profession  until  you  receive  the 
President's  instructions,  to  whom  your  telegrams  will  be  submitted  for 
his  directions. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 
(Sent  in  cipher  at  2  A.  M.) 

Afterwards,  by  my  directions,  the  Secretary  of  War  telegraphed  Gen- 
sral  Ord  as  follows,  to  wit : — 

WAE  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON  CITY  D.  C.  ) 
January  30,  1865—10  A.  M. 

Major-General  E.  0.  C.  ORD,  Head-Quarters  Army  of  the  James: 

By  directions  of  the  President,  you  are  instructed  to  inform  the  three 
gentlemen,  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell,  that  a  messenger  will 
be  dispatched  to  them,  at  or  near  where  they  now  are,  without  unneces 
sary  delay.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War. 

Afterwards  I  prepared  and  put  into  the  hands  of  Major  Thomas  T. 
Eckert  the  following  instructions  and  message: — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  January  30, 1S65. 

Major  T.  T.  ECKERT: 

SIR:— You  will  proceed  with  the  documents  placed  in  your  hands,  and 
on  reaching  General  Ord,  will  deliver  him  the  letter  addressed  him  by 
the  Secretary  of  War.  Then,  by  General  Ord's  assistance,  procure  an 
interview  with  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell,  or  any  of  them. 
Deliver  to  him  or  them  the  paper  on  which  your  own  letter  is  written! 
Note  on  the  copy  which  you  retain  the  time  of  delivery,  and  to  whom 
delivered.  Receive  their  answer  in  writing,  waiting  a  reasonable  time 
tor  it,  and  which,  if  it  contains  their  decision  to  come  through  without 
further  conditions,  will  be  your  warrant  to  ask  General  Ord  to  pass  them 
through  as  directed  in  the  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  War.  If  by  their 
answer,  they  decline  to  come  or  propose  other  terms,  do  not  have  them 
passed  through.  And  this  being  your  whole  duty,  return  and  report  to 
Q[le'  Yours  truly, 

A.  LINCOLX. 


656  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Messrs.  ALEXANDER  II.  STEPHENS,  J.  A.  CAMPBELL,  and  R.  M.  T. 

GENTLEMEN  :— I  am  instructed  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  to 
place  this  paper  in  your  hands,  with  the  information  that  if  you  pass 
through  the  United  States  military  lines,  it  will  be  understood  that  you  do 
so  for  the  purpose  of  an  informal  conference  on  the  basis  of  that  letter,  a 
copy  of  which  is  on  the  reverse  side  of  this  sheet ;  and  if  you  choose  to  pass 
on  such  understanding,  and  so  notify  me  in  writing,  I  will  procure  the 
Commanding  General  to  pass  you  through  the  lines  and  to  Fortress  Mon 
roe,  under  such  military  precautions  as  he  may  deem  prudent,  and  at  which 
place  you  will  be  met  in  due  time  by  some  person  or  persons  for  the  pur 
pose  of  such  informal  conference.  And  further,  that  you  shall  have  pro 
tection,  safe-conduct,  and  safe  return  in  all  events. 

THOS.  T.  EOKERT,  Major  and  Aide-de-  Camp. 

CITY  POINT,  Virginia,  February  1,  1865. 

The  letter  referred  to  by  Major  Eckert:— 

F.  P.  BLAIR,  Esq. : 

SIE: You  having  shown  me  Mr.  Davis's  letter  to  you  of  the  12th  inst., 

you  may  say  to  him  that  I  have  constantly  been,  am  now,  and  shall  con 
tinue  ready  to  receive  any  agent  whom  he,  or  any  other  influential  per 
son  now  resisting  the  national  authority,  may  informally  send  to  me  with 
the  view  of  securing  peace  to  the  people  of  our  common  country. 

Yours,  &c.,  &.  LINCOLN. 

Afterwards,  but  before  Major  Eckert  had  departed,  the  following  dispatch 
was  received  from  General  Grant : — 

OFFICE  U.  S.  MILITARY  TELEGRAPH,  WAK  DEPARTMENT. 

[Cipher.] 

The  following  telegram  was  received  at  "Washington,  January  31,  1865, 
from  City  Point,  Virginia,  10.30  A.  M.,  January  31,  1865  :— 
His  Excellency  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  of  the  United  States  : 

The  following  communication  was  received  here  last  evening : — 

PETERSBURG,  VIRGINIA,  January  30, 1865. 

Lieutenant-General  U.  S.  GRANT,  Commanding  Armies  U.  S. : 

SIR  : — We  desire  to  pass  your  lines  under  safe-conduct,  and  to  proceed 
to  Washington  to  hold  a  conference  with  President  Lincoln  upon  the  sub 
ject  of  the  existing  war,  and  with  a  view  of  ascertaining  upon  what  terms 
it  may  be  terminated,  in  pursuance  of  the  course  indicated  by  him  in  his 
letter  to  Mr.  Blair  of  January  18,  1805,  of  which  we  presume  you  have  a 
copy ;  and  if  not,  we  wish  to  see  you  in  person,  if  convenient,  and  to  confer 
with  you  on  the  subject. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS, 
J.  A.  CAMPBELL, 
R.  M.  T.  HUNTER. 

I  have  sent  directions  to  receive  these  gentlemen,  and  expect  to  have 
thorn  at  my  quarters  this  evening  awaiting  your  instructions. 

U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieutenant- General  Commanding  Armus  U.S. 


STATS  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  657 

This,  it  will  be  perceived,  transferred  General  Ord's  agency  in  the  matter 
to  General  Grant  I  resolved,  however,  to  send  Major  Eckert  forward 
with  his  message,  and  accordingly  telegraphed  General  Grant  as  follows, 
to  wit : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  "WASHINGTON,  January  31,  18G5. 

Lieutenant-General  GRANT,  City  Point,  Virginia : 

A  messenger  is  coming  to  you  on  the  business  contained  in  your  dis 
patch.  Detain  the  gentlemen  in  comfortable  quarters  until  he  arrives, 
and  then  act  upon  the  message  he  brings  as  far  as  applicable,  it  having  been 
made  up  to  pass  through  General  Ord's  hands,  and  when  the  gentlemen 
were  supposed  to  be  beyond  our  lines. 

[Sept  in  cipher  at  1.30  p.  M.]  A.  LINCOLN. 

When  Major  Eckert  departed  he  bore  with  him  a  letter  of  the  Secretary 
of  War  to  General  Grant,  as  follows,  to  wit  :— 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  January  30, 1SG5. 

Lieutenant-General  GRANT,  Commanding,  &c. : 

GENERAL:— The  President  desires  that  you  will  please  procure  for  the 
bearer,  Major  Thos.  T.  Eckert,  an  interview  with  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter, 
and  Campbell ;  and  if  on  his  return  to  you  he  requests  it,  pass  them  through 
our  lines  to  Fortress  Monroe,  by  such  route  and  under  such  military  pre 
cautions  as  you  may  deem  prudent,  giving  them  protection  and  comfort 
able  quarters  while  there ;  and  that  you  let  none  of  this  have  any  effect 
upon  your  movements  or  plans. 
By  order  of  the  President : 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

Supposing  the  proper  point  to  be  then  reached,  I  dispatched  the  Secre 
tary  of  State  with  the  following  instructions— Major  Eckert,  however, 
going  ahead  of  him  : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  January  81,  1865. 

Honorable  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State  : 

You  will  proceed  to  Fortress  Monroe,  Virginia,  there  to  meet  and  for 
mally  confer  with  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell,  on  the  basis  of 
my  letter  to  F.  P.  Blair,  Esq.,  of  January  18,  1865,  a  copy  of  which  you 
have.  You  will  make  known  to  them  that  three  things  are  indispensable,  to 
wit:  First,  the  restoration  of  the  national  authority  throughout  all  the  States. 


short  of  an  end  of  the  war,  and  the  disbanding  of  all  the  forces  hostile  to 
the  Government.  You  will  inform  them  that  all  the  propositions  of  theirs 
not  ^inconsistent  with  the  above  will  be  considered  and  passed  upon  in  a 
spirit  of  sincere  liberality.  You  will  hear  all  they  may  choose  to  say,  and 
report  it  to  me.  You  will  not  assume  to  definitely  consummate  any  thing. 
Yours,  &c.,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

On  the  day  of  its  date,  the  following  telegram  was  sent  to  General 
Grant:— 


6tr»8  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  February  1,  1S6S. 

Lieutenant-General  GRANT,  City  Point,  Va. : 

Let  nothing  which  is  transpiring  change,  hinder,  or  delay  your  military 
movements  or  plans. 

[Sent  in  cipher  at  9. BO  A.  M.]  A.  LINCOLN. 

Afterwards  the  following  dispatch  was  received  from  General  Grant: — 

[In  cipher.] 

OFFICE  U.  8.  MILITARY  TELEGRAPH,  WAR  DEPARTMENT. 

The  following  telegram  was  received  at  Washington,  at  2.30  P.M., 
February  1,  1865,  from  City  Point  Va.,  February  1,  12.30  p.  M.,  18G5  :— 

His  Excellency  A.  LINCOLN, 

President  of  the  United  States  : 

Your  dispatch  received.  There  will  be  no  armistice  in  consequence  of 
the  presence  of  Mr.  Stephens  and  others  within  our  lines.  The  troops  aro 
kept  in  readiness  to  move  at  the  shortest  notice,  if  occasion  should  justify 
jt<  U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieut. -General. 

To  notify  Major  Eckert  that  the  Secretary  of  State  would  be  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  and  to  put  them  in  communication,  the  following  dispatch  waa 

sent : — 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  February  1, 18G5. 

Major  T.  T.  ECKERT, 

Care  General  GRANT,  City  Point,  Va. : 

Call  at  Fortress  Monroe,  and  put  yourself  under  direction  of  Mr.  S., 
whom  you  will  find  there.  A-  LINCOLN. 

On  the  morning  of  the  2d  instant,  the  following  telegrams  were  received 
by  me  respectively  from  the  Secretary  of  War  and  Major  Eckert  :— 

FORT  MONBOE,  VA.,  February  1,  1865—11.30  p.  M. 

To  the  President  of  the  United  States : 

Arrived  at  ten  this  evening.  Richmond  friends  not  here.  I  remain 
here.  w-  1L  SKWAED' 

CITY  POINT,  VA.,  February  1,  1SC5— 10  P.  M. 

To  his  Excellency  the  President  of  the  United  States: 

I  have  the  honor  to  report  the  delivery  of  your  communication  and  my 
letter  at  4.15  this  afternoon,  to  which  I  received  a  reply  at  six  P.  M., 
but  not  satisfactory.  At  eight  o'clock  p.  M.  the  following  note,  addressed 
to  General  Grant,  was  received : — 

OTY  POINT,  VA.,  February  1, 18C5. 
To  Lieutenant-General  GRANT: 

SlK  .__We  desire  to  go  to  Washington  City  to  confer  informally  with  the  President  persor 
in  reference  to  the  matters  mentioned  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Blair  of  the  18th  of  January  ultima 
without  uuy  personal  compromise  on  any  question  in  the  letter    We  have  the  permission  to  d 
BO  from  the  authorities  at  Richmond. 

Very  respectfully  yours,  ALEX.  II.  STEPHENS, 

E.  M.  T.  Hu.NTsn. 
J.  A.  CAMPBELL. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  659 

At  9.30  p.  M.  I  notified  them  that  they  could  not  proceed  further 
unless  they  complied  with  the  terms  expressed  in  my  letter.  The  point 
ot  meeting  designated  in  the  above  note  would  not,  in  my  opinion, 
be  insisted  upon.  Fort  Monroe  would  be  acceptable.  Having  complied 
with  my  instructions,  I  will  return  to  Washington  to-morrow,  unless 
otherwise  ordered.  THOMAS  T.  ECKERT,  Major,  &c. 

On  reading  this  dispatch  of  Major  Eckert,  I  was  about  to  recall  him  and 
the  Secretary  of  State,  when  the  following  telegram  of  General  Grant  to 
the  Secretary  of  War  was  shown  me : — 

[In  cipher.] 

OFFIOK  OF  THE  U.  8.  MILITARY  TELEGRAPH,      I 
WAR  DEPARTMENT.  f 

The  following  telegram  received  at  Washington  at  4.35  p.  M.  Feb 
ruary  2,  1865,  from  City  Point,  Va.,  February  1,  10.30  p.  M.,  1865  :— 

Hon.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War : 

Now  that  the  interview  between  Major  Eckert,  under  his  written  in 
structions,  and  Mr.  Stephens  and  party,  has  ended,  I  will  state  confiden 
tially,  but  not  officially  to  become  a  matter  of  record,  that  I  am  convinced, 
upon  conversation  with  Messrs.  Stephens  and  Hunter,  that  their  intentions 
are  good,  and  their  desire  sincere  to  restore  peace  and  union.  I  have  not 
felt  myself  at  liberty  to  express  even  views  of  my  own,  or  to  account  for 
my  reticence.  This  has  placed  me  in  an  awkward  position,  which  I  could 
have  avoided  by  not  seeing  them  in  the  first  instance.  I  fear  now  their 
going  back  without  any  expression  to  any  one  in  authority  will  have  a 
bad  influence.  At  the  same  time,  I  recognize  the  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  receiving  these  informal  commissioners  at  this  time,  and  I  do  not  know 
what  to  recommend.  I  am  sorry,  however,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  cannot  have 
an  interview  with  the  two  named  in  this  dispatch,  if  not  all  three  now 
within  our  lines.  Their  letter  to  me  was  all  that  the  President's  instruc 
tions  contemplated  to  secure  their  safe-conduct,  if  they  had  used  the 
same  language  to  Major  Eckert.  U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieut.- General. 

This  dispatch  of  General  Grant  changed  my  purpose,  and  accordingly  I 
telegraphed  him  and  the  Secretary  of  War,  as  follows : — 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  February  2, 1S65. 

Lieutenant-General  GRANT,  City  Point,  Va. : 

Say  to  the  gentlemen  that  I  will  meet  them  personally  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  as  soon  as  I  can  get  there. 

[Sent  in  cipher  at  9  A.  M.]  A.  LINCOLN. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  February  2,  1SG5. 

Hon.  WM.  H.  SEWARD,  Fortress  Monroe,  Va. : 

Induced  by  a  dispatch  from  General  Grant,  I  join  you  afc  Fortress 
Monroe  as  soon  as  I  can  come. 

[Sent  in  cipher  at  9  A.  M.]  A.  LINCOLN. 

Before  starting,  the  following  dispatch  was  shown  me.  I  proceeded, 
nevertheless : — 

[Cipher.] 

OFFICE  U.  S.  MILITARY  TELEGRAPH,  WAR  DEPARTMENT. 

The  following  telegram,  received   at  Washington,  February  2,  1865,    ' 
from  City  Point,  Va,,  9  A.  M.,  February  2,  1865 :— 


660  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

/ 

Hon.  WM.  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

[Copy.] 

FOET  MONROK. 

To  Hon.  EDWIX  M.  STANTON, 

Secretary  of  War,  Washington : 

The  gentlemen  here  have  accepted  the  proposed  terms,  and  will  leave 
for  Fortress  Monroe  at  9.30  A.  M. 

U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieut. -General. 

On  the  night  of  the  2d  I  reached  Hampton  Roads ;  found  the  Secretary 
of  State  and  Major  Eckert  on  a  steamer  anchored  off  the  shore,  and  learned 
of  them  that  the  Richmond  gentlemen  were  on  another  steamer,  also  an 
chored  off  shore  in  the  Roads,  and  that  the  Secretary  of  State  hud  not  yet 
seen  or  communicated  with  them.  I  ascertained  that  Major  Eckert  had 
literally  complied  with  his  instructions,  and  I  saw  for  the  first  time  the 
answer  of  the  Richmond  gentlemen  to  him,  which,  in  his  dispatch  to  me 
of  the  1st,  he  characterized  as  not  satisfactory.  That  answer  is  as  follows, 
to  wit : — 

CITY  POINT,  VA.,  February  1, 1865. 

THOMAS  T.  ECKERT,  Major  and  A.  D.  0. : 

MAJOR: — Your  note  delivered  by  yourself  this  day  has  been  considered. 
In  reply,  we  have  to  say  that  we  were  furnished  with  a  copy  of  the  letter 
of  President  Lincoln  to  Francis  P.  Blair,  of  the  18th  of  January  ult., 
another  copy  of  which  is  appended  to  your  note.  Our  instructions  are 
contained  in  a  letter  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy : — 

RICHMOND,  January  28, 1865. 

In  conformity  with  the  letter  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  of  which  the  foregoing  is  a  copy,  you  are  to  pro 
ceed  to  Washington  City  for  informal  conference  with  him  upon  the  issues  involved  in  the  ex 
isting  war,  and  for  the  purpose  of  securing  peace  to  the  two  countries. 

With  great  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

JEFFERSON  DAVIS. 

The  substantial  object  to  be  obtained  by  the  informal  conference,  is  to 
ascertain  upon  what  terms  the  existing  war  can  be  terminated  honorably. 
Our  instructions  contemplate  a  personal  interview  between  President 
Lincoln  and  ourselves  at  Washington ;  but,  with  this  explanation,  we  are 
ready  to  meet  any  person  or  persons  that  President  Lincoln  may  appoint, 
at  such  place  as  he  may  designate.  Our  earnest  desire  is  that  a  just  and 
honorable  peace  may  be  agreed  upon,  and  we  are  prepared  to  receive  or 
to  submit  propositions  which  may  possibly  lead  to  the  attainment  of  that 
end. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS, 
R.  M.  T.  HUNTER, 
JOHN  A.  CAMPBELL. 

A  note  of  these  gentlemen,  subsequently  addressed  to  General  Grant, 
lias  already  been  given  in  Major  Eckert's  dispatch  of  the  1st  inst.  I  also 
saw  here  for  the  first  time  the  following  note,  addressed  by  the  Richmond 
gentlemen  to  Major  Eckert: — 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  66 J 

CITY  POINT,  VA.,  February  2,  1865. 

THOMAS  T.  ECKERT,  Major  and  A.  D.  0. : 

MAJOR  : — In  reply  to  your  verbal  statement  that  your  instructions  did  not 
allow  you  to  alter  the  conditions  upon  which  a  passport  could  bo  given 
to  us,  we  say  that  we  are  willing  to  proceed  to  Fortress  Monroe,  and  there 
to  have  an  informal  conference  with  any  person  or  persons  that  President 
Lincoln  may  appoint  on  the  basis  of  his  letter  to  Francis  P.  Blair  of  the 
18th  of  January  ult.,  or  upon  any  other  terms  or  conditions  that  he  may 
hereafter  propose,  not  inconsistent  with  the  essential  principles  of  self- 
government  and  popular  rights  upon  which  our  institutions  are  founded. 
It  is  our  earnest  wish  to  ascertain,  after  a  free  interchange  of  ideas  and 
information,  upon  what  principles  and  terms,  if  any,  a  just  and  honorable 
peace  can  be  established  without  the  effusion  of  blood,  and  to  contribute 
our  utmost  efforts  to  accomplish  such  a  result.  We  think  it  better  to  add 
that,  in  accepting  your  passport,  we  are  not  to  be  understood  as  commit 
ting  ourselves  to  any  thing,  but  to  carry  into  this  informal  conference  the 
views  and  feelings  above  expressed. 

Very  respectfully  yours,  &c., 

ALEXANDER  II.  STEPHENS, 
J.  A.  CAMPBELL, 
R.  M.  T.  HUNTER. 

NOTE.— The  above  communication  was  delivered  to  me  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  at  4.30  P.  M.,  February  2,  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Babcock,  of 
General  Grant's  staff. 

THOMAS  T.  EOKEET,  Adft  and  A.  D.  G. 

On  the  morning  of  the  3d,  the  three  gentlemen,  Messrs.  Stephens,  Hun 
ter,  and  Campbell,  came  aboard  of  our  steamer,  and  had  an  interview 
with  the  Secretary  of  State  and  myself  of  several  hours'  duration.  No 
question  or  preliminaries  to  the  meeting  was  then  and  there  made  or 
mentioned.  No  other  person  was  present.  No  papers  were  exchanged 
or  produced ;  and  it  was  in  advance  agreed  that  the  conversation  was  to 
be  informal  and  verbal  merely.  On  our  part,  the  whole  substance  of  tho 
instructions  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  hereinbefore  recited,  was  stated 
and  insisted  upon,  and  nothing  was  said  inconsistent  therewith.  While 
by  the  other  party  it  was  not  said  that  in  any  event,  or  on  any  condition, 
they  ever  would  consent  to  reunion ;  and  yet  they  equally  omitted  to 
declare  that  they  would  not  so  consent.  They  seemed  to  desire  a 
postponement  of  that  question,  and  the  adoption  of  some  other  course 
first,  which,  as  some  of  them  seemed  to  argue,  might  or  might  not  lead 
to  reunion,  but  which  course  we  thought  would  amount  to  an  indefinite 
postponement.  The  conference  ended  without  result. 

The  foregoing,  containing,  as  is  believed,  all  the  information  sought,  is 
respectfully  submitted.  ABKAHAM  LINCOLN. 

In  this  instance,  as  in  the  previous  case  of  Mr.  Greeley, 
the  President  had  found  himself  constrained  by  the  intru 
sive  interference  of  an  individual  citizen,  to  open  negotia 
tions  for  which,  in  his  judgment,  neither  the  rebels  nor 


662  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

the  nation  at  large  were  at  all  prepared.  No  man  in  the 
country  was  more  vigilant  than  he  in  watching  for  the 
moment  when  hopes  of  peace  might  wisely  be  entertained  ; 
"but,  as  he  had  resolved  under  no  circumstances  to  accept 
any  thing  short  of  an  unconditional  acknowledgment  of 
the  supreme  authority  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  United  States  as  the  basis  of  peace,  he  deerred  it  of 
the  utmost  consequence  that  the  rebel  authorities  should 
not  be  led  to  suppose  that  we  were  discouraged  by  the 
slow  progress  of  the  war,  or  that  we  were  in  the  least 
inclined  to  treat  for  peace  on  any  other  terms  than  those 
he  had  laid  down.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  he  had 
declined  to  publish  his  correspondence  with  Mr.  Greeleyj 
unless  expressions  in  the  latter' s  letters,  calculated  to 
create  this  impression  in  the  rebel  States,  could  be  omitted. 
Acting  from  the  same  motives,  he  had  given  Mr.  Blair  no 
authority  to  approach  the  rebel  authorities  on  his  behalf 
upon  the  subject  of  peace  in  any  way  whatever.  He 
gave  him,  to  use  his  own  words  uttered  in  a  subsequent 
conversation,  "no  mission,  but  only  ^r-mission."  He 
was  probably  not  unwilling  to  learn,  from  so  acute  and 
experienced  a  political  observer  as  Mr.  Blair,  something 
of  the  temper  and  purpose  of  the  leading  men  in  the 
Rebel  Government,  for  their  public  declarations  upon  this 
subject  were  not  felt  to  be  altogether  reliable;  and  the 
knowledge  we  had  of  their  straitened  means,  and  of  the 
difficulty  they  experienced  in  renewing  the  heavy  losses 
in  the  ranks  of  their  army,  strengthened  the  belief  that 
they  might  not  be  indisposed  for  submission  to  the  national 
authority. 

Subsequent  disclosures  have  proved  the  correctness  of 
these  suspicions.  It  is  now  known  that  some  of  the  more 
sagacious  and  candid  of  the  rebel  leaders  had  even  then 
abandoned  all  hope  of  success,  and  were  only  solicitous 
for  some  way  of  closing  the  war,  which  should  not  wound 
too  keenly  the  pride  and  self-respect  of  the  people  of  the 
rebel  States.  It  \vas  due  to  their  efforts  that,  in  spite  of 
the  obstinacy  with  which  Jefferson  Davis  insisted  upon 
the  recognition  of  his  official  character,  involving  the  rec- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  G63 

ogniiiou  of  the  South  as  an  independent  nation,  an  inter 
view  with  the  President  and  Secretary  Seward  was  ob 
tained.  But  they  did  not  secure  the  consent  of  their  Ex 
ecutive  to  negotiate  upon  the  only  basis  which  Mr.  Lin 
coln  would  for  a  moment  admit — the  absolute  and 
acknowledged  supremacy  of  the  National  Government ; 
and  the  whole  scheme,  therefore,  fell  to  the  ground.* 

The  attempt  at  negotiation,  however,  served  a  useful 
purpose.  It  renewed  the  confidence  of  the  people 
throughout  the  loyal  States  in  the  President' s  unalterable 
determination  to  maintain  the  Union,  while  it  proved  his 
willingness  to  end  the  war  whenever  that  great  and  para 
mount  object  could  be  secured  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  it 
dispelled  the  delusive  hopes,  with  which  the  rebel  lead 
ers  had  so  long  inspired  the  hearts  of  the  great  body  of 
the  Southern  people,  that  peace  was  possible  with  the  in 
dependence  of  the  Southern  States.  The  attempt  of  Mr. 
Davis,  in  the  message  we  have  already  .cited, f  to  "fire 
the  Southern  heart"  afresh,  by  his  vivid  picture  of  the 
tyrannical  and  insulting  exactions  of  President  Lincoln, 
was  utterly  fruitless.  His  appeals  fell  upon  wearied  ears 
and  despondent  hearts. 

Other  important  affairs  had  also  arisen  to  occupy  the 

*  Since  the  overthrow  of  the  rebellion  an  account  of  this  conference  has 
been  published  in  the  Augusta  (Ga.)  Chronick,  said  to  have  been  prepared  under 
the  supervision  of  Mr.  A.  H.  Stephens.  It  adds  nothing  material  to  the  facts 
already  known,  but  the  following  paragraphs  are  not  without  interest : — 

"Davis  bad  on  this  occasion,  as  on  that  of  Mr.  Stephens's  visit  to  Washington,  made  it  a 
condition  that  no  conference  should  be  had  unless  his  rank  as  commander  or  President  should 
first  be  recognized.  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  that  the  only  ground  upon  which  he  could  rest  the- 
justice  of  the  war — either  with  his  own  people  or  with  foreign  powers — was,  that  it  was  not 
ft  war  for  conquest,  but  that  the  States  never  had  been  separated  from  the  Union.  Conse 
quently,  he  could  not  recognize  another  government  inside  of  the  one  of  which  he  alone  was 
President,  nor  admit  the  separate  independence  of  States  that  were  yet  a  part  of  the  Union. 
'That,'  said  he,  'would  be  doing  what  you  so  long  asked  Europe  to  do  in  vain,  and  be  resigning 
the  only  thing  the  armies  of  the  Union  are  fighting  for.' 

"Mr.  Hunter  made  a  long  reply,  insisting  that  the  recognition  of  Davis's  power  tc  make  a 
treaty  was  the  first  and  indispensable  step  to  peace,  and  referring  to  the  correspondence  between 
King  Charles  the  First  and  his  Parliament  as  a  reliable  precedent  of  a  constitutional  ruler  treat 
ing  with  rebels. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln's  face  then  wore  that  indescribable  expression  which  generally  preceded  his  hard 
est  hits,  and  he  remarked  :  '  Upon  questions  of  history  I  must  refer  you  to  Mr.  Sowar  J,  for  he 
is  posted  in  such  things,  and  I  don't  profess  to  be.  But  my  only  distinct  recollection  oi  thi) 
matter  is,  that  Charles  lost  his  head.'  That  settled  Mr.  Hunter  for  a  w-btle." 

f  Page  578. 


G64  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

thoughts  of  the  people  during  the  pendency  of  the  peace 
negotiations.  The  resolution  which  had  passed  the  House 
on  January  31st,  directing  that  the  electoral  votes  of  cer 
tain  States  which  had  joined  the  rebellion  should  not 
be  counted,  came  up  before  the  Senate.  An  effort  was 
made,  but  failed,  to  strike  out  Louisiana  from  the  list  of 
the  rejected  States.  Other  amendments  were  offered,  but 
rejected,  and  the  resolution  was  adopted  as  it  passed  the 
House.  It  was  also  signed  by  the  President,  but  he  sent 
to  Congress  the  following  message  concerning  it : — 

To  the  Honorable  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States : 

The  joint  resolution,  entitled  "  A  joint  resolution  declaring  certain  States 
not  entitled  to  representation  in  the  Electoral  College,"  has  been  signed 
by  the  Executive  in  deference  to  the  view  of  Congress  implied  in  its  pas 
sage  and  presentation  to  me.  In  his  own  view,  however,  the  two  Houses 
of  Congress  convened  under  the  twelfth  article  of  the  Constitution  have 
complete  power  to  exclude  from  counting  all  electoral  votes  deemed  by 
them  to  be  illegal,  and  it  is  not  competent  for  the  Executive  to  defeat  or 
obstruct  the  power  by  a  veto,  as  would  be  the  case  if  his  action  were  at 
all  essential  in  the  matter.  He  disclaims  all  right  of  the  Executive  to  in 
terfere  in  any  way  in  the  matter  of  canvassing  or  counting  the  electoral 
votes,  and  he  also  disclaims  that  by  signing  said  resolution  he  has  expressed 
any  opinion  on  the  recitals  of  the  preamble,  or  any  judgment  of  his  own 
upon  the  subject  of  the  resolution.  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  February  8,  1865. 

On  Wednesday,  the  8th  of  February,  the  Senate  and  the 
House  met  in  joint  convention  for  the  purpose  of  count 
ing  the  electoral  votes.  The  t\vo  bodies  having  convened, 
the  certificates  of  election  were  opened  by  Vice-President 
Hamlin.  Electoral  votes  from  Louisiana  and  Tennessee 
were  presented,  but,  in  obedience  to  the  resolution  just 
mentioned,  they  were  not  counted.  The  total  number  of 
votes  counted  was  two  hundred  and  thirty-three,  of  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Johnson  had  received  two  hundred 
and  twelve,  and  they  were  accordingly  declared  to  have 
been  elected  President  and  Vice-President  for  the  ensuing 
four  years,  commencing  on  the  4th  of  March.  The  new 
State  of  Nevada  had  cast  but  two  votes,  her  third  elector 
having  been  absent  on  the  day  of  the  meeting. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.       \    665 

Prominent  among  the  measures  passed  by  Congress  du 
ring  the  remainder  of  the  session  was  the  bill  establishing 
a  Freedmen's  Bureau. 

A  resolution  offered  by  Mr.  Sumner,  and  passed,  excited 
a  good  deal  of  interest  in  England.  It  declared  that  the 
rebel  debt  or  loan  was  "  simply  an  agency  of  the  rebel 
lion,  which  the  United  States  can  never  under  any  cir 
cumstances  recognize  in  any  part,  or  in  any  way."  To 
the  parties  who  had  taken  the  rebel  loan  thinking  that 
the  South  was  sure  t)  succeed,  or  at  least  to  secure  some 
terms  of  peace  which  would  provide  for  the  assumption 
of  the  rebel  debt,  this  resolution,  coming  as  it  did  after 
such  great  military  successes  on  our  part,  was  the  re 
verse  of  cheering. 

Two  messages  were  sent  to  Congress  by  the  President 
in  reference  to  approaching  International  Exhibitions  in 
Norway  and  in  Portugal,  and  a  resolution  was  passed  re 
questing  the  President  to  call  upon  the  citizens  to  join  in 
them. 

The  House  passed  a  bill  repealing  so  much  of  the  Con 
fiscation  Act  passed  July  17,  1862,  244,  as  prohibited  the 
forfeiture  of  the  real  estate  of  rebels  beyond  their  natural 
lives.  But  the  Senate  failed  to  take  similar  action,  and 
the  law,  therefore,  remained  unchanged. 

Resolutions  were  reported  to  the  Senate  by  the  Com 
mittee  on  Military  Affairs,  that  soldiers  discharged  for 
sickness  or  wounds  should  be  preferred  for  appointment 
to  civil  offices,  and  recommending  citizens  generally  to 
give  them  a  similar  preference  in  their  private  business. 
The  President  was  in  full  sympathy  with  the  feeling  which 
led  to.  this  action,  as  appears,  by  the  following  order, 
which  he  made  for  the  appointment  of  a  Mrs.  Bushnell 
as  postmistress  at  Sterling,  Illinois  :— 

Mr.  Washburne  has  presented  to  me  all  the  papers  in  this  case,  and 
finding  Mrs.  Bushnell  as  well  recommended  as  any  other,  and  she  being 
the  widow  of  a  soldier  who  fell  in  battle  for  the  Union,  let  her  be  ap 
pointed.  A.  LINCOLN. 

The  question  of  the  recognition  of  the  State  Govern 
ments  in,  and  the  admission  of  Senators  and  Representa- 


666  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  ANI> 

tives  from,  Louisiana  and  Arkansas  was  brought  up  in  both 
Houses,  but  was  not  pressed  to  a  vote,  though  reports 
were  made  in  favor  of  such  recognition  and  admission. 

The  Tariff  Bill  was  modified,  a  bill  for  a  loan  of  $600,- 
000,000  was  passed,  with  many  other  bills  of  less  impor 
tance,  and  on  the  3d  of  March  Congress  adjourned  sine  die. 

The  Senate,  however,  was  at  once  convened  in  extra 
session,  by  a  proclamation  issued  by  the  President  on 
February  17th,  as  follows  :— 

DEI-ASTMENT  OF  BTATB. 

PROCLAMATION. 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

Whereas,  objects  of  interest  to  the  United  States  require  that  the  Senate 
should  be  convened  at  twelve  o'clock  on  the  4th  of  March  next,  to  re 
ceive  and  act  upon  such  communications  as  may  be  made  to  it  on  the  part 
of  the  Executive : 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
have  considered  it  to  be  my  duty  to  issue  my  proclamation,  declaring  that 
an  extraordinary  occasion  requires  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  to  con 
vene  for  the  transaction  of  business  at  the  Capitol,  in  the  City  of  Wash 
ington,  on  the  4th  day  of  March  next,  at  noon  on  that  day,  of  which  all 
who  shall  at  that  time  be  entitled  to  act  as  members  of  that  body,  are 
hereby  required  to  take  notice. 

Given  under  my  hand  and  the  seal  of  the  United  States,  at  Washing 
ton,  this  seventeenth  day  of  February,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
[L.  s.]     one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and  of  the  independ 
ence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty-ninth. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President : 

WM.  II.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

The  military  operations  during  February  continued  to 
furnish  cheering  successes.  The  peace  conference  had 
not  been  suffered  to  interfere  in  the  least  with  military 
movements.  The  rebel  commissioners  were  hardly  within 
their  lines  before  General  Grant  made  another  movement, 
taking  and  holding,  though  not  without  severe  loss, 
another  of  the  roads  leading  southwardly  out  of  Peters 
burg,  called  the  Vaughan  Road,  and  giving  our  troops 
command  of  yet  another  called  the  Boydton  Plankroad. 
A  very  encouraging  symptom  of  the  situation  was  the 
increasing  number  of  desertions  from  the  rebel  ranks, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          667 

by  which  General  Lee's  army  was  steadily  and  seriously 
diminishing. 

Our  own  forces  meanwhile  were  being  continually  aug 
mented  by  new  recruits,  which  were  rapidly  obtained,  by 
the  strong  exertions  made  in  every  district  to  avoid  a 
draft.  Many  questions  arose  and  had  to  be  decided  by 
the  President  in  reference  to  the  draft.  The  following 
Letter  from  him  to  Governor  Smith,  of  Vermont,  was  called 
forth  by  complaints  that  its  burdens  were  not  equally 
distributed  :— 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  February  8, 1SG5. 

His  Excellency  Governor  SMITH,  of  Vermont : 

Complaint  is  made  to  me,  by  Vermont,  that  the  assignment  of  her 
quota  for  the  draft  on  the  pending  call  is  intrinsically  unjust,  and  also  in 
bad  faith  of  the  Government's  promise  to  fairly  allow  credits  for  men 
previously  furnished.  To  illustrate,  a  supposed  case  is  stated  as  fol 
lows  : — 

Vermont  and  New  Hampshire  must  between  them  furnish  six  thousand 
men  on  the  pending  call;  and  being  equal,  each  must  furnish  as  many-as 
the  other  in  the  long  run.  But  the  Government  finds  that  on  former  calls 
Vermont  furnished  a  surplus  of  five  hundred,  and  New  Hampshire  a  sur 
plus  of  fifteen  hundred.  These  two  surpluses  making  two  thousand,  and 
added  to  the  six  thousand,  making  eight  thousand  to  be  furnished  by  the 
two  States,  or  four  thousand  each,  less  by  fair  credits.  Then  subtract 
Vermont's  surplus  of  five  hundred  from  her  four  thousand,  leaves  three 
thousand  five  hundred  as  her  quota  on  the  pending  call;  and  likewise 
subtract  New  Hampshire's  surplus  of  fifteen  hundred  from  her  four  thou 
sand,  leaves  two  thousand  five  hundred  as  her  quota  on  the  pending  call. 
These  three  thousand  five  hundied  and  two  thousand  five  hundred  make 
precisely  six  thousand,  which  the  supposed  case  requires  from  the  two 
States,  and  it  is  just  equal  for  Vermont  to  furnish  one  thousand  moro 
now  than  New  Hampshire,  because  New  Hampshire  has  heretofore  fur 
nished  one  thousand  more  than  Vermont,  which  equalizes  the  burdens 
of  the  two  in  the  long  run.  And  this  result,  so  far  from  being  bad  faith 
to  Vermont,  is  indispensable  to  keeping  good  faith  with  New  Hampshire. 
By  no  other  result  can  the  six  thousand  men  be  obtained  from  the  two 
States,  and  at  the  same  time  deal  justly  and  keep  faith  with  both,  and  we 
do  but  confuse  ourselves  in  questioning  the  process  by  which  the  right 
result  is  reached.  The  supposed  case  is  perfect  as  an  illustration. 

The  pending  call  is  not  for  three  hundred  thousand  men  subject  to  fair 
credits,  but  is  for  three  hundred  thousand  remaining  after  all  fair  credits 
have  been  deducted,  and  it  is  impossible  to  concede  what  Vermont  aska 
without  coming  out  short  of  three  hundred  thousand  men,  or  making 
other  localities  pay  for  the  partiality  shown  her. 


668  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

This  upon  the  case  stated.  If  there  be  different  reasons  for  making  au 
allowance  to  Vermont,  let  them  be  presented  and  considered. 

Yours  truly,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  success  at  Fort  Fisher  was  abty  followed  up  by 
General  Terry.  One  "by  one  the  rebel  forts  on  the  Cape 
Fear  River  fell  into  our  hands,  and  on  the  22d  of  Febru 
ary  Wilmington  was  evacuated,  and  was  occupied  by  our 
troops  without  a  struggle. 

Heavy  cavalry  expeditions  were  prepared  and  sent  out 
through  the  Southwest,  in  different  directions,  and  made 
good  progress.  But  the  crowning  glory  of  the  month 
was  the  success  of  Sherman's  march  through  South  Caro 
lina.  Starting  from  Savannah,  he  moved  northwest 
through  swamps  which  were  thought  impassable  for  an 
army,  forced  the  line  of  the  Salkehatchie  River,  pressed 
on  into  the  heart  of  the  State,  and  on  the  17th  entered 
Columbia,  the  capital  of  the  State,  without  a  battle.  His 
presence  there  made  the  evacuation  of  Charleston  a  neces 
sity,  and  on  the  next  day  our  forces  entered  its  grass- 
grown  streets,  and  the  old  flag  floated  again  from  FortSum- 
ter,  from  which,  four  years  before,  it  had  been  traitorously 
torn  down.  Sherman' s  progress  northward  continued  to 
be  rapid,  but  hardly  any  thing  that  he  could  do  could 
give  so  much  joy  as  the  fall  of  that  nest  of  treason  had 
given.  Coming,  as  it  did,  just  before  the  22d  of  Febru 
ary,  it  made  the  celebration  of  Washington's  birthday 
one  of  great  rejoicing.  The  public  buildings  in  Wash 
ington  were  illuminated,  and  all  over  the  country  it  was 
a  day  of  joy  and  gladness  of  heart. 

It  was  not  the  military  successes  alone  which  made  the 
people  glad :  a  general  system  of  exchanging  prisoners 
had  been  at  last  agreed  upon,  and  our  poor  fellows  were 
rapidly  coming  forward  out  of  those  hells  on  earth,  in 
which  the  rebel  authorities  had  kept  them. 

In  fact,  all  things  seemed  auspicious  for  the  future. 
The  close  of  President's  Lincoln's  first  Administration 
was  brilliant  in  itself,  and  gave  full  promise  of  yet 
brighter  things  to  come. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  669 


CHAPTER     XX. 

THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REBELLION. 
THE  INAUGURAL  ADDEESS.  —  PROCLAMATION  TO  DESERTERS.  —  SPEECHES  BT 

THE     PRESIDENT.  -  DESTRUCTION     OF     LEE'S      ARMY.  -  THE      PRESIDENT^ 

VISIT  TO  EICHMOXD.  —  RETURN  TO  WASHINGTON.  —  CLOSE  or  THE 


IT  seems  hardly  credible  that  four  years  should  em 
brace  within  their  narrow  limit  so  immense  a  change 
as  the  four  years  of  Mr.  Lincoln'  s  first  Administration  had 
brought  to  the  country  and  to  himself.  When,  on  the  4th 
of  March,  1861,  he  took  the  oath  of  office,  administered 
to  him  by  Chief-Justice  Taney,  the  horizon  was  dark 
with  storms,  whose  duration  and  violence  were  as  yet 
happily  unknown.  He  himself,  as  he  stood  on  the  steps 
of  the  Capitol,  was  an  untried  man,  sneered  at  by  those 
who  had  held  the  reins  of  power  in  the  country,  an 
object  for  the  rising  hate  of  the  aspiring  aristocracy  of 
the  South,  which  had  already  sought  his  life,  and  would 
have  sought  it  with  still  greater  vindictiveness,  if  a  tithe 
of  the  sagacity,  firmness,  honesty,  and  patriotism  which 
animated  his  breast  had  been  understood  ;  even  then  an 
object  of  interest  and  growing  affection,  comparatively 
unknown  as  he  was  even  to  his  own  friends,  to  those 
who  saw  the  danger  which  was  overhanging  the  country, 
and  were  nerving  themselves  to  meet  it. 

But  now  the  fierceness  of  the  storm  seemed  to  be  pass 
ing  away,  and  clearer  skies  to  be  seen  through  the  rolling 
clouds.  The  citizen,  who,  four  years  before,  w^as  utterly  un 
tried  and  unknown,  was  now  the  chosen  leader  of  a  nation  of 
thirty  million  people,  who  trusted  in  his  honesty  as  they 
trusted  in  the  eternal  principles  of  Nature,  who  believed 
him  to  be  wise,  and  knew  him  to  be  abundant  in  patience 
and  kindness  of  heart,  with  an  army  of  half  a  million 


G70  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

men  and  a  navy  of  hundreds  of  vessels  at  his  command, 
one  of  the  most  powerful,  certainly  the  most  loved  of  all 
the  leaders  of  the  nations  of  the  earth.  There  could  be 
but  one  higher  step  for  him  to  attain,  and  to  that,  also,  in 
the  order  of  Providence,  he  was  soon  to  be  called. 

The  scene  of  his  re-inauguration  was  a  striking  one. 
The  morning  had  been  inclement,  storming  so  violently 
that  up  to  a  few  minutes  before  twelve  o'clock  it  was 
supposed  that  the  Inaugural  Address  would  have  to  be 
delivered  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  But  the  people  had 
gathered  in  immense  numbers  before  the  Capitol,  in  spite 
of  the  storm,  and  just  before  noon  the  rain  ceased  and  the 
clouds  broke  away,  and,  as  the  President  took  the  oath  of 
office,  the  blue  sky  appeared  above,  a  small  white  cloud, 
like  a  hovering  bird,  seemed  to  hang  above  his  head,  and 
the  sunlight  broke  through  the  clouds  and  fell  upon  him 
with  a  glory,  afterwards  felt  to  have  been  an  emblem  of 
the  martyr's  crown,  which  was  so  soon  to  rest  upon  his 
head. 

The  oath  of  office  was  administered  by  Chief- Justice 
Chase,  and  the  President  delivered  his  second  Inaugural 
Address  as  follows  :: — 

FELLOW-COUNTKYMEN  : — At  this  second  appearing  to  take  the  oath  of 
the  Presidential  office,  there  is  less  occasion  for  an  extended  address  than 
there  was  at  the  first.  Then  a  statement  somewhat  in  detail  of  a  course 
to  be  pursued  seemed  very  fitting  and  proper.  Now,  at  the  expiration 
of  four  years,  during  which  public  declarations  have  been  constantly 
called  forth  on  every  point  and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which  still  ab 
sorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the  energies  of  the  nation,  little  that  is 
new  could  be  presented. 

The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chiefly  depends,  is  as 
well  known  to  the  public  as  to  myself,  and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satis 
factory  and  encouraging  to  all.  With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no  pre 
diction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years  ago,  all  thoughts 
were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impending  civil  war.*  All  dreaded  it,  all 
sought  to  avoid  it.  While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered 
from  this  place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union  without  war, 
insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city,  seeking  to  destroy  it  with  war — 
seeking  to  dissolve  the  Union  and  divide  the  effects  by  negotiation. 
Both  parties  deprecated  war,  but  one  of  them  would  make  war  rather 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  671 

4 

than  let  the  nation  survive,  and  the  other  would  accept  war  rather  than 
let  it  perish,  and  the  war  came.  One-eighth  of  the  whole  population 
were  colored  slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but  localized 
in  the  Southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  constituted  a  peculiar  and  power 
ful  interest.  All  knew  that  this  interest  was  somehow  the  cause  of  the 
war.  To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  extend  this  interest  was  the  object 
for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend  the  Union  by  war,  while  the  Gov 
ernment  claimed  no  right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  en 
largement  of  it. 

Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude  or  the  duration  which 
it  has  already  attained.  Neither  anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  con 
flict  might  cease,  or  even  before  the  conflict  itself  should  cease.  Each 
looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less  fundamental  and  astounding. 

Both  read  the  same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same  God,  and  each  invokes  His 
aid  against  the  other.  It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to 
ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other 
men's  faces,  but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged.  The  prayer  of 
both  could  not  be  answered.  That  of  neither  has  been  answered  fully. 
The  Almighty  has  His  own  purposes.  Woe  unto  the  world  because  of  offences, 
for  it  must  needs  be  that  offences  come,  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whora 
the  offence  cometh.  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one  of 
these  offences  which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  must  needs  come,  but  which 
having  continued  through  His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to  remove, 
and  that  He  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war  as  the  woe 
due  to  those  by  whom  the  offence  came,  shall  we  discern  there  any 
departure  from  those  Divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living 
God  always  ascribe  to  him?  Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray, 
that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet  if  God 
wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondsman's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every 
drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn  with 
the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so,  still  it  must  be  said 
that  the  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether. 

"With  malice  towards  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right 
as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  finish  the  work  we  are  in,  to  bind  up 
the  nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle, 
and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphans,  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and 
cherish  a  just  and  a  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations. 

The  only  change  which  was  made  in  the  Cabinet  was 
one  made  necessary  by  the  resignation,  in  consequence  of 
his  election  to  the  Senate,  of  Mr.  Fessenden,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  whose  post  was  filled  on  the  6th  of  March, 
by  the  appointment  of  the  Hon.  Hugh  McCullough,  of 
Indiana.  With  this  exception,  affairs  went  on  as  before, 


672  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

without  any  perceptible  change  in  their  working  in  conse 
quence  of  the  change  of  Administration. 

The  Senate  met  in  extra  session,  and  at  once  had  a 
sharp  debate  on  the  admission  of  the  Senators  from  Ar 
kansas,  whose  credentials  were  finally  ordered  to  be  sent 
to  the  Committee  of  the  Judiciary.  The  other  business 
before  the  Senate  was  Executive  merely. 

One  of  the  acts  passed  by  Congress  near  the  close  of 
the  session  was  an  amendment  of  the  laws  for  calling 
out  the  National  forces,  one  provision  of  which  directed 
the  President  to  issue  a  proclamation,  calling  upon  de 
serters  to  return  to  their  duty  within  sixty  days.  Ac 
cordingly,  on  the  llth  of  March,  the  proclamation  was 
issued  as  follows  :— 

A  PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  the  twenty-first  section  of  the  act  of  Congress,  approved  on  the 
3d  instant,  entitled  "  AU  A.ct  to  amend  the  several  acts  heretofore  passed 
to  provide  for  the  enrolling  and  calling  out  the  national  forces  and  for 
other  purposes,"  requires  that  in  addition  to  the  other  lawful  penalties  of 
the  crime  of  desertion  from  th  e  military  or  naval  service,  all  persons  who 
have  deserted  the  military  cr  naval  service  of  the  United  States  who 
shall  not  return  to  said  service  or  report  themselves  to  a  provost-marshal 
within  sixty  days  after  the  proclamation  hereinafter  mentioned,  shall  be 
deemed  and  taken  to  have  voluntarily  relinquished  and  forfeited  their  cit 
izenship  and  their  right  to  become  citizens,  and  such  deserters  shall  be 
forever  incapable  of  holding  any  office  of  trust  or  profit  under  the  United 
States,  or  of  exercising  any  rights  of  citizens  thereof;  and  all  persons  who 
shall  hereafter  desert  the  military  or  naval  service,  and  all  persons  who,  being 
duly  enrolled,  shall  depart  the  jurisdiction  of  the  district  in  which  they  are 
enrolled,  or  go  beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States  with  intent  to  avoid 
any  draft  into  the  military  or  naval  service  duly  ordered,  shall  be  liable  to 
the  penalties  of  this  section  ;  and  the  President  is  hereby  authorized  and 
required  forthwith,  on  the  passage  of  this  act,  to  issue  his  proclamation 
setting  forth  the  provisions  of  this  section,  in  which  proclamation  the  Pres 
ident  is  requested  to  notify  all  deserters  returning  within  sixty  days  as 
aforesaid  that  they  shall  be  pardoned  on  condition  of  returning  to  their 
regiments  and  companies,  or  to  such  other  organizations  as  they  may  be 
assigned  to,  until  they  shall  have  served  for  a  period  of  time  equal  to 
their  original  term  of  enlistment : 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  issue  this  my  proclamation  as  required  by  said  act,  or 
dering  and  requiring  all  deserters  to  return  to  their  proper  posts ;  and  1  do 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  673 

hereby  notify  them  that  all  deserters  who  shall  within  sixty  days  from 
the  date  of  this  proclamation,  vk.,  on  or  before  the  10th  day  of  May,  1865, 
return  to  service  or  report  themselves  to  a  provost-marshal,  shall  be 
pardoned  on  condition  that  they  return  to  their  regiments  or  companies  or 
to  such  other  organization  as  they  may  be  assigned  to,  and  serve  the  re 
mainder  of  their  original  terms  of  enlistment,  and  in  addition  thereto  a 
period  equal  to  the  time  lost  by  desertion. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  eleventh  day  of  March,  in  the  year 
[L.  s.]       of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and  of  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty-ninth. 

rj    f,     -p      .,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

13y  the  President : 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

In  addition  to  the  increase  of  our  armies  which  this  proc 
lamation  gave— for  great  numbers  of  deserters  availed 
themselves  of  its  provisions— the  draft,  which  had  been 
often  postponed,  was  fairly  put  in  operation  on  the  15th 
of  March  ;— not  that  there  was  so  pressing  and  im 
mediate  a  need  of  men,  for  the  tide  of  military  successes 
continued  to  roll  in  full  and  strong  in  our  favor  ;  but  the 
authorities  felt  called  upon  to  provide  for  future  contin 
gencies,  which  happily  never  arose. 

On  every  hand  the  prospects  of  the  rebellion  were 
growing  darker.  The  stream  of  deserters  from  Lee's  lines 
was  growing  larger  and  larger,  most  of  the  men  bringing 
their  arms  with  them,  and  all  uniting  in  the  same  story  of 
the  demoralization  of  those  they,  had  left  behind.  In  their 
extremity,  the  rebel  leaders  even  began  to  turn  to  the 
negro  for  help,  and  various  propositions  were  introduced 
into  the  rebel  Congress  looking  towards  the  employment 
of  slaves  as  soldiers.  The  measure,  however,  was  not  a 
popular  one,  for  it  was  felt  to  be  a  practical  abandonment 
of  those  ideas  of  slavery  for  whose  supremacy  the  rebel 
lion  had  been  set  on  foot.  At  one  time  the  proposition 
before  the  rebel  Senate  for  arming  the  slaves  was  defeated 
by  one  vote.  The  President  referred  to  this  extremity  of 
theirs,  and  this  means  of  relief  which  they  had  sought,  in  a 
speech  which  he  made  when  a  rebel  flag,  captured  at 
Anderson  by  the  One  Hundred  and  Fortieth  Indiana  Vol- 


674  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

unteers,  was  presented  to  Governor  Morton  in  front  of  the 
National  Hotel  on  the  17th  of  March.  A  large  crowd  was 
in  attendance.  Governor  Morton  made  a  brief  speech,  in 
which  he  congratulated  his  auditors  on  the  speedily  ap 
proaching  end  of  the  rebellion,  and  concluded  by  introdu 
cing  President  Lincoln,  whose  purity  and  patriotism  were 
confessed,  he  said,  by  all,  even  among  the  most  violent 
of  his  opponents.  His  Administration  would  be  recog 
nized  as  the  most  important  epoch  of  history.  It  had 
struck  the  death-blow  to  slavery,  and  clothed  the  Re 
public  with  a  power  it  never  before  possessed.  If  he 
had  done  nothing  more  than  put  his  name  to  the  Emanci 
pation  Proclamation,  that  act  alone  would  have  made  his 
name  immortal. 

The  President  addressed  the  assembly  substantially  as 
follows : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS: — It  will  be  but  a  very  few  words  that  I  shall  under 
take  to  say.  I  was  born  in  Kentucky,  raised  in  Indiana,  and  lived 
in  Illinois ;  and  now  I  am  here,  wh^re  it  is  my  business  to  care  equally 
for  the  good  people  of  all  the  Statjs.  I  am  glad  to  see  an  Indiana 
regiment  on  this  day  able  to  present  the  captured  flag  to  the  Governor 
of  Indiana.  I  am  not  disposed,  in  saying  this,  to  make  a  distinction  be 
tween  the  States,  for  all  have  done  equally  well. 

There  are  but  few  views  or  aspects  of  this  great  war  upon  which  I 
have  not  said  or  written  something  whereby  my  own  opinions  might  be 
known.  But  there  is  one — the  recent  attempt  of  our  erring  brethren,  as 
they  are  sometimes  called,  to  em{  i-;/  the  negro  to  fight  for  them.  I  have 
neither  written  nor  made  a  speech  on  that  subject,  because  that  was 
their  business,  not  mine,  and  if  I  had  a  wish  upon  the  subject,  I  had 
not  the  power  to  introduce  it,  or  make  it  effective.  The  great  question 
with  them  was  whether  the  negro,  being  put  into  the  army,  will  fight  for 
them.  I  do  not  know,  and  therefore  cannot  decide.  They  ought  to 
know  better  than  me.  I  have  in  my  lifetime  heard  many  arguments 
why  the  negroes  ought  to  be  slaves;  but  if  they  fight  for  those  who 
would  keep  them  in  slavery,  it  will  be  a  better  argument  than  any  I 
have  yet  heard.  He  who  will  fight  for  that,  ought  to  be  a  slave.  They 
have  concluded,  at  last,  to  take  one  out  of  four  of  the  slaves  and  put 
them  in  the  army,  and  that  one  out  of  the  four  who  will  fight  to  keep 
the  others  in  slavery,  ought  to  be  a  slave  himself,  unless  he  is  killed  in  a 
fight.  While  I  have  often  said  that  all  men  ought  to  be  free,  yet  would 
I  allow  those  colored  persons  to  be  slaves  who  want  to  be,  and  next  to 
them  those  white  people  who  argue  in  favor  of  making  othei  people 
slaves.  I  am  in  favor  of  giving  an  appointment  to  such  white  men  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  675 

try  it  on  for  these  slaves.  I  will  say  one  thing  in  regard  to  the  negroes 
being  employed  to  fight  for  them.  I  do  know  he  cannot  fight  and  stay  at 
home  and  make  bread  too.  And  as  one  is  about  as  important  as  the 
other  to  them,  I  don't  care  which  they  do.  I  am  rather  in  favor  of 
having  them  try  them  as  soldiers.  They  lack  one  vote  of  doing  that,  and 
I  wish  I  could  send  my  vote  over  the  river  so  that  I  might  cast  it  in  favor 
of  allowing  the  negro  to  fight.  But  they  cannot  fight  and  work  both. 
We  must  now  see  the  bottom  of  the  enemy's  resources.  They  will 
stand  out  as  long  as  they  can,  and  if  the  negro  will  fight  for  them  they 
must  allow  him  to  fight.  They  have  drawn  upon  their  last  branch  of 
resources,  and  we  can  now  see  the  bottom.  I  am  glad  to  see  the  end  so 
near  at  hand.  I  have  said  now  more  than  I  intended,  and  will  therefore 
bid  you  good-by. 

But  even  the  culminating  interest  of  affairs  before  Kich- 
mond  did  not  absorb  exclusively  the  President' s  attention. 
On  the  17th  he  issued  the  following  proclamation  against 
persons  furnishing  arms  to  the  hostile  Indians  in  the 
West,  who,  stirred  up  by  emissaries  from  the  rebels,  or 
coming  to  the  conclusion  from  their  own  judgment,  that 
while  the  white  men  were  thus  fighting  each  other,  it  was 
surely  a  good  time  for  the  red  man  to  strike,  had,  on  more 
than  one  occasion,  since  the  rebellion  broke  out,  spread 
terror  and  destruction  over  the  Northwest. 

Whereas,  Reliable  information  has  been  received  that  hostile  Indians 
within  the  limits  of  the  Uniterd  States  have  been  furnished  with  arms 
and  munitions  of  war  by  persons  dwelling  in  foreign  territory,  and 
are  thereby  enabled  to  prosecute  their  savage  warfare  upon  the  exposed 
and  sparse  settlements  of  the  frontier :  Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that 
I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  do 
hereby  proclaim  and  direct  that  all  persons  engaged  in  that  nefarious 
traffic  shall  be  arrested  and  tried  by  court-martial,  at  the  nearest  mili 
tary  post,  and  if  convicted,  shall  receive  the  punishment  due  to  their 
deserts. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal  of 
the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  this  17th  day  of  March,  in  the 
[L.  e.]     year  of  our  Lord  1865,  and  of  the  independence  of  the  United 

States  of  America  the  eighty-ninth. 

By  the  President :  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

WM.  II.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

Two  days  afterwards  the  following  orders  were  issued  by 
the  State  Department,  directed  against  blockade-runners, 


676  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

a  class  who  had  been  treated  too  long  with  leniency  and 
allowed  too  many  facilities  for  carrying  on  their  traffic, 
which  had  greatly  prolonged  the  war  and  increased  its 
burdens  and  difficulties  :— 

DEPARTMENT  or  STATE,  "WASHINGTON,  March  19, 1865. 

The  President  directs  that  all  persons  who  now  are  or  hereafter  shall 
be  found  within  the  United  States,  and  who  have  been  engaged  in  hold 
ing  intercourse  or  trade  with  the  insurgents  by  sea,  if  they  are  citizens 
of  the  United  States  or  domiciled  aliens,  be  arrested  and  held  as  prison 
ers  of  war  till  the  war  shall  close  ;  subject,  nevertheless,  to  prosecution, 
trial,  and  conviction  for  any  offence  committed  by  them,  as  spies  or  other 
wise,  against  the  laws  of  war. 

The  President  further  directs  that  all  non-resident  foreigners  who  now 
are  or  hereafter  shall  be  found  in  the  United  States,  and  who  have  been 
or  shall  have  been  engaged  in  violating  the  blockade  of  the  insurgent 
ports,  shall  leave  the  United  States  within  twelve  days  from  the  publica 
tion  of  this  order,  or  from  their  subsequent  arrival  in  the  United  States 
if  on  the  Atlantic  side,  and  forty  days  if  on  the  Pacific  side  of  the  coun 
try.  And  such  persons  shall  not  return  to  the  United  States  during  the 
continuance  of  the  war. 

Provost-Marshals  and  Marshals  of  the  United  States  will  arrest  and 
commit  to  military  custody  all  such  offenders  as  shall  disregard  this 
order,  whether  they  have  passports  or  not,  and  they  will  be  detained  in 
such  custody  until  the  end  of  the  war,  or  until  discharged  by  subsequent 
order  of  the  President.  WM.  II.  SEWAED, 

Secretary  of  State. 

There  was  some  little  talk  during  the  first  part  of  the 
month  about  negotiations  for  peace.  The  rebels  seem  to 
have  thought  that,  having  failed  so  utterly  in  their  con 
ference  with  the  President  and  Mr.  Seward,  they  might 
do  better  if  they  could  succeed  in  opening  negotiations 
directly  with  General  Grant.  The  President,  however, 
again  defeated  them  by  sending  the  following  order  :— 

WASHINGTON,  March  3. 1865 — 12  p.  x. 
Lieutenant-General  GRANT  : 

The  President  directs  me  to  say  to  you  that  he  wishes  you  to  have  no 
conference  with  General  Lee,  unless  it  be  for  the  capitulation  of  General 
Lee's  army,  or  on  some  minor  and  purely  military  matter.  He  instructs 
me  to  say  that  you  are  not  to  decide,  discuss,  or  confer  upon  any  political 
question.  Such  questions  the  President  holds  in  his  own  hands,  and  will 
submit  them  to  no  military  conferences  or  conventions.  Meantime  you 
are  to  press  to  the  utmost  your  military  advantages. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 


STATE  PAPERS  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          677 


._ 

mandmg  our  communications  with  City  PoinT      BT* 

o;rsVutetrMs-  ried  the  fort  *»*£*%* 


tr 
ssas^ 


«  •*&****  tu«  army  of  Ueneral  T<^ 

There  were  not  wanting  those   who  thought  that  his 


678  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

march  into   North    Carolina  was  a  march  into  danger. 
Said  one  of  these  persons  to  the  President  one  day  :- 

Mr.  Lincoln,  as  Sherman's  army  advances,  the  rebel  forces  necessarily 
concentrate  and  increase  in  number.  Before  long  Sherman  will  drive  the 
columns  of  Johnston,  Bragg,  Hoke,  and  others,  within  a  few  days'  marcu 
of  Lee's  main  army.  May  not  Lee  suddenly  march  south  with  the  bulk 
of  his  army,  form  a  junction  with  Johnston's  troops,  and  before  Grant 
can  follow  any  considerable  distance,  strike  Sherman's  column  with  supe 
rior  force,  break  his  lines,  defeat  his  army,  and  drive  his  broken  frag 
ments  back  to  the  coast,  and  with  his  whole  army  give  battle  to  Grant, 
and  perhaps  defeat  him? 

"And  perhaps  not,"  replied  the  President.  "  Napoleon  tried  the  same 
game  on  the  British  and  Prussians,  in  1815.  He  concentrated  his  forces 
and  fell  suddenly  on  Blucher,  and  won  an  indecisive  victory.  He  then 
whirled  round  and  attacked  the  British,  and  met  his  Waterloo.  Bona 
parte  was  hardly  inferior  to  Lee  in  military  talents  or  experience. 

"But  are  you  sure  that  Lee's  forces,  united  with  Johnston's,  could 
beat  Sherman's  army?  Could  he  gain  his  Ligny,  before  meeting  with  his 
Waterloo  when  he  attacks  Grant  ?  I  tell  you,  gentlemen,  there  is  a  heap 
of  fight  in  one  hundred  thousand  Western  veterans.  They  are  a  good 
deal  like  old  Zach.  Taylor  at  Buena  Vista — they  don't  know  when  they 
are  whipped." 

The  President's  judgment  was  better,  his  hopefulness 
"better  founded,  than  the  misgivings  of  his  questioner. 

Upon  General  Sherman' s  arrival  at  Goldsboro' ,  he  made 
a  journey  to  City  Point,  where  he  and  General  Grant  held 
consultation  together,  and  with  the  President,  as  to  the 
campaign  now  about  to  commence.  General  Sherman 
immediately  returned  to  his  command,  and  on  the  30th 
the  decisive  final  movement  of  the  war  was  begun  by 
General  Sheridan,  who  moved  his  cavalry  towards  the 
south  and  the  left  of  our  army.  It  had  been  the  plan 
that  he  should  make  a  raid  upon  the  Southside  Railroad, 
but  when  he  had  gone  as  far  as  Dinwiddie  Court-House, 
he  was  ordered  by  General  Grant  to  abandon  the  raid, 
and,  in  concert  with  the  infantry  under  his  own  immediate 
command,  endeavor  to  turn  Lee' s  right  flank. 

There  was  heavy  fighting  in  that  part  of  the  lines  on 
the  30th  and  the  31st  of  March,  for  Lee  knew  that  where 
Sheridan  was  he  must  have  a  strong  front  to  meet  him, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  67(J 

and  the  rebel  troops  were  thrown  out  in  that  part  of  the 
lines  in  heavy  force.  The  President  remained  at  City 
Point,  and  at  3  p.  M.  sent  the  following  telegram  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  : — 

At  12.30  P.  M.  to-day,  General  Grant  telegraphed  me  as  follows: 

There  has  been  much  hard  fighting  this  morning.  The  enemy  drove 
our  left  from  near  Dabney's  house  back  well  towards  the  Boydton  Plank- 
road.  We  are  now  about  to  take  the  offensive  at  that  point,  and  I  hope 
will  more  than  recover  the  lost  ground. 

Later  he  telegraphed  again  as  follows: 

Our  troops,  after  being  driven  back  to  the  Boydton  Plankroad.  turned 
and  drove  the  enemy  in  turn,  and  took  the  White  Oak  road,  which  we 
now  have.  This  gives  us  the  ground  occupied  by  the  enemy  this  morning. 
I  will  send  you  a  rebel  flag  captured  by  our  troops  in  driving  the  enemy 
back.  There  have  been  four  flags  captured  to-day. 

Judging  by  the  two  points  from  which  General  Grant  telegraphs,  I  in 
fer  that  he  moved  his  head-quarters  about  one  mile  since  he  sent  the  first 
of  the  two  dispatches. 

A.    /  IMCOLN. 

On  the  1st  of  April,  General  Sheridan's  plans  and  the 
valor  of  the  troops  proved  successful.  The  rebels  beinf 
flanked  by  the  Fifth  Corps,  which  had  been  placed  unde 
his  command,  and  vigorously  attacked  in  front  by  th* 
cavalry,  were  thoroughly  routed,  with  a  loss  of  five  01 
six  thousand  prisoners,  besides  killed  and  wounded. 

The  only  dispatch  received  from  the  President  on  this 
day  was  one  sent  before  the  final  success  was  achieved, 
which  was  not  till  late  in  the  afternoon. 

The  rebel  right  wing  having  been  thus  crushed,  General 
Grant  not  only  threw  his  indomitable  left  forward,  but 
ordered  a  general  attack  all  along  the  lines  at  daylight 
next  morning,  which  proved  everywhere  successful. 

The  following  dispatches  were  sent  by  the  President 
during  the  day,  and  give  a  succinct  account  of  the  battle 
and  its  results : — 

CITT  POINT,  VIRGINIA,  April  2, 1865—8.30  A.  M. 

Honorable  E.  M.  STANTOST,  Secretary  of  War : 

Last  night  General  Grant  telegraphed  that  General  Sheridan,  with  hig 
cavalry  and  the  Fifth  Corps,  had  captured  three  brigades  of  infantry,  a 
train  of  wagons,  and  several  batteries;  the  prisoners  amounting  to  several 
thousand. 


G80  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

This  morning  General  Grant,  having  ordered  an  attack  along  the  -whole 
line,  telegraphs  as  fallows : — 

Both  Wright  and  Parke  got  through  the  enemy's  lines.  The  battle  now 
rages  furiously.  General  Sheridan,  with  his  cavalry,  the  Fifth  Corps,  and 
Atiles's  Division  of  the  Second  Corps,  which  was  sent  to  him  this  morning, 
is  now  sweeping  down  from  the  west. 

All  now  looks  highly  favorable.  General  Ord  is  engaged,  but  I  have 
not  yet  heard  the  result  in  his  front. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

CITT  POINT,  11  A.  M.,  April  2. 

Dispatches  are  frequently  coming  in.  All  is  going  on  finely.  Generals 
Parke,  Wright,  and  Ord's  lines  are  extending  from  the  Appomattox  to 
Hatcher's  Run.  They  have  all  broken  through  the  enemy's  intrenched 
lines,  taking  some  forts,  guns,  and  prisoners. 

Sheridan,  with  his  own  cavalry,  the  Fifth  Corps,  and  part  of  the  Second, 
i«  coming  in  from  the  west  on  the  enemy's  flank.  Wright  is  already 
tearing  up  the  Southside  Railroad. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

CITY  POINT,  VIRGINIA,  April  2,  2  p.  x. 

At  10.45  A.  M.  General  Grant  telegraphs  as  follows: — 
Every  thing  has  been  carried  from  the  left  of  the  Ninth  Corps.  The 
Sixth  Corps  alone  captured  more  than  three  thousand  prisoners.  The 
Second  and  Twenty-fourth  Corps  captured  forts,  guns,  and  prisoners  from 
the  enemy,  but  I  cannot  tell  the  numbers.  We  are  now  closing  around 
the  works  of  the  line  immediately  enveloping  Petersburg.  All  looks  re 
markably  well.  I  have  not  yet  heard  from  Sheridan.  His  head-quarters 
have  been  moved  up  to  Banks's  House,  near  the  Boydtoii  road,  about  three 
miles  southwest  of  Petersburg. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

CITY  POINT,  VIRGINIA,  April  2,  8.30  p.  M. 

At  4.30  P.  M.  to-day  General  Grant  telegraphs  as  follows : — 
We  are  now  up  and  have  a  continuous  line  of  troops,  and  in  a  few  hour? 
will  be  intrenched  from  the  Appomattox  below  Petersburg  to  the  river 
above.  The  whole  captures  since  the  army  started  out  will  not  amount 
to  less  than  twelve  thousand  men,  and  probably  fifty  pieces  of  artillery. 
I  do  not  know  the  number  of  men  and  guns  accurately,  however.  A  por 
tion  of  Foster's  Division,  Twenty-fourth  Corps,  made  a  most  gallant  charge 
this  afternoon,  and  captured  a  very  important  fort  from  the  enemy,  with 
its  entire  garrison. 

All  seems  well  with  us,  and  every  thing  is  quiet  just  now. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

The  results  of  the  fighting  of  this  2d  of  April  were 
so  disastrous  to  the  rebels,  that  General  Lee  saw  at  once 
that  he  must  evacuate  Petersburg,  and  Richmond  also. 
His  dispatch  announcing  the  necessity  was  handed  to 
Mr.  Davis  while  at  church.  He  immediately  left  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  681 

church,  and,  making  a  hasty  preparation  for  departure, 
left  that  night  by  the  Danville  Eailroad.  Richmond  and 
Petersburg  were  both  abandoned  during  the  night.  At 
half-past  eight  the  President  sent  the  following  dispatch 
to  Secretary  Stanton: — 

This  morning  Lieutenant-General  Grant  reports  Petersburg  evacuated, 
and  he  is  confident  that  Richmond  also  is. 

He  is  pushing  forward  to  cut  off,  if  possible,  the  retreating  rebel  army. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Fifteen  minutes  before  this  dispatch  was  sent,  Richmond 
had  been  occupied  by  our  troops.  The  second  brigade 
of  the  Third  Division  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Army  Corps, 
under  Major-General  Weitzel,  were  the  first  to  enter  the 
city.  They  found  that  the  rebel  authorities  had  not  only 
carried  off  whatever  they  could,  but  had  set  fire  to 
tobacco  warehouses,  Government  workshops,  and  other 
buildings,  till  there  was  great  danger  that  the  whole  city 
would  be  consumed.  General  Weitzel  at  once  set  the 
men  to  work  to  put  out  the  fires,  and  re-established  as 
much  order  as  was  possible. 

The  President,  immediately  after  sending  the  above 
dispatch,  went  to  the  front,  where  all  things  had  changed 
at  once  from  the  terrors  of  the  fierce  assault  to  the  exul 
tation  of  eager  pursuit.  General  Grant's  objective  in 
the  whole  campaign  had  been,  not  Richmond,  but  Lee' s 
army ;  and  for  that  he  pushed  forward,  regardless  of  the 
captured  cities  which  lay  behind  him,  showing  himself  as 
relentless  in  pursuit  as  he  had  been  undaunted  in  at 
tack. 

The  President  did  not,  indeed,  follow  the  army  in  its 
forced  march  to  cut  off  Lee's  retreat,  but  he  did  what 
would  be  almost  as  incredible,  if  we  did  not  know  how 
difficult  he  found  it  to  attribute  to  others  hatred  of 
which  he  felt  no  impulse  himself— he  went  to  Richmond 
on  the  day  after  it  was  taken. 

Nothing  could  be  more  characteristic  or  more  striking 
than  his  entrance  into  the  rebel  capital.  He  came  up  in 
a  man-of-war,  about  two  P.  M.,  to  the  landing  called  the 


682  THE  LITE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

Rocketts,  about  a  mile  below  the  city,  and  thence,  ac 
companied  by  his  young  son  and  Admiral  Porter,  came 
to  the  city  in  a  boat.  His  coming  was  unannounced. 
No  roll  of  drums  or  presented  arms  greeted  his  approach. 
He  had  not  even  a  military  guard.  The  sailors  who  had 
rowed  him  up  accompanied  him,  armed  with  carbines. 
He  came  in  no  triumphal  car,  not  even  on  horseback,  to 
be  "the  observed  of  all  observers ;"  but,  like  any  other 
citizen,  walked  up  the  streets  towards  General  WeitzePs 
head-quarters,  in  the  house  occupied  two  days  before  by 
Jefferson  Davis.  But  the  news  of  his  arrival  spread  as 
he  walked,  and  from  all  sides  the  colored  people  came 
running  together,  with  cries  of  intense  exultation,  to 
greet  their  deliverer.  A  writer  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
thus,  from  personal  observation,  describes  the  scene  :— 

They  gathered  round  the  President,  ran  ahead,  hovered  upon  the  flanks 
of  the  little  company,  and  hung  like  a  dark  cloud  upon  the  rear.  Men, 
women,  and  children  joined  the  constantly-increasing  throng.  They 
came  from  all  the  by-streets,  running  in  breathless  haste,  shouting  and 
hallooing,  and  dancing  with  delight.  The  men  threw  up  their  hats,  tho 
women  waved  their  bonnets  and  handkerchiefs,  clapped  their  hands,  and 
sang,  "Glory  to  God!  glory,  glory !"  rendering  all  the  praise  to  God, 
who  had  heard  their  wailings  in  the  past,  their  meanings  for  wives,  hus 
bands,  children,  and  friends  sold  out  of  their  sight ;  had  given  them  free 
dom,  and  after  long  years  of  waiting,  had  permitted  them  thus  unexpect 
edly  to  behold  the  face  of  their  great  benefactor. 

"I  thank  you,  dear  Jesus,  that  I  behold  President  Linkum!"  was  the 
exclamation  of  a  woman  who  stood  upon  the  threshold  of  her  humble 
home,  and  with  streaming  eyes  and  clasped  hands  gave  thanks  aloud  to 
the  Saviour  of  men. 

Another,  more  demonstrative  in  her  joy,  was  jumping  and  striking  her 
hands  with  all  her  might,  crying,  "Bless  de  Lord!  Bless  de  Lord! 
Bless  de  Lord  1"  as  if  there  could  be  no  end  to  her  thanksgiving. 

The  air  rang  with  a  tumultuous  chorus  of  voices.  The  street  became 
almost  impassable  on  account  of  the  increasing  multitude,  till  soldiers 
were  summoned  to  clear  the  way. 

The  walk  was  long,  and  the  President  halted  a  moment  to  rest.  "  May 
de  good  Lord  bless  you,  President  Linkum !"  said  an  old  negro,  removing 
his  hat  and  bowing,  with  tears  of  joy  rolling  down  his  cheeks.  The  Pres 
ident  removed  his  own  hat,  and  bov  ^d  in  silence;  but  it  was  a  bow 
which  upset  the  forms,  laws,  customs,  and  ceremonies  of  centuries.  It 
was  a  death-shock  to  chivalry  and  a  mortal  wound  to  caste.  Recognize  a 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  683 

nigger!     Faugh!     A  woman  in  an  adjoining  house  beheld  it,  and  turned 
from  the  scene  in  unspeakable  disgust. 

Arrived  at  General  Weitzel's  head- quarters,  after  a 
brief  interval  the  President  held  a  short  levee,  then  took 
a  rapid  drive  about  the  city,  and  left  on  his  return  at 
half-past  six  p.  M. 

On  Thursday  he  again  visited  Richmond,  accompanied 
by  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Vice-President  Johnson,  and  ses^ral 
Senators  and  others.  He  held  interviews  while  here  with 
some  of  the  leading  men,  who  sought  to  obtain  from  him 
something  which  should  make  the  submission  of  the 
South  more  easy,  and  should  save  to  the  rebel  leaders  as 
much  as  possible  of  their  wealth  and  power.  By  them 
he  was  urged  to  issue  a  conciliatory  proclamation.  He 
did,  indeed,  go  so  far  as  to  send  to  General  Weitzel  the 
following  order,  allowing  the  reassembling  of  the  Virginia 
Legislature  for  the  purpose  stated  in  the  order  :— 

HEAD-QUARTERS  AEMIES  OF  TUB  UNITED  STATES,  ) 
CITY  POINT,  April  6, 1805. 

Major-General  WEITZEL,  Richmond,  Va.  : 

It  has  been  intimated  to  me  that  the  gentlemen  who  have  acted  as  the 
Legislature  of  Virginia,  in  support  of  the  rebellion,  may  now  desire  to 
assemble  at  Richmond  and  take  measures  to  withdraw  the  Virginia  troops 
and  other  support  from  resistance  to  the  General  Government.  If  they 
attempt  it,  give  them  permission  and  protection,  until,  if  at  all,  they 
attempt  some  action  hostile  to  the  United  States,  in  which  case  you  will 
notify  them,  give  them  reasonable  time  to  leave,  and  at  the  end  of  which 
time  arrest  any  who  remain.  Allow  Judge  Campbell  to  see  this,  but  do 
not  make  it  public. 

Yours,  &c., 

A.  LINCOLN. 

As  Lee  surrendered  the  remains  of  his  army  to  Gen 
eral  Grant  on  Sunday,  April  9,  that  reason  no  longer  ex 
isted  ;  and,  on  the  12th,  General  Weitzel  received  a  tele 
gram  from  the  President  in  Washington  to  annul  the 
call,  as  the  necessity  for  it  had  passed. 

The  President  returned  to  Washington  on  April  9th, 
his  return  having  been  hastened  somewhat  by  an  acci 
dent  to  Mr.  Seward,  who  had  been  thrown  from  his 
carriage  some  days  previous,  and  had  broken  his  right  arm 


684  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

and  his  jaw.  The  news  of  Lee' s  surrender  reached  Wash 
ington  shortly  after  Mr.  Lincoln  arrived,  and  caused  the 
greatest  rejoicing,  not  only  in  Washington,  but  over  the 
whole  country.  In  fact,  the  people  had  been  borne  on 
the  top  of  a  lofty  wave  of  joy  ever  since  Sheridan's 
victory  at  the  Five  Forks,  and  this  but  intensified  the 
universal  exultation.  A  large  company  waited  on  the 
President  on  Monday  afternoon  to  congratulate  him.  In 
answer  to  their  call,  he  appeared,  merely  to  say : — 

If  the  company  had  assembled  by  appointment,  some  mistake  had  crept 
in  their  understanding.  He  had  appeared  before  a  larger  audience  than 
this  one  to-day,  and  he  would  repeat  what  he  then  said,  namely,  he  sup 
posed  owing  to  the  great,  good  news,  there  would  be  some  demonstration. 
He  would  prefer  to-morrow  evening,  when  he  should  be  quite  willing, 
and  he  hoped  ready,  to  say  something.  He  desired  to  be  particular,  be 
cause  every  thing  he  said  got  into  print.  Occupying  the  position  he 
did,  a  mistake  would  produce  harm,  and  therefore  he  wanted  to  be  care 
ful  not  to  make  a  mistake.  [A  voice,  "  You  have  not  made  any  yet."] 

The  President  was  greeted  with  cheers,  and,  after  bid 
ding  the  crowd  good-evening,  retired. 

On  the  next  evening,  an  immense  crowd  assembled  at 
the  Executive  Mansion,  which,  as  well  as  the  various 
departments,  was  illuminated  in  honor  of  the  occasion. 
The  city,  too,  was  ablaze  with  bonfires  and  waving  with 
flags. 

It  was  under  such  circumstances  of  joy,  too  soon  to  be 
changed  into  grief  as  deep  as  this  exultation  was  high, 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  delivered  this,  his  last  public  address, 
on  Tuesday,  the  llth  of  April,  as  follows  : — 

FELLOW-CITIZENS: — "We  meet  this  evening  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  gladness 
of  heart.  The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  and  the  sur 
render  of  the  principal  insurgent  army,  give  hope  of  a  righteous  and 
speedy  peace,  whose  joyous  expression  cannot  be  restrained.  In  the 
midst  of  this,  however,  He  from  whom  all  blessings  flow  must  not  be  for 
gotten. 

A  call  for  a  national  thanksgiving  is  being  prepared,  and  will  be  duly 
promulgated.  Nor  must  those  whose  harder  part  gives  us  the  cause  of 
rejoicing  be  overlooked.  Their  honors  must  not  be  parcelled  out  with 
others.  I  myself  was  near  the  front,  and  had  the  pleasure  of  transmit 
ting  much  of  the  good  news  to  you.  But  no  part  of  the  houor  for  plan 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  685 

or  execution  is  mine.     To  General  Grant,  his  skilful  officers,  and  brave 
men,  all  belongs.     The  gallant  navy  stood  ready,  but  was  not  in  reach  to 
take  active  part.     By  these  recent  successes,  the  reiuauguration  of  tho 
national   authority — reconstruction — which    has  had   a  large   share   of 
thought  from  the  first,  is  pressed  much  more  closely  upon  our  attention. 
It  is  fraught  with  great  difficulty.     Unlike  a  case  of  war  between  inde 
pendent  nations,  there  is  no  authorized  organ  for  us  to  treat  with— no  one 
man  has   authority  to  give   up  the  rebellion  for  any  other  man.      We 
simply  must  begin  with  and  mould  from  disorganized  and  discordant  ele 
ments.     Nor  is  it  a  small  additional  embarrassment  Jhat  we,  the  loyaJ 
people,  differ  among  ourselves  as  to  the  mode,  manner,  and  measure  of  re 
construction.     As  a  general  rule,  I  abstain  from  reading  the  reports  of  at 
tacks  upon  myself,  wishing  not  to  be  provoked  by  that  to  which  I  cannot 
properly  offer  an  answer.     In  spite  of  this  precaution,  however,  it  comes  to 
in)  knowledge  that  I  am  much  censured  for  some  supposed  agency  in  setting 
up  and  seeking  to  sustain  the  new  State  Government  of  Louisiana.    In  this  I 
have  done  just  so  much  and  no  more  than  the  public  knows.    In  the  Annual 
Message  of  December,  1863,  and  the  accompanying  proclamation,  I  pre 
sented  a  plan  of  reconstruction,  as  the  phrase  goes,  which  I  promised,  if 
adopted  by  any  State,  would  be  acceptable  to  and  sustained  by  the  Ex 
ecutive    Government  of  the  nation.     I   distinctly  stated  that  this   was 
not  the  only  plan   which  might  possibly  be  acceptable,  and  I  also  dis 
tinctly  protested  that  the  Executive  claimed  no  right  to  say  when  or 
whether  members  should  be  admitted  to  seats  in  Congress  from  such 
States.     This  plan  was  in  advance  submitted  to  the  then  Cabinet,  and 
approved  by  every  member  of  it.     One  of  them  suggested  that  I  should 
then  and  in  that  connection  apply  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  to  the 
theretofore  excepted  parts  of  Virginia  and  Louisiana ;  that  I  should  drop 
the  suggestion  about  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and  that  I  should 
omit  the  protest  against  my  own  power  in  regard  to  the  admission  of 
members  of  Congress.     But  even  he  approved  every  part  and  parcel  of 
the  plan  which  has  since  been  employed  or  touched  by  the  action  of 
Louisiana.     The  new  Constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring  emancipation 
for  the  whole  State,  practically  applies  the  proclamation  to  the  part  pre 
viously  excepted.     It  does  not  adopt  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and 
is  silent,  as  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise,  about  the  admission  of  mem 
bers  to  Congress.     So  that,  as  it  applied  to  Louisiana,  every  member  of 
the  Cabinet  fully  approved  the  plan.     The  message  went  to  Congress, 
and  I  received  many  commendations  of  the  plan,  written  and  verbal,  and 
not  a  single  objection  to  it  from  any  professed  emancipationist  came  to 
my  knowledge  until  after  the  news  reached  Washington  that  the  people 
of  Louisiana  had  begun  to  move  in   accordance  with   it.     From    about 
July,  1862,  I  had  corresponded  with  different  persons  supposed  to  be  in 
terested  in  seeking  a  reconstruction  of  a  State  Government  for  Louisiana. 
When  the  message  of  1863, with  the  plan  before  mentioned,  reached  New 
Orleans,  General  Banks  wrote  me  that  he  was  confident  that  the  people, 


686  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

with  his  military  co-operation,  would  reconstruct  substantially  on  that 
plan.  I  wrote  to  him  and  some  of  them  to  try  it.  They  tried  it,  and 
the  result  is  known.  Such  has  been  my  only  agency  in  getting  up  the 
Louisiana  Government.  As  to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before 
stated.  But  as  bad  promises  are  better  broken  than  kept,  I  shall  treat 
this  as  a  bad  promise  and  break  it,  whenever  I  shall  be  convinced  that 
keeping  it  is  adverse  to  the  public  interest ;  but  I  have  not  yet  been  so 
convinced.  I  have  been  shown  a  letter  on  this  subject,  supposed  to  be  an 
able  one,  in  which  the  writer  expresses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not 
seemed  to  be  definitely  fixed  upon  the  question  whether  the  seceded 
States,  so  called,  are  in  the  Union  or  out  of  it.  It  would  perhaps  add 
astonishment  to  his  regret  were  he  to  learn  that  since  I  have  found  pro 
fessed  Union  men  endeavoring  to  answer  that  question,  I  have  purposely 
forborne  any  public  expression  upon  it.  As  appears  to  me,  that  question 
has  not  been  nor  yet  is  a  practically  material  one,  and  that  any  discussion 
of  it,  while  it  thus  remains  practically  immaterial,  could  have  no  effect 
other  than  the  mischievous  one  of  dividing  our  friends.  As  yet,  what 
ever  it  may  become,  that  question  is  bad  as  the  basis  of  a  controversy,  and 
good  for  nothing  at  all — a  merely  pernicious  abstraction.  We  all  agree 
that  the  seceded  States,  so  called,  are  out  of  their  proper  practical  relation 
with  the  Union,  and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  Government,  civil 
and  military,  in  regard  to  those  States,  is  to  again  get  them  into  their  prop 
er  practical  relation.  I  believe  that  it  is  not  only  possible,  but  in  fact 
easier,  to  do  this  without  deciding  or  even  considering  whether  those 
States  have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than  with  it.  Finding  themselves 
safely  at  home,  it  would  be  utterly  immaterial  whether  they  had  been 
abroad.  Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary  to  restore  the  proper 
practical  relations  between  these  States  and  the  Union,  and  each  forever 
after  innocently  indulge  his  own  opinion  whether,  in  doing  the  acts,  he 
brought  the  States  from  without  into  the  Union,  or  only  gave  them  proper 
assistance,  they  never  having  been  out  of  it.  The  amount  of  constituency, 
so  to  speak,  on  which  the  Louisiana  Government  rests,  would  be  more 
satisfactory  to  all  if  it  contained  fifty  thousand,  or  thirty  thousand,  or  even 
twenty  thousand,  instead  of  twelve  thousand,  as  it  does.  It  is  also  unsatis 
factory  to  some  that  the  elective  franchise  is  not  given  to  the  colored  man. 
I  would  myself  prefer  that  it  were  now  conferred  on  the  very  intelligent,  and 
on  those  who  serve  our  cause  as  soldiers.  Still,  the  question  is  not  whether 
the  Louisiana  Government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable. 
The  question  is,  Will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is  and  help  to  improve  it, 
or  to  reject  and  d!sperse  ?  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical 
relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her  new  State 
Government  ?  Some  twelve  thousand  voters  in  the  heretofore  Slave  State 
of  Louisiana  have  sworn  allegiance  to  the  Union,  assumed  to  be  the  right 
ful  political  power  of  the  State,  held  elections,  organized  a  State  Govern 
ment,  adopted  a  Free  State  Constitution,  giving  the  benefit  of  public 
schools  equally  to  black  and  white,  and  empowering  the  Legislature  to 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  687 

confer  the  elective  franchise  upon  the  colored  man.  This  Legislature 
has  already  voted  tQ  ratify  the  Constitutional  Amendment  recently  passed 
by  Congress,  abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  nation.  These  twelve 
thousand  persons  are  thus  fully  committed  to  the  Union  and  to  perpetu 
ate  freedom  in  the  State — committed  to  the  very  things,  and  nearly  all 
things,  the  nation  wants — and  they  ask  the  nation's  recognition  and  its 
assistance  to  make  good  this  committal.  Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn 
them,  we  do  our  utmost  to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in  fact, 
say  to  the  white  man :  You  are  worthless  or  worse ;  we  will  neither  help 
you  nor  be  helped  by  you.  To  the  .blacks  we  say  :  This  cup  of  liberty 
which  these,  your  old  masters,  held  to  your  lips,  we  will  dash  from  you, 
and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gathering  the  spilled  and  scattered  con 
tents  in  some  vague  and  undefined  when,  where,  and  how.  If  this  course, 
discouraging  and  paralyzing  both  white  and  black,  has  any  tendency  to 
bring  Louisiana  into  proper  practical  relations  with  the  Union,  I  have  so 
far  been  unable  to  perceive  it.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  recognize  and 
sustain  the  new  Government  of  Louisiana,  the  converse  of  all  this 
is  made  true.  We  encourage  the  hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  twelve 
thousand  to  adhere  to  their  work,  and  argue  for  it,  and  proselyte  for  it, 
and  fight  for  it,  and  feed  it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to  a  complete  suc 
cess.  The  colored  man,  too,  in  seeing  all  united  for  him,  is  inspired  with 
vigilance,  and  energy,  and  daring  to  the  same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires 
the  elective  franchise,  will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by  saving  the  already 
advanced  steps  towards  it,  than  by  running  backward  over  them  ?  Con 
cede  that  the  new  Government  of  Louisiana  is  only  to  what  it  should  be 
as  the  egg  is  to  the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the  fowl  by  hatching  the 
egg  than  by  smashing  it.  [Laughter.]  Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana,  we 
also  reject  one  vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  National 
Constitution.  To  meet  this  proposition,  it  has  been  argued  that  no  more 
than  three-fourths  of  those  States  which  have  not  attempted  secession  are 
necessary  to  validly  ratify  the  amendment.  I  do  not  commit  myself 
against  this,  further  than  to  say  that  such  a  ratification  would  be  ques 
tionable,  and  sure  to  be  persistently  questioned,  while  a  ratification  by 
three-fourths  of  all  the  States  would  be  unquestioned  and  unquestionable. 
I  repeat  the  question,  Can  Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical 
relation  with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her  new 
State  Government?  What  has  been  said  of  Louisiana  will  apply  to  other 
States.  And  yet  so  great  peculiarities  pertain  to  each  State,  and  such  im 
portant  and  sudden  changes  occur  in  the  same  State,  and  withal  so  new 
and  unprecedented  is  the  whole  case,  that  no  exclusive  and  inflexible 
plan  can  safely  be  prescribed  as  to  details  and  collaterals.  Such  exclu 
sive  and  inflexible  ptan  would  surely  become  a  new  entanglement.  Im 
portant  principles  may  and  must  be  inflexible.  In  the  present  situation, 
as  the  phrase  goes,  it  may  be  my  duty  to  make  some  new  announcement 
to  the  people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering,  and  shall  not  fail  to  act, 
irhen  satisfied  that  action  will  be  proper. 


THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

The  surrender  of  Lee  changed  the  whole  aspect  of  the 
war,  and  enabled  the  President  to  place  matters  on  a  dif 
ferent  footing,  "both  at  home  and  with  foreign  nations. 

The  following  proclamations  were  issued  on  April  11 — 
the  first  substituting  a  closing  of  certain  ports  for  the 
blockade,  as  he  was  authorized  to  do  by  act  of  Congress 
of  July  18,  1861;  the  second  correcting  an  error  in  the  first ; 
and  the  third,  to  announce  to  foreign  nations  that  the  re 
strictions  which  they  had  placed  upon  our  national  vessels 
must  be  withdrawn,  or  the  same  treatment  would  be  ex 
tended  to  them  :— 

A  PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  by  my  proclamation  of  the  19th  and  27th  days  of  April,  1861, 
the  ports  of  the  United  States  in  the  States  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
Sou^h  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  and 
Texas  were  declared  to  be  subject  to  blockade;  but  whereas  the  said 
blockade  has,  in  consequence  of  actual  military  occupation  by  this  Govern 
ment,  since  been  conditionally  set  aside  or  relaxed  in  respect  to  the  ports 
of  Norfolk  and  Alexandria  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  Beaufort  in  the  State 
of  North  Carolina,  Port  Royal  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  Pensacola 
and  Fernandina  in  the  State  of  Florida,  and  New  Orleans  in  the  State  of 
Louisiana;  and 

Whereas,  by  the  fourth  section  of  the  act  of  Congress  approved  on  the 
13th  of  July  1861,  entitled  "  An  Act  further  to  provide  for  the  collection 
of  duties  on  imports  and  other  purposes,"  the  President,  for  the  reasons 
therein  set  forth,  is  authorized  to  close  certain  ports  of  entry  : 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known,  that  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  hereby  proclaim  that  the  ports  of  Richmond,  Tappahan- 
nock,  Cherrytown,  Yorktown,  and  Petersburg,  in  Virginia;  of  Camden, 
Elizabeth  City,  Edenton,  Plymouth,  Washington,  Newbern,  Ocracoke,  and 
Wilmington,  in  North  Carolina ;  of  Charleston,  Georgetown,  and  Beaufort, 
in  South  Carolina ;  of  Savannah,  St.  Mary's,  Brunswick,  and  Darien,  in 
Georgia;  of  Mobile,  in  Alabama ;  of  Pearl  River,  Shieldsboro',  Natchez,  and 
Vicksburg,  in  Mississippi ;  of  St.  Augustine,  Key  West,  St.  Mark's,  Port 
Leon,  St.  John's,  Jacksonville,  and  Apalachicola,  in  Florida ;  of  Techo, 
Franklin,  in  Louisiana ;  of  Galveston,  La  Salle,  Brazos  de  Santiago,  Point 
Isabel,  and  Brownsville,  in  Texas,  are  hereby  closed,  and  all  right  of  im 
portation,  warehousing,  and  other  privileges  shall,  in  respect  to  the  ports 
aforesaid,  cease  until  they  shall  have  again  been  opened  by  order  of  the  Pres 
ident  ;  and  if,  while  the  said  ports  are  so  closed,  any  ship  or  vessel  from 
beyond  the  United  States,  or  having  on  board  any  articles  subject  to  duties, 
shall  attempt  to  enter  any  such  port,  the  same,  together  with  its  tackle, 
apparel,  furniture,  and  cargo,  shall  be  forfeited  to  the  United  States. 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  689 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  ray  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done   at  the  City   of  Washington   this    eleventh   day  of  April,   -in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five, 
[L.  e.]     and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the 
eighty-ninth. 

,,T  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

^  Whereas,  by  my  proclamation  of  this  date,  the  port  of  Key  West,  in  the 
State  of  Florida,  was  inadvertently  included  among  those  which  are  not 
open  to  commerce,— Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of 
the  United  States,  do  hereby  declare  and  make  known  that  the  said  port 
of  Key  West  is  and  shall  remain  open  to  foreign  and  domestic  commerce, 
upon  the  same  conditions  by  which  that  commerce  has  heretofore  been 
governed.  In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused 
the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington  the  eleventh  day  of  April,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and  cf 
[L.  s.]     the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty 
ninth. 

D    .*,     T>      •  i  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

By  the  President : 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 

Whereas,  for  some  time  past,  vessels  of  war  of  the  United  States  have 
been  refused  in  certain  ports  privileges  and  immunities  to  which  they 
were  entitled  by  treaty,  public  law,  or  the  comity  of  nations,  at  the  same 
time  that  vessels  of  war  of  the  country  wherein  the  said  privileges  and  im 
munities  have  been  withheld  have  enjoyed  them  fully  and  uninterruptedly 
in  the  ports  of  the  United  States,  which  condition  of  things  has  not  always 
been  forcibly  resisted  by  the  United  States,  although  on  the  other  hand 
they  have  not  failed  to  protest  against  and  declare  their  dissatisfaction 
with  the  same.  In  the  view  of  the  United  States  no  condition  any  longer 
exists  which  can  be  claimed  to  justify  the  denial  to  them  by  any  one  of 
said  nations  of  the  customary  naval  rights  such  as  has  heretofore  been  so 
unnecessarily  persisted  in.  Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President 
of  the  United  States,  do  hereby  make  known  that,  if  after  a  reasonable 
time  shall  have  elapsed  for  the  intelligence  of  this  proclamation  to  have 
reached  any  foreign  country  in  whose  ports  the  said  privileges  and  im 
munities  shall  have  been  refused  as  aforesaid,  they  shall  continue  to  be  so 
refused  as  aforesaid,  then  and  thenceforth  the  same  privileges  and  im 
munities  shall  be  refused  to  the  vessels  of  war  of  the  country  in  the  ports 
ot  the  United  States,  and  this  refusal  shall  continue  until  the  war  vessels  of 
the  United  States  shall  have  been  placed  upon  an  entire  equality  in  the  for- 
>ign  ports  aforesaid  with  similar  vessels  of  other  countries.  The  United 
states,  whatever  claim  or  pretence  may  have  existed  heretofore,  are  now 


690  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AJSL> 

at  least  entitled  to  claim  and  concede  an  entire  and  friendly  equality  of 
rights  and  hospitalities  with  all  maritime  nations. 

In  witness  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal  of 
the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City   of  "Washington  this  eleventh  day  of  April,  in  tho 

year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and 

[L.  s.]       of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty- 

ninth. 

A.  LINCOLN. 
By  the  President  : 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State. 


were  these  the  only  measures  adopted  which  indi 
cated  that  the  war  was  over,  the  rebellion  crushed,  and 
the  era  of  peace  and  good  feeling  about  to  be  ushered  in. 
On  the  13th,  the  Secretary  of  War  announced  that, 
"  after  mature  consideration  and  consultation  with  the 
Lieutenant-  General  upon  the  results  of  the  recent  cam 
paign,"  the  Department  determined  upon  the  following 
measures,  to  be  carried  into  immediate  effect,  viz.  :  — 

First.  —  To  stop  all  drafting  and  recruiting  in  the  loyal  States. 

Second.  —  To  curtail  purchases  of  arms,  ammunition,  quartermaster's  and 
commissary's  supplies,  and  reduce  the  expenses  of  the  military  establish 
ment  in  its  several  branches. 

Third.  —  To  reduce  the  number  of  general  and  staff  officers  to  the  ac 
tual  necessities  of  the  service. 

Fourth.  —  To  remove  all  military  restrictions  upon  trade  and  commerce, 
so  far  as  may  be  consistent  with  public  safety. 

This  determination  of  the  Government,  announced  in 
the  newspapers  of  the  14th  of  April,  afforded  the  country 
a  substantial  and  most  welcome  assurance  that  the  war 
was  over.  The  heart  of  the  nation  beat  high  with  grati 
tude  to  the  illustrious  Chief  Magistrate,  whose  wisdom 
and  patience  had  saved  his  country  ;  but  whose  glory, 
not  yet  complete,  was,  before  another  sun  should  rise, 
destined  to  receive  the  seal  of  immortality. 


"  A-.  Ti^-   '-r^  v 


OP  THE 

rVBESITT 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.          691 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  ASSASSINATION. 

THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  COUNTRY. — ASSASSINATION  OF  THE  PRESIDENT. 

MURDEROUS  ASSAULT  UPON  SECRETARY  SEWARD. — THE  FUNERAL  PRO 
CESSION  FROM  WASHINGTON  TO  SPRINGFIELD,  ILLINOIS. — FATE  OF  THB 
ASSASSINS. — ESTIMATE  OF  MR.  LINCOLN'S  CHARACTER. — CONCLUSION. 

THE  war  was  over.  The  great  rebellion  which,  for 
four  long  years,  had  been  assailing  the  nation's  life,  was 
quelled.  Richmond,  the  rebel  capital,  was  taken,  Lee's 
army  had  surrendered,  and  the  flag  of  the  Union  was 
floating,  in  reassured  supremacy,  over  the  whole  of  the 
National  domain.  Friday,  the  14th  of  April,  the  anni 
versary  of  the  surrender  of  Fort  Sumter  in  1861,  by 
Major  Anderson  to  the  rebel  forces,  had  been  designated 
by  the  Government  as  the  day  on  which  the  same  officer 
should  again  raise  the  American  flag  upon  the  fort,  in 
presence  of  an  assembled  multitude,  and  with  ceremonies 
befitting  so  auspicious  an  occasion.  The  whole  land  re 
joiced  at  the  return  of  peace  and  the  prospect  of  re 
newed  prosperity  to  the  whole  country.  President  Lin 
coln  shared  this  common  joy,  but  with  a  deep  intensity 
of  feeling  which  no  other  man  in  the  whole  land  could 
ever  know.  He  saw  the  full  fruition  of  the  great  work 
which  had  rested  so  heavily  on  his  hands  and  heart  for 
four  years  past,  He  saw  the  great  task— as  momentous 
as  had  ever  fallen  to  the  lot  of  man — w.Lu  h  he  had  ap 
proached  with  such  unfeigned  diffidence,  nea.lv  at  an 
end.  The  agonies  of  war  had  passed  away— he  haa  won 
the  imperishable  renown  which  is  the  high  reward  of  those 
who  save  their  country,  and  he  could  devote  himself 
now  to  the  welcome  task  of  healing  the  wounds  which 
war  had  made,  and  consolidating,  by  a  wise  and  mag. 


692  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

uanimous  policy,  the  severed  sections  of  our  common 
Union.  Mr.  Lincoln's  heart  was  full  of  the  generous 
sentiments  which  these  circumstances  were  so  well  calcu 
lated  to  inspire.  On  the  morning  of  Friday,  a  Cabinet 
meeting  was  held,  at  which  he  was  even  more  than 
usually  cheerful  and  hopeful,  as  he  laid  before  the  Secre 
taries  his  plans  and  suggestions  for  the  treatment  of  the 
conquered  people  of  the  Southern  States.  And  after  the 
meeting  was  over  he  talked  with  his  wife,  w::h  all  the 
warmth  of  his  loving  nature,  of  the  four  years  of  storm 
through  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  pass,  and  of 
the  peaceful  sky  on  which  the  opening  of  his  second 
term  had  dawned.  His  mind  was  free  from  forebodings, 
and  filled  only  with  thoughts  of  kindness  and  of  future 
peace. 

But  Mr.  Lincoln  had  failed  to  estimate  aright  one  of  the 
elements  inseparable  from  civil  war — the  deep  and  malig 
nant  passion  which  it  never  fails  to  excite.  Free  from 
the  faintest  impulse  of  revenge  himself,  he  could  not  ap 
preciate  its  desperate  intensity  in  the  hearts  of  others. 
Mr.  Seward,  with  his  larger  experience  and  more  practi 
cal  knowledge  of  human  nature,  had  repeatedly  told  him 
that  so  great  a  contest  could  never  close 'without  passing 
through  an  era  of  assassination — that  if  it  did  not  come  as 
a  means  of  aiding  the  rebel  cause,  it  would  follow,  and 
seek  to  avenge  its  downfall,  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  all 
who  were  responsibly  and  conspicuously  connected  with 
the  Government,  to  be  prepared  for  this  supreme  test  of 
their  courage  and  patriotic  devotion.  Mr.  Seward  himself, 
had  acted  upon  this  conviction,  and  had  stood  at  his  post 
always  prepared  for  sudden  death.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  un 
willing  to  contemplate  the  possibility  of  such  a  crime. 
To  all  remonstrances  against  personal  exposure,  he  replied 
that  his  death  could  not  possibly  benefit  the  rebel  cause, 
but  would  only  rouse  the  loyalty  of  the  land  to  fresh  in 
dignation,  and  that  no  precautions  he  could  take  would 
defeat  the  purpose  of  his  murder,  if  it  were  really  enter 
tained.  He  continued,  therefore,  his  habit  of  walking 
alone  from  the  Executive  Mansion  to  the  War  Department 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  693 

late  at  night,  and  of  riding  unattended  to  his  summer 
residence,  the  Soldiers'  Home,'  four  or  five  miles  from  the 
Capital,  until  the  Secretary  of  War  finally  forced  his 
rehictant  assent  to  the  presence  of  a  guard.  From  time 
to  time  during  his  Administration,  he  had  received  letters 
threatening  him  with  assassination,  but  as  they  were  anon 
ymous,  and  couched  in  language  of  bravado,  he  put  them 
aside  without  remark. 

As  the  war  drew  towards  its  close,  and  the  rebel  cause 
seemed  tottering  to  its  fall,  warnings  ot  more  significance 
reached  the  Government,  and  arrested  the  attention  of  its 
leading  members.  Hints  of  plots  against  the  President's 
life,  among  the  rebel  agents  abroad  and  in  Canada,  began 
to  multiply,  and  towards  the  last  of  March,  Secretary 
Seward  received  from  our  consuls  in  London  and  Liver 
pool  detailed  reports  of  revelations,  made  to  their  secret 
agents  in  France,  of  a  comprehensive  conspiracy  against 
the  lives  of  the  President  and  Generals  Grant  and  Slier- 
man,  assumed  to  be  the  main  bulwarks  of  the  National 
cause.*  These  warnings  were  so  distinct  and  direct,  that 
Mr.  Seward  consulted  Secretary  Stanton  in  regard  to 
them,  and  it  was  agreed  that  he  should  lay  the  subject 
before  the  President  the  next  day,  and  earnestly  represent 
to  him  ike  expediency  of  avoiding,  for  a  time,  all  public 
gatherings,  and  all  needless  exposure  to  possible  assault. 
But  the  next  day  Mr.  Seward  was  thrown  from  his  car 
riage  and,  his  foot  catching  in  the  steps,  he  was  dragged 
for  some  distance,  and  so  seriously  injured,  that  he  was 
compelled  to  dismiss  all  thought  of  public  matters  from 
his  mind.  Mr.  Lincoln's  visit  to  Richmond  had  led  to 
remonstrances  from  friends,  who  feared  that  some  rebel 
fanatic,  frenzied  by  the  overthrow  of  the  rebel  cause, 
might  seek  revenge  in  the  murder  of  the  President,  and 
he  had,  in  reply,  given  assurances  that  he  would  take 
all  due  precautions.  But  the  matter  evidently  made  but 
a  momentary  impression  upon  his  mind,  and  his  personal 
demeanor  in  all  respects  remained  unchanged. 

On  Friday,  the  14th,  he  breakfasted  with  his  son,  Cap- 

*  See  Appendix. 


694  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

tain  Robert  Lincoln,  who  was  on  the  staff  of  General 
Grant,  and  from  whom  he  heard  full  details  of  the  sur 
render  of  General  Lee,  of  which  Captain  Lincoln  had 
been  an  eye-witness.  He  received  various  public  men 
after  breakfast,  among  whom  were  Speaker  Colfax  and 
ex- Senator  J.  P.  Hale,  and  conversed  freely,  in  a  tone 
of  high  and  hopeful  courage,  of  the  immediate  political 
future.  Nothing  can  indicate  more  clearly  the  elation  of 
mind  with  which  the  President  regarded  the  future  of  the 
country,  now  that  its  safety  had  been  assured,  than  the 
language  he  addressed,  in  conversation  at  this  interview, 
to  Mr.  Colfax,  who  was  at  this  time  preparing  for  a  jour 
ney  overland  to  the  Pacific  coast.  Said  he : — 

"Mr.  Colfax,  I  want  you  to  take  a  message  from  me  to  the  miners 
whom  you  visit.  I  have  very  large  ideas  of  the  mineral  wealth  of  our 
nation.  I  believe  it  practically  inexhaustible.  It  abounds  all  over  the 
Western  country,  from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific,  and  its  devel 
opment  has  scarcely  commenced.  During  the  war,  when  we  were  add 
ing  a  couple  of  millions  of  dollars  every  day  to  our  national  debt,  I  did 
not  care  about  encouraging  the  increase  in  the  volume  of  our  precious 
metals.  We  had  the  country  to  save  first.  But  now  that  the  rebellion 
is  overthrown,  and  we  know  pretty  nearly  the  amount  of  our  national 
debt,  the  more  gold  and  silver  we  mine,  we  make  the  payment  of  that 
debt  so  much  the  easier.  Now,"  said  he,  speaking  with  more  emphasis, 
"I  am  going  to  encourage  that  in  every  possible  way.  We  shall  have 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  disbanded  soldiers,  any  many  have  feared  that 
their  return  home  in  such  great  numbers  might  paralyze  industry,  by 
furnishing,  suddenly,  a  greater  supply  of  labor  than  there  will  be  demand 
for.  I  am  going  to  try  to  attract  them  to  the  hidden  wealth  of  our  moun 
tain  ranges,  where  there  is  room  enough  for  all.  Immigration,  which 
even  the  war  has  not  stopped,  will  land  upon  our  shores  hundreds  of 
thousands  more  per  year  from  overcrowded  Europe.  I  intend  to  point 
them  to  the  gold  and  silver  that  wait  for  them  in  the  West.  Tell  the 
miners  for  me,  that  I  shall  promote  their  interests  to  the  utmost  of  my 
ability;  because  their  prosperity  is  the  prosperity  of  the  nation;  and,1' 
said  he,  his  eye  kindling  with  enthusiasm,  "  we  shall  prove,  in  a  very  few 
years,  that  we  are  indeed  the  treasury  of  the  world." 

At  eleven  o'clock  he  attended  the  meeting  of  the  Cabinet, 
already  referred  to,  which  was  rendered  more  than  usu 
ally  interesting  by  the  presence  and  report  of  General 
Grant,  who  had  come  direct  to  Washington  from  the  field, 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  695 

without  even  entering  the  rebel  Capital  he  had  conquered, 
forgetful  of  himself,  and  eager  only  to  secure  to  the  country 
the  best  fruits  of  the  victory  he  had  achieved.     At  this 
meeting  the  policy  to  be  adopted  towards  the  rebel  States 
was  freely  canvassed — all  the  leading  points,  submitted  by 
the  President,  commanded  the  hearty  acquiescence  of  the 
Cabinet  and  of  General  Grant,  and,  as  the  result  of  the 
interview,  Secretary  Stanton  says  he  felt  that  the  Govern 
ment  was  stronger  than  at  any  previous  period  since  the 
rebellion  began.     After  the  meeting  was  over,  President 
Lincoln  arranged  to  attend  the  theatre  in  the  evening,  ex 
pecting  to  be  accompanied  by  General  Grant,  and  sent 
his  messenger  to  Ford's  Theatre  to  engage  a  box.     In  the 
afternoon  he  received  and  conversed  for  a  long  time  with 
several  public  men  from  his  own  State,  and  in  the  early 
evening  had  an  interview  with  Speaker  Colfax  and  Hon. 
George  Ashmun,  of  Massachusetts,  for  whom,  as  an  old 
friend,  he  had  a  warm  regard.      The  conversation  fell 
upon  the  apprehension  widely  felt  for  his  life  during  his 
visit  to  Richmond,  and  he  said  that  he  should  have  felt 
the  same  fears  concerning  any  one  else  under  the  same 
circumstances,  but  he  could  not  feel  that  he  himself  was 
in  any  danger  whatever.     He  afterwards  gave  Mr.  Ash 
mun  a  card,  directing  his  immediate  admission  the  next 
morning,   when  Mr.  Ashmun  wished  to  see  him  upon 
business  —  and,  turning  to  Mr.  Colfax,  said,  "You  are 
going  to  the  theatre  with  Mrs.  Lincoln  and  me,  are  you 
noU"     Mr.  Colfax,  however,  had  other  engagements  for 
the  evening,  and  could  not  go.     Mr.  Lincoln  told  him  he 
would  be  glad  to  stay  at  home,  but  the  people  expected 
both  General  Grant  and  himself,  and  as  General  Grant 
had  left  town,  he  did  not  like  to  disappoint  them  alto 
gether.     He  then  again  urged  both  Mr.  Ashmun  and  Mr. 
Colfax  to  accompany  him,  but  they  both  excused  them 
selves  on  the  score  of  previous  engagements.    At  a  little  af 
ter  eight  o'clock  the  President,  with  Mrs.  Lincoln,  entered 
their  carriage,  and  halting  at  the  residence  of  Senator 
Harris,  where  they  were  joined  by  Major  H,  B,.  Rathbone, 
the  step-son,-  and  by  Miss  Clara  W.  Harris,  the  daughter, 


696  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

of  the  Senator,  they  proceeded  to  Ford's  Theatre,  in 
Tenth  Street,  and  immediately  entered  the  box  prepared 
for  their  reception. 

This  box  was  on  the  second  floor  of  the  theatre,  looking 
down  upon  the  stage,  and  on  its  right  as  the  spectator  enters 
the  building.  A  narrow  passage-way  from  the  front  behind 
the  dress-circle  leads  to  a  door,  which  opens  inwardly  into 
an  entry  about  eight  feet  long  and  four  feet  wide  ;  from 
which,  at  its  farther  end,  another  door  opens  directly  into 
the  box.  The  President,  passing  through  these  doors,  seat 
ed  himself  in  a  high-backed  rocking-chair,  placed  for  him 
at  the  corner  of  the  box  nearest  the  audience,  Mrs.  Lin 
coln  sitting  next  to  him  on  his  right,  Miss  Harris  sitting 
next,  in  the  corner  of  the  box  farthest  from  the  audience, 
and  Major  Eathbone  sitting  on  a  sofa  just  behind  Miss 
Harris.  The  box  was  a  double  one,  with  a  front  of  about 
ten  feet  looking  upon  the  stage,  a  small  pillar  rising  from 
the  centre  of  the  railing  to  the  ceiling  above.  An  Amer 
ican  nag  had  been  hung  in  front,  in  honor  of  the  Presi 
dent'  s  attendance.  The  door  which  entered  the  box  was 
directly  behind  the  President,  and  about  five  feet  from 
his  chair  ;  it  was  left  standing  open  during  the  evening. 

The  play  for  that  evening  was  the  "American  Cousin." 
During  the  performance  the  attendant  of  the  President 
came  out  from  the  box  and  sat  a  few  feet  from  the  outer 
door  leading  to  it.  At  about  nine  o'clock  a  man  came  to 
the  vicinity,  with  a  large  official  envelope  in  his  hand,  ad 
dressed,  as  is  believed,  to  General  Grant,  and  inquired 
for  the  President's  messenger,  to  whom  he  exhibited  the 
envelope,  and  of  whom  he  made  some  inquiry,  and  then 
went  away.  At  fifteen  minutes  after  ten,  John  Wilkes 
Booth,  an  actor  by  profession,  passed  along  the  passage 
behind  the  spectators  in  the  dress-circle,  showed  a  card 
to  the  President's  messenger,  and  stood  for  two  or  three 
minutes  looidng  down  upon  the  stage  and  the  orchestra 
below.  He  then  entered  the  vestibule  of  the  President's 
box,  closed  the  door  behind  him,  and  fastened  it  by  bra 
cing  a  short  plank  against  it  from  the' wall,  so  that  it  could 
not  be  opened  from  the  outside.  He  then  drew  a  small 


THE     ASSASSINATION     AT     FORD'S     T  H  E  A  1  H  E 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  097 

silver-mounted  Derringer  pistol,  which  he  carried  in  his 
right  hand,  holding  a  long  double-edged  dagger  in  his 
left.  All  in  the  box  were  intent  on  the  proceedings  upon 
the  stage  ;  but  President  Lincoln  was  leaning  forward, 
holding  aside  the  curtain  of  the  box  with  his  left  hand, 
and  looking,  with  his  head  slightly  turned,  towards  the 
audience.  Booth  stepped  within  the  inner  door  into  the 
box,  directly  behind  the  President,  and,  holding  the  pis 
tol  just  over  the  back  of  the  chair  in  which  he  sat,  shot 
him  through  the  back  of  the  head.  Mr.  Lincoln's  head 
fell  slightly  forward,  and  his  eyes  closed,  but  in  every 
other  respect  his  attitude  remained  unchanged. 

The  report  of  the  pistol  startled  those  in  the  box,  and 
Major  Eathbone,  turning  his  eyes  from  the  stage,  saw, 
through  the  smoke  which  filled  the  box,  a  man  standing 
between  him  and  the  President.  He  instantly  sprang 
towards  him  and  seized  him  ;  but  Booth  wrested  himself 
from  his  grasp,  and  dropping  the  pistol,  struck  at  him 
with  the  dagger,  inflicting  a  severe  wound  upon  his  left 
arm,  near  the  shoulder.  Booth  then  rushed  to  the  front 
of  the  box— shouted  "Sic  semper  tyrannis!"—  put  his 
hand  upon  the  railing  in  front  of  the  box,  and  leaped 
over  it  upon  the  stage  below.  As  he  went  over  his  spur 
caught  in  the  flag  which  draped  the  front,  and  he  fell ; 
but  recovering  himself  immediately,  he  rose,  brandished 
the  dagger,  and  facing  the  audience,  shouted  "  The  South 
is  avenged  ! ' '  He  then  rushed  across  the  stage  towards  the 
passage  which  led  to  the  stage-door  in  the  rear  of  the 
theatre.  An  actor  named  Hawke  was  the  only  person 
on  the  stage  when  Booth  leaped  upon  it,  and  seeing 
Booth  coming  towards  him  with  the  dagger  in  his  hand, 
he  ran  off  the  stage  and  up  a  flight  of  stairs.  Booth  ran 
through  the  passage-way  beside  the  scenes,  meeting  one 
or  two  persons  only,  whom  he  struck  from  his  path,  went 
out  at  the  door  which  stood  open,  and  which  he  closed 
behind  him,  and  mounting  a  horse  which  he  had  brought 
there,  and  which  a  lad  was  holding  for  him,  he  rode  over 
the  Anacosta  bridge,  across  the  east  branch  of  the  Poto 
mac,  giving  his  real  name  to  the  guard  who  challenged 


698  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

him,  and  found  a  temporary  refuge  among  the  rebel  sym 
pathizers  of  Lower  Maryland. 

The  discharge  of  the  pistol  had  not  apprised  the  au 
dience  of  the  real  nature  of  the  transaction.  By  many 
it  was  supposed  to  be  an  incident  of  the  play,  and  it  was 
not  until  Booth  had  leaped  from  the  box  and  crossed  the 
stage,  that  there  was  any  general  suspicion  of  what  had 
taken  place.  Mr.  J.  B.  Stewart,  who  was  seated  in  the 
orchestra  stalls,  leaped  upon  the  stage  and  pursued  the 
flying  assassin,  but  he  reached  the  stage  door  only  in 
time  to  see  him  riding  off  on  the  horse  he  had  mounted. 
Major  Eathbone,  seeing  that  the  President  was  uncon 
scious,  started  for  assistance  through  the  door  which 
Booth  had  barred.  Miss  Laura  Keene,  the  leading  ac 
tress  in  the  play,  came  upon  the  stage,  entered  the 
box,  and  calling  on  all  in  the  house  to  keep  quiet, 
bathed  the  head  of  the  unconscious  victim,  and  required 
the  crowd  to  fall  back  and  give  him  air.  The  house  was 
speedily  in  confusion — the  lights  were  turned  off,  and 
the  multitude  dispersed.  Several  surgeons  soon  came 
forward  and  made  an  examination  of  the  President's  per 
son,  and  as  soon  as  the  wound  was  discovered,  he  was 
removed  from  the  theatre  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Peterson, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  Tenth  Street,  where,  in  a  small 
room  on  the  first  floor,  he  was  laid  diagonally  across  a 
large  bed.  He  was  at  once  divested  of  his  clothing  ;  the 
surgeons  in  attendance,  Surgeon- General  Barnes  presi 
ding,  examined  the  wound,  and  it  was  at  once  seen  that 
he  could  not  possibly  survive  many  hours.  The  ball 
had  entered  on  the  left  side  of  the  head,  behind  the  left 
ear,  and  three  inches  from  it.  Its  course  was  obliquely 
forward,  traversing  the  brain,  and  lodging  just  behind 
the  right  eye.  The  President  was  at  once  surrounded  by 
the  prominent  officers  of  the  Government.  Mrs.  Lincoln, 
overcome  with  emotion,  was  led  from  the  theatre  to  the 
house  where  her  husband  lay.  Secretary  McCullough, 
Attorney-General  Speed,  Secretary  Welles,  Senator  Sum- 
ner,  and  other  distinguished  gentlemen,  remained  in  the 
room  through  the  night.  When  first  brought  into  the  house 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  699 

the  President's  breathing  was  regular,  but  difficult.  This 
continued  throughout  the  night,  he  giving,  with  occa 
sional  exceptions,  no  indications  of  suffering,  and  remain 
ing,  with  closed  eyes,  perfectly  unconscious.  At  about 
seven  in  the  morning  his  breathing  became  more  difficult, 
and  was  interrupted  at  intervals  sometimes  for  so  long  a 
time  that  he  was  supposed  to  be  dead.  At  twenty-two 
minutes  past  seven  he  ceased  breathing,  and  thus  expired. 
There  was  no  convulsive  action,  no  rattling  in  the  throat, 
no  appearance  of  suffering  of  any  kind — none  of  the 
symptoms  which  ordinarily  attend  dissolution  and  add 
to  its  terrors.  From  the  instant  he  was  struck  by  the 
ball  of  the  assassin,  he  had  not  given  the  slightest  indica 
tion  that  he  was  conscious  of  any  thing  that  occurred 
around  him. 

The  news  that  the  President  had  been  shot  spread  at 
once  through  the  town,  and  was  instantly  followed  by 
tidings  of  a  murderous  assault,  still  more  terrible  in  its 
details,  upon  the  Secretary  of  State.  We  have  already 
mentioned  the  accident  by  which  Mr.  Seward  was  thrown 
from  his  carriage,  and  seriously  injured.  His  right  arm 
was  broken  above  the  elbow,  his  jaw  was  fractured,  and 
his  whole  system  seriously  shattered.  For  nearly  a  fort 
night  he  had  been  confined  to  his  bed,  unable  to  swallow 
any  thing  but  liquids,  and  reduced,  by  pain  and  this 
enforced  abstinence,  to  a  state  of  extreme  debility.  His 
room  was  on  the  third  floor  of  his  residence  in  Madison 
Place,  fronting  on  President  Square,  and  the  bed  on  which 
he  lay  stood  opposite  the  door  by  which  the  room  was 
entered,  and  about  ten  feet  from  it.  At  a  few  minutes 
past  ten — within  five  minutes  of  the  time  when  the  Pres-- 
ident  was  shot — a  man,  proved  afterwards  to  be  Lewis 
Payne  Powell,  generally  known  as  Payne,  rang  at  the 
door  of  Mr.  Seward' s  residence,  and  said  to  the  colored 
lad  who  opened  it  that  he  had  some  medicines  prescribed 
for  Mr.  Seward  by  Dr.  Verdi,  his  family  physician, 
which  he  must  deliver  in  person.  The  lad  said  that 
no  one  could  go  up  to  Mr.  Seward' s  room;  but  Payne 
pushed  him  aside  and  rushed  up  stairs.  He  had 


700  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

reached  the  third  floor,  and  was  about  to  enter  Mr. 
Seward'  s  room,  when  he  was  confronted  by  Mr.  Frederick 
W.  Seward,  the  Secretary's  son,  to  whom  he  made  the 
same  statement  of  his  errand.  He  was  refused  admis 
sion,  when  he  drew  a  pistol  and  snapped  it  at  Frederick 
without  effect ;  he  then  struck  him  with  it  upon  the  head 
twice,  with  such  force  as  to  break  the  pistol  and  prostrate 
his  victim,  fracturing  his  skull.  Hearing  the  noise,  Miss 
Fannie  Seward,  who  was  in  her  father' s  room,  opened  the 
door,  into  which  Payne  instantly  rushed,  and,  drawing  a 
bowie-knife,  threw  himself  upon  the  bed,  and  made  three 
powerful  stabs  at  the  throat  of  Mr.  Seward,  who  had 
raised  himself  up  at  the  first  alarm,  and  who  instantly 
divined  the  real  nature  and  intention  of  the  assault. 
Each  blow  inflicted  a  terrible  wound,  but,  before  the 
assassin  could  deal  another,  he  was  seized  around  the 
body  by  an  invalid  soldier  named  Robinson,  who  was  in 
attendance  as  nurse,  and  who  strove  to  drag  the  murderer 
from  his  victim.  Payne  at  once  struck  at  Robinson 
and  inflicted  upon  him  several  serious  wounds,  but 
did  not  succeed  in  freeing  himself  from  his  grasp. 
Mr.  Seward,  the  instant  his  murderer's  attention  was 
withdrawn  from  him,  threw  himself  off  the  bed  at  the 
farther  side;  and  Payne,  finding  that  his  victim  was 
thus  beyond  his  reach,  broke  away  from  Robinson, 
and  rushed  to  the  door.  The  colored  lad  in  the  lower 
hall  had  run  into  the  street  for  help,  and  Miss  Fannie 
Seward  shouted  ' 4  Murder ! ' '  from  the  upper  window.  The 
assassin,  on  reaching  the  upper  hall,  met  Major  Augustus 
Seward,  another  son  of  the  Secretary,  whom  he  struck 
with  his  dagger,  and  on  the  stairs  encountered  Mr. 
Hansell,  one  of  the  Secretary's  attendants,  whom  he 
stabbed  in  the  back.  Forcing  his  way  through  all  these 
obstacles,  he  rushed  down  the  stairs,  and  finding,  to  his 
surprise,  no  one  there  to  oppose  his  progress,  he  passed 
out  at  the  front  door,  mounted  a  horse  he  had  left  stand 
ing  in  front  of  the  house,  and  rode  leisurely  away. 

When  the  news  of  this  appalling  tragedy  spread  through 
the  city,  it  carried  consternation  to  every  heart.     Tread- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  701 

irig  close  on  the  heels  of  the  President' s  murder — perpe 
trated,  indeed,  at  the  same  instant — it  was  instinctively 
felt  to  be  the  work  of  a  conspiracy,  secret,  remorseless, 
and  terrible.  The  Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Stanton,  had 
left  Mr.  Seward's  bedside  not  twenty  minutes  before 
the  assault,  and  was  in  his  private  chamber,  prepar 
ing  to  retire,  when  a  messenger  brought  tidings  of  the 
tragedy,  and  summoned  his  instant  attendance.  On  his 
way  to  Mr.  Seward's  house,  Mr.  Stanton  heard  of  the 
simultaneous  murder  of  the  President,  and  instantly  felt 
that  the  Government  was  enveloped  in  the  meshes  of  a 
conspiracy,  whose  agents  were  unknown,  and  which  was 
all  the  more  terrible  for  the  darkness  and  mystery  in 
which  it  moved.  Orders  were  instantly  given  to  close  all 
drinking- shops  and  all  places  of  public  resort  in  the  city, 
guards  were  stationed  at  every  point,  and  all  possible 
precautions  were  taken  for  the  safety  of  the  Vice-Presi 
dent  and  other  prominent  Government  officials.  A  vague 
terror  brooded  over  the  population  of  the  town.  Men 
whispered  to  each  other  as  they  met,  in  the  gloom  of 
midnight,  and  the  deeper  gloom  of  the  shadowy  crime 
which  surrounded  them.  Presently,  passionate  indigna 
tion  replaced  this  paralysis  of  the  public  heart,  and,  but 
for  the  precautions  adopted  on  the  instant  by  the  Govern 
ment,  the  public  vengeance  would  have  been  wreaked 
upon  the  rebels  confined  in  the  Old  Capitol  Prison.  All 
these  feelings,  however,  gradually  subsided,  and  gave 
way  to  a  feeling  of  intense  anxiety  for  the  life  of  the 
President.  Crowds  of  people  assembled  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  house  where  the  dying  martyr  lay,  eager  for 
tidings  of  his  condition,  throughout  the  night ;  and  when, 
early  in  the  morning,  it  was  announced  that  he  was  dead, 
a  feeling  of  solemn  awe  filled  every  heart,  and  sat,  a 
brooding  grief,  upon  every  face. 

And  so  it  was  through  all  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land.  In  every  State,  in  every  town,  in  every 
household,  there  was  a  dull  and  bitter  agony,  as  the 
telegraph  bore  tidings  of  the  awful  deed.  Everywhere 
throughout  the  Union,  the  public  heart,  bounding  with 


702  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

exultation  at  the  triumphant  close  of  the  great  war,  and 
ready  to  celebrate  with  a  mighty  joy  the  return  of  peace, 
stood  still  with  a  sacred  terror,  as  it  was  smitten  by  the 
terrible  tidings  from  the  capital  of  the  Nation.  In  the 
great  cities  of  the  land  all  business  instantly  stopped — no 
man  had  the  heart  to  think  of  gain — nags  drooped  half- 
mast  from  every  winged  messenger  of  the  sea,  from  every 
church  spire,  from  every  tree  of  liberty,  and  from  every 
public  building.  Masses  of  the  people  came  together  by 
a  spontaneous  impulse,  to  look  fri  each  other's  faces,  as 
if  they  could  read  there  some  hint  of  the  meaning  of  these 
dreadful  deeds — some  omen  of  the  country' s  fate.  Thou 
sands  upon  thousands,  drawn  by  a  common  feeling, 
crowded  around  every  place  of  public  resort,  and  listened 
eagerly  to  whatever  any  public  speaker  chose  to  say. 
Wall  Street,  in  New  York,  was  thronged  by  a  vast  multi 
tude  of  men,  to  whom  eminent  public  officials  addressed 
words  of  sympathy  and  of  hope.  Gradually  as  the  day 
wore  on,  emblems  of  mourning  were  hung  from  the  win 
dows  of  every  house  throughout  the  town,  and  before  the 
sun  had  set  every  city,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land,  to  which  tidings  of  the  great  calamity  had 
been  borne  by  the  telegraph,  was  enshrouded  in  the 
shadow  of  the  national  grief.  On  the  next  day,  which  was 
Sunday,  every  pulpit  resounded  with  eloquent  eulogies 
of  the  murdered  President,  and  with  such  comments  on 
his  death  as  faith  in  an  overruling  Providence  alone  could 
prompt.  The  whole  country  was  plunged  into  profound 
grief — and  none  deplored  the  crime  which  had  deprived 
the  Nation  of  its  head  with  more  sincerity  than  those  who 
had  been  involved  in  the  guilt  of  the  rebellion,  and  who 
had  just  begun  to  appreciate  those  merciful  and  forgiving 
elements  in  Mr.  Lincoln' s  character,  whose  exercise  they 
themselves  would  need  so  soon. 

Immediately  after  his  death,  the  body  of  the  President 
was  removed  to  the  Executive  Mansion,  embalmed,  and 
placed  in  the  Green  Room,  which  had  been  prepared  by 
suitable  emblems  of  mourning  for  its  reception.  Near 
the  centre  of  the  room  stood  the  grand  catafalque,  four 


: 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  703 

feet  high,  upon  which  rested  the  mahogany  coffin,  cov 
ered  with  flowers — the  last  sad  offerings  of  affection — in 
which  the  body  was  placed  for  its  final  rest.  The  funeral 
services  took  place  on  Wednesday  the  19th,  and  were 
held  in  the  East  Room.  They  were  attended  by  repre 
sentatives  of  every  department  of  the  Government,  and 
were  exceedingly  impressive  and  touching.  The  guard 
of  honor,  which  had  watched  over  the  remains  of  the 
illustrious  dead,  still  maintained  its  place,  with  Major- 
General  Hunter  at  its  head.  Nearest  the  coffin  sat  the 
relatives  of  the  President — his  children  and  his  wife's 
connections — his  widow  being  too  utterly  prostrated  by 
her  grief  to  leave  her  room.  Deputations  from  different 
sections  of  the  country, — Governors  of  States,  Members 
of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, — the  Heads 
of  the  several  Executive  Departments,  with  their  assist 
ants  and  clerks,  the  diplomatic  corps  and  their  attaches, 
the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  and  the  local  Courts,  repre 
sentatives  from  the  Sanitary  and  Christian  Commissions— 
these  and  many  others,  whom  respect  for  the  departed 
President  had  brought  to  his  funeral,  entered  the  room 
and  took  the  places  assigned  them.  At  twelve  o'  clock, 
ANDREW  JOHNSON,  who  had  become,  in  consequence  of 
this  murder,  President  of  the  United  States,  came  for 
ward,  followed  by  all  the  members  of  the  Cabinet,  except 
Mr.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State,  who  lay  unconscious  of 
the  fate  of  his  beloved  and  revered  chief,  himself  the 
prostrate  victim  of  the  same  daring  and  remorseless  crim^. 
Rev.  Dr.  Hall,  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Washington, 
read  the  Episcopal  Service  for  the  Dead  ;  a  fervent 
prayer  was  offered  by  Bishop  Simpson  of  the  Metho 
dist  Church,  and  a  funeral  discourse  was  pronounced 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  pastor  of  the  new  Presbyterian 
Church  in  New  York  Avenue,  which  the  President  and 
his  family  were  in  the  habit  of  attending.  At  the  con 
clusion  of  the  sermon,  the  Chaplain  of  the  Senate,  Rev. 
Dr.  Gray,  made  a  prayer,  and  the  religious  ceremonies 
were  closed.  The  body  of  the  President  was  then  re 
moved  and  placed  upon  the  lofty  hearse,  surmounted  by 


704  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

a  canopy,  and  covered  with,  black  velvet,  which  stood  in 
front  of  the  Executive  Mansion. 

At  two  o'clock  the  grand  procession  started.  Pennsyl 
vania  Avenue  was  completely  cleared,  from  the  Executive 
Mansion  to  the  Capitol.  Every  window  along  its  whole 
length — all  the  roofs  of  all  the  houses — the  sidewalks,  and 
every  accessible  spot  along  the  route,  were  crowded  with 
a  living  throng,  awaiting  in  sad  and  oppressive  silence 
the  approach  of  the  funeral- car.  The  soft,  sad  strains  of 
funereal  music  soon  broke  the  stillness  of  the  summer  air, 
and  marshalled  the  grand  military  cortege  which  led  the 
way.  Then  came  the  hearse,  drawn  by  six  gray  horses, 
draped  in  black,  and  preceded  by  twenty  pall-bearers, 
selected  from  both  Houses  of  Congress,  from  the  Army 
and  Navy,  and  from  civil  life,  and  followed  by  a  great 
throng  of  the  most  eminent  officers  of  the  Government, 
and  of  deputations  from  every  State  and  section  of  the 
country,  and  from  benevolent,  industrial,  and  political 
societies  throughout  the  land.  Filling  Pennsylvania 
Avenue  through  its  whole  extent,  this  great  procession — 
marshalled  with  military  precision,  and  marching  to  the 
cadence  of  slow  music  from  many  bands — escorted,  with 
becoming  pomp,  the  remains  of  the  martyred  President 
to  the  National  Capitol,  which  rose  in  white  grandeur, 
clad,  from  basement  to  the  summit  of  its  lordly  dome,  with 
garments  of  woe,  to  receive  the  precious  gift.  The  whole 
vast  building  was  draped  in  black.  All  the  pillars  were 
entwined  with  crape, — from  all  the  windows  hung  em 
blems  of  moiirning,  and  a  black  canopy  surmounted  the 
Eastern  door,  by  which  the  great  concourse  was  to  enter. 
Minute-guns  from  all  the  forts  around  the  city  thundered 
forth  their  sad  salutations, — the  bells  from  every  tower 
and  spire  rang  out  in  muffled  tones  their  chronicle  of  the 
stately  march.  At  a  little  after  three  o'clock  the  military 
cortege,  which  led  the  procession,  entered  the  open  space 
in  front  of  the  Eastern  entrance.  Filing  past  in  proper 
order,  the  infantry,  wheeling,  faced  the  Capitol, — the  artil 
lery  took  position  on  the  hill  opposite  the  entrance, — the 
cavalry  remained  in  the  street,  and  a  great  throng  of 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  705 

spectators  gazed  in  silence  upon  the  grand  display.     As 
the  funeral-car  approached,  all  the  military  bands  burst 
into  a  solemn  requiem,— the  artillery  thundered  out  their 
stormy  greeting,— the  vast  crowd,  as  by  a  common  im 
pulse,  uncovered, —and  as  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  in  deep  and 
impressive  tones,  recited  the  grand  sentences  in  which  the 
Church  signalizes  the  departure  of  her  dead,  the  body  of 
President  Lincoln  was  borne  into  the  rotunda  and  placed 
upon  the  lofty  catafalque  prepared  for  its  reception.     As 
the  recitation  closed,  President  Johnson  entered  the  hall, 
followed  by  several  Senators.     Captain  Robert  Lincoln 
and  the  family  relatives  came  forward.     The  President's 
body-guard  formed  in  double  column  near  the  body. 
Dr.  Gurley  made  a  closing  prayer  and  pronounced  the 
benediction.    All  then  left  the  Rotunda :  guards  were  sta 
tioned  at  all  the  doors.    General  Augur  and  his  staff  took 
charge  of  the  remains,  and  with  drawn  swords  the  officers 
detailed  for  the  service  mounted  guard  over  them.     As 
night  came  on,  the  jets  of  gas  concealed  in  the  height  of 
the  dome  were  lighted  up,  and  cast  their  softened  glare 
upon  the  vigil  that  was  kept  below. 

The  body  of  the  President  remained  in  the  Rotunda, 
exposed  to  public  view,  during  the  night  of  the  19th,  and 
until  nine  o'clock  at  night  of  the  succeeding  day.  Thou 
sands  upon  thousands  visited  the  Capital  to  take  a  last 
look  at  his  features,  and  among  them  were  many  wound 
ed  soldiers,  hobbling  from  the  hospitals,  to  gaze  for  the 
last  time  upon  the  face  of  the  late  Commander-in-Chief. 
A  guard  of  honor  remained  during  the  night,  and  at  six 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  21st,  the  members  of  the 
Cabinet  and  distinguished  officers  of  the  army,  and  many 
members  of  Congress,  paid  their  final  visit  to  the  remains. 
The  coffin  was  then  prepared  for  removal,  and  closed. 

It  had  been  decided  to  transfer  the  President's  remains 
to  Springfield,  Illinois,  the  place  of  his  residence,  for 
final  interment ;  and  the  original  purpose  had  been  to 
make  the  transit  as  rapidly  as  was  convenient,  and  with 
out  exposure  of  the  body  to  public  view.  But  this  de 
sign  could  not  be  carried  out.  From  every  city  and  town 

45 


706  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

along  the  extended  route  came  up  a  cry  of  the  people  to 
be  allowed  to  look  upon  the  face  of  the  great  martyr  to 
their  principles  and  their  national  life.  This  demand 
was  conceded,  and  arrangements  were  made  for  a  special 
funeral  train  over  all  the  roads.  A  car  was  fitted  up  with 
great  taste  and  elegance,  for  the  reception  of  the  remains. 
The  whole  car  was  draped  in  black,  the  mourning  on  the 
outside  being  festooned  in  double  rows  above  and  below 
the  windows.  At  seven  o'clock,  after  a  prayer  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  the  coffin  containing  the  remains  was 
removed  from  the  Rotunda,  and  escorted  to  the  railroad 
depot,  without  music,  by  companies  of  the  Twelfth  Veteran 
Reserve  Corps,  and  followed  by  Lieutenant- General 
Grant,  members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  other  distinguished 
personages.  At  the  depot  it  was  received  by  President 
Johnson  and  others,  and  placed  in  the  rear  of  the  car  de 
signed  for  its  reception.  A  guard  of  twenty-one  first  ser 
geants  of  the  Veteran  Reserve  Corps  had  been  detailed  to 
accompany  the  train  ;  a  large  number  of  gentlemen,  who 
had  been  invited  to  attend,  entered  the  cars,  and  at  eight 
o'clock,  after  another  prayer  by  Dr.  Gurley,  the  train, 
embracing  seven  carriages,  all  in  mourning,  and  drawn 
by  a  locomotive  also  draped  with  black,  slowly  moved, 
amid  a  vast  crowd  of  silent  and  sad  spectators,  out  of  the 
depot  towards  Baltimore.  Under  the  direction  of  the 
War  Department,  a  schedule  of  times  of  arrival  at  and 
departure  from  every  place  along  the  route,  for  the 
whole  distance,  had  been  marked  out  with  great  preci 
sion,  and  was  rigidly  adhered  to.  The  rate  of  speed  was 
restricted,  a  pilot  engine  was  sent  in  advance  to  observe 
the  road,  and  every  possible  precaution  was  adopted  for 
the  prevention  of  accidents.  As  the  train  moved  out  of 
the  depot,  the  great  multitude  reverently  uncovered  their 
heads,  aud  stood  fixed  in  their  grief  some  moments  after 
it  had  passed  away. 

The  passage  of  this  great  funeral  procession,  a  distance 
of  more  than  a  thousand  miles,  through  the  largest  and 
most  populous  States  and  towns  of  the  Union,  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  spectacles  ever  seen  on  the  face 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  707 

of  the  earth.  At  every  point,  for  all  that  great  dis 
tance,  vast  gatherings  of  the  people  assembled  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  passing  train  ;  and  at  every  place  where 
it  stopped,  and  the  remains  were  exposed  to  view,  great 
crowds,  such  as  no  other  occasion  had  ever  brought  to 
gether  before,  came  to  look  upon  the  features  of  their 
murdered  chief.  The  great  cities  poured  forth  their 
population  in  uncounted  masses.  In  town  and  country 
every  house  was  hung  with  mourning — flags  drooped  at 
half-mast,  and  inscriptions,  filled  with  touching  expres 
sions  of  the  nation' s  sorrow,  or  glowing  with  eulogy  of 
the  departed  leader,  greeted  the  eye,  and  renewed  the  sor 
row,  of  the  spectator  everywhere. 

At  ten  o'clock  the  train  entered  the  depot  at  Baltimore, 
where,  in  spite  of  inclement  weather,  it  was  met  by  an 
immense  procession  of  all  ages  and  classes  of  people  : — 
the  coffin  was  borne  through  the  vast  crowd,  who  stood 
with  uncovered  heads,  to  the  funeral-car,  elegantly 
draped,  and  its  sides  composed  of  plate-glass,  which 
awaited  its  reception  in  Camden  Street.  A  large  and  im 
posing  military  display,  under  command  of  Brigadier- 
General  H.  H.  Lockwood,  escorted  the  remains  to  the 
Exchange,  which  had  been  prepared  to  receive  them,  and 
where  they  were  placed  upon  a  raised  dais,  covered  by 
a  canopy  of  black  and  strewn  with  rare  and  choice 
flowers,  as  a  fit  resting-place  for  the  illustrious  dead.  An 
immense  crowd  surrounded  the  building,  only  a  small 
portion  of  whom  could  possibly  gain  admittance  to  look 
upon  the  corpse.  At  half-past  two  the  coffin  was  closed, 
and  removed,  a  large  procession  following  it  to  the  depot 
of  the  Northern  Central  Railroad  Company,  from  which 
the  funeral  train  departed  at  three  for  Harrisburg,  the 
capital  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Governor  of  that  State  being 
one  of  the  attendant  mourners. 

Arriving  at  Harrisburg  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening, 
the  streets  were  thronged,  in  spite  of  a  heavy  rain,  with 
great  crowds  of  people,  who  followed  the  remains  to 
the  Capitol,  where  the  body  lay  in  state,  upon  a  catafalque 
surmounted  by  a  wreath  of  flowering  almonds.  It  was 


708  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

exposed  to  public  view  from  nine  o'clock  to  midnight, 
when  the  coffin  was  closed  nntil  seven  in  the  morning. 
It  was  then  again  opened,  and  thousands  of  citizens 
passed  in  to  view  the  body.  At  nine  o?  clock,  amid  the 
thunder  of  artillery,  a  long  column  of  soldiers  entered  the 
hall  for  the  same  purpose.  At  eleven  o'clock  the  coffin 
was  replaced  upon  the  funeral-car,  and  the  train  de 
parted. 

All  along  the  route,  in  the  villages,  and  along  the  road 
side  in  the  country  districts,  the  people  gathered  in  large 
numbers,  merely  to  view  the  passing  train.  At  Lan 
caster,  not  less  than  twenty  thousand  were  thus  assem 
bled.  On  either  side  of  the  road  stood  benevolent,  reli 
gious,  and  working  associations,  dressed  in  mourning, 
standing  in  long  lines,  and  reverently  uncovering  their 
heads  as  the  funeral- car  passed  by.  As  the  train  ap 
proached  Philadelphia,  these  demonstrations  of  respect 
increased.  Private  residences  were  draped  in  mourning, 
and  flags  drooped  from  every  eminence.  At  half-past 
four  the  train  reached  the  depot  in  Broad  Street,  and  at 
six  the  majestic  procession,  formed  to  escort  the  remains 
to  Independence  Hall,  commenced  its  march  through 
streets  densely  filled  with  people  who  had  gathered  from 
every  part  of  the  surrounding  country  ;  and  at  half-past 
nine,  before  the  rear  of  the  procession  had  left  the  depot, 
the  body  of  the  President  was  deposited  in  the  hall, 
which  first  echoed  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
which  was  now  prepared,  with  exquisite  taste,  to  receive 
to  its  sanctuary  the  great  martyr  of  the  Liberty  which  was 
then  proclaimed.  In  the  morning  the  doors  were  opened 
for  the  public,  and  before  daylight  lines  were  formed, 
extending  from  the  Delaware  to  the  Schuylkill,  at  least 
three  miles,  of  persons  awaiting  their  chance  to  see  the 
corpse.  This  continued  all  through  the  day,  and  deep 
into  the  succeeding  night.  Scenes  the  most  touching  and 
impressive  marked  this  farewell  visit.  The  wounded 
soldiers  limping  in  to  look  at  their  late  commander — 
negroes,  old  and  young,  flocking  in  to  see  him  whom 
they  deemed  the  great  deliverer  of  their  race — citizens  of 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  700 

every  class,  of  every  political  party,  of  every  variety  of 
opinion  on  every  subject,  gathered  by  a  common  impulse 
of  love  and  pity,  to  look  upon  him  whom  God  had  made 
the  great  leader  of  the  nation  in  the  most  perilous  crisis 
of  its  fate. 

At  four  o'clock,  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  April, 
the  funeral  train  took  its  departure  for  New  York.  March 
ing  in  solemn  state  through  the  crowds  of  people,  which 
seemed  to  line  the  track  all  along  the  route,  it  reached 
Jersey  City,  opposite  New  York,  and  passed  into  the 
spacious  depot,  which  had  been  clad  in  mourning,  to  the 
music  of  a  funeral  dirge,  executed  by  a  choir  of  seventy 
singers,  and  under  the  roar  of  heavy  and  loud  artillery. 
The  coffin  was  lifted  from  the  car  and  borne  on  the 
shoulders  of  ten  stalwart  veterans,  followed  by  a  proces 
sion  of  conspicuous  officials,  marching  to  the  music  of 
"  Rest  in  the  Grave,"  sung  by  the  choral  societies,  to  the 
hearse  prepared  for  its  reception.  Passing  then  to  the 
ferry-boat,  which  at  once  crossed  the  river,  the  hearse, 
drawn  by  six  gray  horses,  heavily  draped  in  black,  took 
its  place  in  the  procession,  headed  by  General  Dix  and 
other  officers,  escorted  by  the  Seventh  Regiment,  and  the 
whole  cortege  moved,  through  densely-crowded  streets 
and  amidst  the  most  impressive  display  of  public  and  pri 
vate  grief,  to  the  City  Hall.  At  half-past  eleven  the  hekd 
of  the  procession  entered  the  Park,  and  while  cannon 
thundered  from  every  fort  in  and  around  the  harbor,  while 
church-bells  from  every  spire  pealed  out  the  nation's 
sorrow,  and  while  eight  hundred  choristers  chanted  the 
"  Chorus  of  the  Spirits"  and  filled  the  charmed  air  with 
its  sadly  enchanting  melody,  the  coffin  was  borne  up  the 
steps  of  the  City  Hall,  and  placed  under  the  dome,  draped, 
decorated,  and  dimly  lighted,  upon  the  plane  prepared  for 
its  reception.  The  troops  then  retired  ;  guards  were  sta 
tioned  at  the  head  of  every  stairway  and  sentries  at  every 
door.  From  this  time  five  officers,  relieved  every  two 
hours,  kept  immediate  watch  over  the  body,  day  and  night. 
Soon  the  doors  were  opened,  and  entering,  one  by  one,  in 
proper  order,  the  citizens  of  the  great  metropolis  came  to 


710  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

look  upon  the  illustrious  dead.  All  through,  that  day  and 
the  succeeding  night  the  endless  stream  poured  in,  while 
outside  the  Park,  Broadway,  and  the  entire  area  of  Print- 
ing-House  Square,  reaching  up  Chatham  Street  and  East 
Broadway  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  a  vast  throng  of 
people  stood  silent  and  hopeless,  but  still  expectant,  of  a 
chance  to  enter  and  see  the  "body  of  the  murdered  Presi 
dent.  Not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  per 
sons  obtained  admission,  and  not  less  than  twice  that  num 
ber  had  waited  for  it  in  vain.  At  twenty  minutes  to 
twelve  on  the  25th,  the  doors  were  closed.  The  ap 
pointed  pall-bearers  took  their  place  beside  the  coffin, 
which  at  one  o'clock  was  lifted  and  carried,  to  the 
tolling  of  the  bell  and  the  tap  of  the  drum,  out  through 
the  double  line  of  the  Seventh  Regiment,  and  placed 
upon  the  funeral- car.  Escorted  by  the  finest  military 
display  ever  seen  in  New  York,  and  followed  in  pro 
cession  by  great  numbers  of  her  citizens,  the  car  moved 
through  the  principal  streets,  in  view  of  a  vast  con 
course  of  people,  to  the  depot  of  the  Hudson  River 
Railroad,  at  the  corner  of  Thirtieth  Street  and  Tenth 
Avenue.  When  the  head  of  the  procession  reached  the 
depot  the  column  halted  and  faced  to  the  west ;  and  as  the 
car  bearing  the  body  came  up,  the  solemn  strains  of  the 
military  bands  broke  forth,  the  troops  presented  arms, 
the  vast  crowd  kept  the  most  profound  and  impressive 
silence,  the  coffin,  with  due  ceremonies,  was  placed  upon 
the  railway-car,  and  at  four  o'clock,  to  the  sound  of  a 
funeral  dirge,  the  train  took  its  departure. 

It  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  note  in  detail  the  demon 
strations  and  observances  which  followed  the  President's 
remains  to  their  final  resting-place.  At  every  point  there 
was  substantially  the  same  spectacle.  Everywhere  the 
people  gathered  in  vast  numbers  to  greet  the  sad  procession. 
Everywhere  the  same  sorrow,  seeming  to  be  almost  the 
expression  of  a  personal  and  household  grief,  was  shown 
by  drooping  flags,  by  houses  draped  in  mourning,  by 
touching  inscriptions  and  memorials  of  the  nobleness,  the 
integrity,  the  purity  of  the  departed  chief. 


^•^   OF 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  711 

At  Albany  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  people  visited 
the  capitol  to  view  the  remains,  which  were  escorted  "by 
an  imposing  procession  of  soldiers  and  civilians  to  the 
depot  of  the  Central  Railroad.  At  four  o'clock  on  the 
evening  of  the  26th  the  train  left  for  the  West.  At  Utica, 
at  Syracuse,  at  Rochester,  at  Buffalo,  and  at  every  vil 
lage  along  the  route,  crowds  of  people  were  assembled. 
At  seven  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the  27th  the  train 
reached  Cleveland,  where  a  procession  was  formed,  reli 
gious  services  were  held,  and  the  remains  were  exposed  to 
public  view.  Similar  ceremonies  attended  the  arrival  at 
Columbus,  and  at  every  point  of  the  route,  through  Indi 
ana,  the  same  great  demonstrations  of  popular  interest  and 
sorrow  were  observed.  At  Chicago  the  most  extensive 
preparations  had  been  made  for  the  reception  of  the  re 
mains.  On  the  1st  of  May,  as  the  train  approached, 
minute-guns  and  the  tolling  of  bells  signalized  the  event. 
The  great  multitude  stood  with  uncovered  heads  as  the 
coffin  was  borne,  between  the  open  ranks  of  the  military, 
under  the  magnificent  Gothic  arch,  which  had  been-erect- 
ed  across  Park  Place,  and  placed  upon  the  funeral- car. 
Thence  it  was  escorted,  by  thousands  of  those  who  in  life 
had  known  Mr.  Lincoln  best,  marching  in  procession,  to 
the  Court-House,  where  the  remains  lay  in  state,  and  were 
exposed  to  public  view.  Thousands  upon  thousands 
flocked  from  the  surrounding  country  to  look  upon  them. 
Fresh  flowers,  the  sweet  offerings  of  woman' s  love,  from 
time  to  time  were  strewn  upon  the  coffin.  Sad  strains  of 
music  gave  voice  to  the  public  woe.  Addresses  were 
made,  eulogies  pronounced,  and  in  every  way  and  by 
every  form  the  great  city  of  his  own  State  sought  to  tell 
the  world  how  much  she  loved  and  revered  the  memory 
of  her  illustrious  son. 

On  the  3d  of  May  the  President's  remains  reached 
Springfield,  which,  for  so  many  of  his  active  years  and 
before  the  nation  claimed  him,  had  been  his  home.  They 
were  escorted  to  the  State  House,  borne  into  the  hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  which  had  been  appropri 
ately  decorated  for  the  occasion,  and  placed  upon  a  cata- 


712  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

falque  prepared  for  its  reception.  All  day  and  all  night 
long  the  streets  of  that  quiet  town  resounded  with  the 
footsteps  of  the  thousands  who  came  to  look  upon  the 
corpse  of  him  they  loved  as  a  neighbor  and  friend,  and 
whom  they  now  revered  as  foremost  among  the  mighty 
martyrs  of  the  earth.  In  the  morning  minute-guns  were 
fired — and,  as  a  choir  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  voices 
sang  "Peace,  troubled  soul"  at  ten  o'clock  the  coffin 
was  closed  forever.  The  remains  were  then  placed  in  the 
hearse,  the  procession  moved,  under  command  of  Major- 
General  Hooker,  to  Oak  Ridge  Cemetery,  and  there, 
while  the  choir  sang  "  Unveil  thy  bosom,  faithful  tomb" 
the  sepulchre  received  to  its  final  rest  all  that  was  mortal 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Religious  exercises  were  then 
held,  Bishop  Simpson  pronouncing  an  eloquent  and 
appropriate  funeral  oration,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  of 
Washington,  making  a  closing  prayer. 


Thus  closed  the  life  and  public  services  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  As  the  condition  of  the  country  during  his 
Administration  made  him  the  most  conspicuous  figure  in 
American  history,  so  did  the  circumstances  of  his  death 
give  him  a  sad  and  terrible  isolation.  It  was  the  first 
time  that  assassination  had  sought  to  aid,  or  avenge,  a 
political  cause  in  the  United  States,  and  nothing  but  the 
terrible  fever  of  civil  war  could  have  engendered  a  crime 
so  abhorrent  to  the  American  character  and  the  genius  of 
republican  institutions.  The  investigation  which  the 
Government  at  once  set  on  foot,  and  prosecuted  with  the 
utmost  vigor,  proved  that  the  abduction  and  assassination 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  the  topic  of  speculative  conver 
sation,  in  various  portions  of  the  rebel  States,  for  some 
months  previous  to  its  execution.  It  did  not  appear, 
however,  that  the  deed  was  done  by  direct  procurement 
of  the  rebel  authorities,  though  it  was  made  more  than 
probable  that  the  agents  whom  they  kept  in  Canada,  and 
supplied  with  large  sums  of  money,  for  what  they  styled 
"detached  service" — meaning  by  that  phrase  enterprises 
of  robbery,  murder,  and  arson,  over  which  they  vainly 


•-••'• 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABIIAHAM  LINCOLN.  713 

sought  to  throw  the  protection  of  the  laws  of  war — were  at 
least  acquainted  with  the  horrible  plot,  and  lent  it  their 
sanction,  if  not  their  aid.  But  it  seems  to  have  originated 
mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  with  the  man  who  played  the 
leading  part  in  its  execution.  Booth  was  a  son  of  the 
most  distinguished  actor  of  that  name,  and  inherited 
something  of  his  passionate  and  peculiar  nature.  He  had 
been,  from  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion,  one  of  its  most 
fanatical  devotees  ;  and,  as  its  strength  and  prospects  of 
success  began  to  grow  less  and  less,  his  mind  was  ab 
sorbed  in  desperate  schemes  for  reviving  its  fortunes  and 
securing  its  triumph.  Papers  which  he  left  behind  him 
show  that  he  had  deliberately  dedicated  himself  to  this 
service,  long  before  the  surrender  of  Lee  and  the  virtual 
overthrow  of  the  rebel  cause ;  and  what  was  then  a, 
desire  to  aid  the  rebellion,  became,  after  this  was  hope 
less,  a  desperate  determination  to  avenge  its  downfall. 
He  plotted  the  murder  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  of  the  leading 
members  of  the  Government,  with  the  utmost  care  and 
deliberation,  selecting  for  his  assistants  men  better  fitted 
to  be  tools  than  confederates,  and  assuming  himself  entire 
charge  of  the  enterprise.  The  meetings  of  the  conspira 
tors  were  held  at  the  house  of  one  Mrs.  Surratt,  in  Wash 
ington  ;  and  detailed  arrangements  had  been  made,  with 
her  assistance,  for  effecting  an  escape.  Booth  according 
ly,  after  shooting  the  President,  and  escaping  across  the 
eastern  branch  of  the  Potomac  River,  found  temporary 
shelter  and  aid  among  the  rebel  sympathizers  of  Lower 
Maryland.  His  movements,  however,  were  greatly  em 
barrassed  and  retarded  by  the  fracture  of  his  leg,  caused 
by  his  fall  as  he  leaped  upon  the  stage  after  committing 
the  murder ;  and  the  agents  whom  the  Government  had 
sent  in  pursuit  soon  came  upon  his  track,  and  on  the 
night  of  the  26th  of  April  found  him,  with  one  of  his 
accomplices,  a  lad  named  Harold,  who  had  also  been  the 
companion  of  his  flight,  in  the  barn  of  a  farmer  named 
Garrett,  near  Port  Koyal,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Rap- 
paliannock,  and  about  ninety  miles  from  Washington. 
Harold  surrendered.  Booth  refusing  to  do  so,  and 


714  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

menacing  his  captors  with  fire-arms,  was  shot  by  a  ser 
geant  of  the  troop,  named  Corbett.  Several  persons, 
implicated  more  or  less  directly  in  the  plot,  were  after 
wards  apprehended,  and  tried  before  a  military  commis 
sion  in  the  City  of  Washington.  Mrs.  Surratt,  Harold,  a 
man  named  Atzerott,  who  was  to  have  killed  Vice-Pres 
ident  Johnson,  and  Payne,  the  assailant  of  Secretary 
Seward,  were  executed  on  the  6th  of  July,  and  several 
others  were  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life  or  a  term 
of  years,  for  their  share  in  the  conspiracy.  As  these 
events  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Administration  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  it  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  this  work  to 
narrate  them  in  greater  detail. 

As  might  naturally  be  expected,  the  horrid  crime 
aroused  the  most  intense  indignation  throughout  the 
country.  No  man,  in  either  section,  ventured  to  become 
its  apologist ;  and  public  sentiment,  overlooking  every 
thing  that  was  irregular  and  inconclusive  in  the  proceed 
ings  of  the  military  commission  by  whose  sentence  the 
parties  accused  of  complicity  in  the  murder  were  con 
victed  and  hung,  applauded  the  execution,  and  gave  it 
the  sanction  of  a  general  and  emphatic  approval. 

The  murder  of  the  President  gave  still  another  evidence 
of  the  stability  of  our  institutions,  and  of  the  capacity  of  our 
people  to  meet  any  possible  emergency  in  the  conduct  of 
their  affairs.  It  occasioned  not  the  slightest  pause  in  the 
stately  march  of  the  Government.  The  Constitution  had 
provided  that,  in  the  event  of  the  President's  death,  the 
functions  of  his  office  should  devolve  upon  the  Vice- 
President.  Accordingly,  at  ten  o'  clock  on  the  morning 
of  President  Lincoln's  decease,  Andrew  Johnson  took 
the  oath  of  office,  and  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  as  President  of  the  United  States.  Not  a  word  was 
utt'jred,  nor  a  hand  lifted,  against  his  accession ;  and 
thus,  with  the  silent  and  cordial  acquiescence  of  the  great 
body  of  the  people,  a  crisis  was  passed  which,  in  other 
countries  and  in  other  times,  would  have  shaken  govern 
ments  to  their  foundation ;  and  the  world  saw  with  as 
tonishment  and  admiration,  that,  in  war  as  in  peace,  in 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  715 

the  most  trying  crises  of  a  nation' s  fate  as  well  as  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  public  affairs,  a  Government  "of  the 
people,  and  for  the  people,"  was  the  strongest  and'  the 
safest  the  world  had  ever  known. 

It  forms  no  part  of  the  object  of  this  work  to  deal  in 
eulogy  of  President  Lincoln  and  his  Administration.  Ita 
purpose  will  have  been  attained  if  it  places  his  acts  and 
words  in  such  a  form,  that  those  who  read  them  may 
judge  for  themselves  of  the  merits  and  defects  of  the  policy 
he  pursued.  It  was  his  destiny  to  guide  the  nation 
through  the  stormiest  period  of  its  existence.  No  one  of 
his  predecessors,  not  even  Washington,  encountered  diffi 
culties  of  equal  magnitude,  or  was  called  to  perform 
duties  of  equal  responsibility.  He  was  first  elected  by  a 
minority  of  the  popular  vote,  and  his  election  was  re 
garded  by  a  majority  of  the  people  as  the  immediate  occa 
sion,  if  not  the  cause,  of  civil  war  ;  yet  upon  him  de 
volved  the  necessity  of  carrying  on  that  war,  and  of  com 
bining  and  wielding  the  energies  of  the  nation  for  its  suc 
cessful  prosecution.  The  task,  under  all  the  circum 
stances  of  the  case,  was  one  of  the  most  gigantic  that  ever 
fell  to  the  lot  of  the  head  of  any  nation  ; — the  success  by 
which  it  was  crowned  vindicates  triumphantly  the  manner 
in  which  it  was  performed. 

From  the  outset,  Mr.  Lincoln's  reliance  was  upon  the 
spirit  and  patriotism  of.  the  people.  He  had  no  overween 
ing  estimate  of  his  own  sagacity  ;  he  was  quite  sensible 
of  his  lack  of  that  practical  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs 
which  experience  of  both  alone  can  give ;  but  he  had 
faith  in  the  devotion  of  the  people  to  the  principles  of 
Republican  government,  in  their  attachment  to  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  Union,  and  in  that  intuitive  sagacity  of 
a  great  community  which  always  transcends  the  most 
cunning  devices  of  individual  men,  and,  in  a  great  and 
perilous  crisis,  more  nearly  resembles  inspiration  than  the 
mere  deductions  of  the  human  intellect.  At  the  very  out 
set  of  his  Administration,  President  Lincoln  cast  himself, 
without  reserve  and  without  fear,  upon  this  reliance.  It 
has  been  urged  against  him  as  a  reproach  that  he  did  not 


716  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

assume  to  lead  and  control  public  sentiment,  but  was 
content  to  be  the  exponent  and  the  executor  of  its 
will.  Possibly  an  opposite  course  might  have  succeeded, 
but  possibly,  also,  it  might  have  ended  in  disastrous  and 
fatal  failure.  One  thing  is  certain  :  the  policy  which  he 
did  pursue  did  not  fail.  The  rebellion  did  not  succeed  ; 
the  authority  of  the  Government  was  not  overthrown  ;  no 
new  government,  resting  on  slavery  as  its  corner-stone, 
has  been  established  upon  this  continent,  nor  has  any  for 
eign  nation  been  provoked  or  permitted  to  throw  its 
sword  into  the  scale  against  us.  On  the  contrary,  the 
policy  pursued  by  Mr.  Lincoln  has  been  completely  and 
permanently  successful — and  that  fact  is  conclusive  as  to 
its  substantial  wisdom. 

In  one  respect  President  Lincoln  achieved  a  wonderful 
success.  He  maintained,  through  the  terrible  trials  of  his 
Administration,  a  reputation,  with  the  great  body  of  the 
people,  for  unsullied  integrity  of  purpose  and  of  conduct, 
which  even  Washington  did  not  surpass,  and  which  no 
President  since  Washington  has  equalled.  He  had  com 
mand  of  an  army  greater  than  that  of  any  living  monarch  ; 
he  wielded  authority  less  restricted  than  that  conferred 
by  any  other  constitutional  government ;  he  disbursed 
sums  of  money  equal  to  the  exchequer  of  any  nation  in 
the  world  ;  yet  no  man,  of  any  party,  believes  him  in  any 
instance  to  have  aimed  at  his  own  aggrandizement,  to 
have  been  actuated  by  personal  ambition,  or  to  have  con 
sulted  any  other  interest  than  the  welfare  of  his  country, 
and  the  perpetuity  of  its  Republican  form  of  government. 
This  of  itself  is  a  success  which  may  well  challenge  uni 
versal  admiration,  for  it  is  one  which  is  the  indispensable 
condition  of  all  other  forms  of  success.  No  man  whose 
public  integrity  was  open  to  suspicion,  ito  matter  what 
might  have  been  his  abilities  or  his  experience,  could 
possibly  have  retained  enough  of  public  confidence  to 
carry  the  country  through  such  a  contest  as  that  from 
which  we  have  just  emerged.  No  President,  suspected 
of  seeking  his  own  aggrandizement  at  the  expense  of  his 
country's  liberties,  could  ever  have  received  such  enor- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  717 

mous  grants  of  power  as  were  essential  to  a  successful 
prosecution  of  th^war  against  the  rebellion.  They  were 
lavishly  and  eagerly  conferred  upon  Mr.  Lincoln,  because 
it  was  known  and  felt  everywhere  that  he  would  not 
abuse  them.  Faction  has  had  in  him  no  mark  for  its  as 
saults.  The  weapons  of  party  spirit  have  recoiled  harm 
lessly  from  the  shield  of  his  unspotted  character. 

It  was  this  unanimous  confidence  in  the  disinterested 
purity  of  his  character,  and  in  the  perfect  integrity  of  his 
public  purposes,  far  more  than  any  commanding  intellect 
ual  ability,  that  enabled  Washington  to  hold  the  faith 
and  confidence  of  the  American  people  steadfast  for  seven 
years,  while  they  waged  the  unequal  war  required  to 
achieve  their  independence.  And  it  certainly  is  some 
thing  more  than  a  casual  coincidence  that  this  same  ele 
ment/ as  rare  inexperience  as  it  is  transcendent  in  impor 
tance,  should  have  characterized  the  President  upon  whom 
devolved  the  duty  of  carrying  the  country  through  our 
second  and  far  more  important  and  sanguinary  struggle. 

No  one  can  read  Mr.  Lincoln's  State  papers  without 
perceiving  in  them  a  most  remarkable  faculty  of  "  putting 
things"  so  as  to  command  the  attention  and  assent  of  the 
common  people.  His  style  of  thought,  as  well  as  of  ex 
pression,  was  thoroughly  in  harmony  with  their  habitual 
modes  of  thinking  and  of  speaking.  His  intellect  was 
keen,  emphatically  logical  in  its  action,  and  capable  of 
the  closest  and  most  subtle  analysis ;  and  he  used  lan 
guage  for  the  sole  purpose  of  stating,  in  the  clearest  and 
simplest  possible  form,  the  precise  idea  he  wished  to 
convey.  He  had  no  pride  of  intellect — not  the  slightest 
desire  for  display — no  thought  or  purpose  but  that  of 
making  everybody  understand  precisely  what  he  be 
lieved  and  meant  to  utter.  And  while  this  habit  may 
sacrifice  the  graces  of  style,  it  gains  immeasurably  in 
practical  force  and  effect.  It  gives  to  his  public  papers 
a  weight  and  influence  with  the  mass  of  the  people  which 
no  public  man  of  this  country  had  ever  before  attained. 
And  this  was  heightened  by  the  atmosphere  of  humor 
which  seemed  to  pervade  his  mind,  and  which  was  just  as 


718  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

natural  to  it,  and  as  attractive  and  softening  a  portion  of 
it,  as  the  smoky  hues  of  Indian  summer  are  of  the  charm 
ing  season  to  which  they  belong.  His  nature  was  emi 
nently  genial,  and  he  seemed  to  Ibe  incapable  of  cherish 
ing  an  envenomed  resentment.  And  although  he  was 
easily  touched  by  whatever  was  painful,  the  elasticity  of 
his  temper  and  his  ready  sense  of  the  humorous  broke 
the  force  of  anxieties  and  responsibilities  under  which  a 
man  of  harder,  though  perhaps  a  higher,  nature,  would 
have  sunk  and  failed. 

One  of  the  most  perplexing  questions  with  which  Mr. 
Lincoln  had  to  deal,  in  carrying  on  the  war,  was  that  of 
slavery.  There  were  two  classes  of  persons  who  could 
not  see  that  there  was  any  thing  perplexing  about  it,  or 
that  he  ought  to  have  had  a  moment's  hesitation  how  to 
treat  it.  One  was  made  up  of  those  who  regarded  the 
law  of  slavery  as  paramount  to  the  Constitution,  and  the 
rights  of  slavery  as  the  most  sacred  of  all  the  rights 
which  are  guaranteed  by  that  instrument ;  the  other,  of 
those  who  regarded  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  the  one 
thing  to  be  secured,  whatever  else  might  be  lost.  The 
former  denounced  Mr.  Lincoln  for  having  interfered  with 
slavery  in  any  way,  for  any  purpose,  or  at  any  time  ;  the 
latter  denounced  him,  with  equal  bitterness,  for  not  hav 
ing  swept  it  out  of  existence  the  moment  Fort  Sumter  was 
attacked.  In  this  matter,  as  in  all  others,  Mr.  Lincoln 
acted  upon  a  fixed  principle  of  his  own,  which  he  applied 
to  the  practical  conduct  of  affairs  just  as  fast  as  the  neces 
sities  of  the  case  required,  and  as  the  public  sentiment 
would  sustain  his  action.  His  policy  from  the  outset  was 
a  tentative  one — as,  indeed,  all  policies  of  government, 
to  be  successful,  must  always  be.  On  the  outbreak  of 
the  rebellion,  the  first  endeavor  of  the  rebels  was  to 
secure  the  active  co-operation  of  all  the  slaveholding 
States.  Mr.  Lincoln' s  first  action,  therefore,  was  to  with 
hold  as  many  of  those  States  from  joining  the  rebel  Con 
federacy  as  possible.  Every  one  can  see  now  that  this 
policy,  denounced  at  the  time  by  his  more  zealous  anti- 
slavery  supporters  as  temporizing  and  inadequate,  pre- 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  719 

vented  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Maryland,  Missouri,  and 
part  of  Virginia  from  throwing  their  weight  into  the  rebel 
scale  ;  and,  although  it  is  very  easy  and  very  common  to 
undervalue  services  to  a  cause  after  its  triumph  seems 
secure,  there  are  few  who  will  not  concede  that  if  these 
States  had  "been  driven  or  permitted  to  drift  into  the  rebel 
Confederacy,  a  successful  termination  of  the  war  would 
have  been  much  more  remote  and  much  more  doubtful 
than  it  proved  to  be.  Mr.  Lincoln  did  every  thing  in 
his  power,  consistent  with  fidelity  to  the  Constitution,  to 
retain  the  Border  Slave  States  within  the  Union  ;  and  the 
degree  of  success  which  attended  his  efforts  is  the  best 
proof  of  their  substantial  wisdom. 

His  treatment  of  the  slavery  question  itself  was  marked 
by  the  same  characteristic  features.  There  was  not  a  man 
living  in  whose  heart  the  conviction  that  slavery  was 
wrong  was  more  deeply  rooted  than  in  his.  "  If  slavery 
is  not  wrong,"  said  he,  "then  nothing  is  wrong."  Nor 
was  there  one  more  anxious  to  use  every  just  and  lawful 
means,  consistent  with  the  national  welfare,  to  secure  its 
extirpation  from  the  soil  of  the  Republic.  But  in  every 
thing  he  did  upon  this  subject,  as  upon  every  other,  he 
aimed  at  practical  results,  not  the  indulgence  of  any 
theory.  He  used  no  power  over  slavery  until  the  emer 
gency  had  arisen  by  which  alone  its  exercise  under  the 
Constitution  could  be  vindicated  ;  and  he  went  no  further 
and  no  faster  in  the  steps  which  he  took  for  its  destruc 
tion,  than  public  sentiment  would  warrant  and  sustain 
him  in  going.  He  wished  to  take  no  step  backward,  and 
therefore  was  doubly  cautious  in  his  advance.  His  pol 
icy  secured  the  final  abolition  of  slavery.  It  not  only 
decreed  that  result,  but  it  secured  it  in  such  a  way,  and 
by  such  successive  steps,  each  demanded  by  the  special 
exigency  of  its  own  occasion,  as  commanded  the  acqui 
escence  of  the  great  body  of  the  slaveholders  themselves. 
The  views  by  which  his  action  was  governed  are  stated 
with  characteristic  clearness  and  force  in  his  letter  of 
April  4,  1864,  to  Mr.  Hodges,  of  Kentucky,*  and  they 

*  See  Appendix. 


720  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

must  commend  themselves  to  the  approval  of  all  candid 
minds. 

Much  has  been  said  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  habit  of  telling 
stories,  and  it  could  scarcely  be  exaggerated.  He  had  a 
keen  sense  of  the  humorous  and  the  ludicrous,  and  rel 
ished  jokes  and  anecdotes  for  the  amusement  they  afford 
ed  him.  But  story-telling  was  with  him  rather  a  mode 
of  stating  and  illustrating  facts  and  opinions,  than  any 
thing  else.  There  is  a  great  difference  among  men  in  the 
manner  of  expressing  their  thoughts.  Some  are  rigidly 
exact,  and  give  every  thing  they  say  a  logical  form. 
Others  express  themselves  in  figures,  and  by  ilkistrations 
drawn  from  nature  or  history.  Mr.  Lincoln  often  gave 
clearness  and  force  to  his  ideas  by  pertinent  anecdotes 
and  illustrations  drawn  from  daily  life.  Within  a  month 
after  his  first  accession  to  office,  when  the  South  was 
threatening  civil  war,  and  armies  of  office-seekers  were 
besieging  him  in  the  Executive  Mansion,  he  said  to  the 
writer  of  these  pages  that  he  wished  he  could  get  time  to 
attend  to  the  Southern  question  ;  he  thought  he  knew 
what  was  wanted,  and  believed  he  could  do  something 
towards  quieting  the  rising  discontent ;  but  the  office- 
seekers  demanded  all  his  time.  "I  am,"  said  he,  "like 
a  man  so  busy  in  letting  rooms  in  one  end  of  his  house, 
that  he  can't  stop  to  put  out  the  fire  that  is  burning  the 
other."  Two  or  three  years  later,  when  the  people  had 
made  him  a  candidate  for  re-election,  the  same  friend 
spoke  to  him  of  a  member  of  his  cabinet  who  was  a  can 
didate  also.  Mr.  Lincoln  said  he  did  not  much  concern 
himself  about  that.  It  was  very  important  to  him  and 
the  country  that  the  department  over  which  his  rival 
presided  should  be  administered  with  vigor  and  energy, 
and  whatever  would  stimulate  the  Secretary  to  such 

action  would  do  good.     "R ,"  said  he,   "you  were 

brought  up  on  a  farm,  were  you  not  ?  Then  you  know 
what  a  chin-fly  is.  My  brother  and  I,"  he  added,  "were 
once  ploughing  corn  on  a  Kentucky  farm,  I  driving  the 
horse  and  he  holding  plough.  The  horse  was  lazy,  but 
on  one  occasion  rushed  across  the  field  so  that  I,  with  rny 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  721 

long  legs,  could  scarcely  keep  pace  with  him.  On  reach 
ing  the  end  of  the  furrow,  I  found  an  enormous  chin-fly 
fastened  upon  him,  and  knocked  him  off.  My  brother 
asked  me  what  I  did  that  for.  I  told  him  I  didn't  want 
the  old  horse  "bitten  in  that  way.  'Why,'  said  my 
brother,  '  tliaV  s  all  tliat  made  him  go?  Now,"  said  Mr. 

Lincoln,   "if  Mr. has  a  presidential  cliin-fly  biting 

him,  I'm  not  going  to  knock  him  off,  if  it  will  only  make 
his  department  go.39  These,  which  are  given  as  illustra 
tions  of  very  much  of  his  conversation,  were  certainly  per 
tinent  and  frank.  Oftentimes  he  would  resort  to  anec 
dotes  to  turn  the  current  of  conversation  from  some  topic 
which  he  did  not  wish  discussed,  greatly  to  the  disgust, 
not  unfrequently,  of  the  person  who  had  come  to  extract 
information  which  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  choose  to  impart. 
He  had  a  habit,  moreover,  in  canvassing  public  topics, 
of  eliciting,  by  questions  or  remarks  of  his  own,  the  views 
and  objections  of  opponents  ;  and,  in  debate,  he  never 
failed  to  state  the  positions  of  his  antagonist  as  fairly,  and 
at  least  as  strongly,  as  his  opponent  could  state  them 
himself. 

An  impression  is  quite  common  that  great  men,  who 
make  their  mark  upon  the  progress  of  events  and  the 
world's  history,  do  it  by  impressing  their  own  opinions 
upon  nations  and  communities,  in  disregard  and  contempt 
of  their  sentiments  and  prejudices.  History  does  not  sus 
tain  this  view  of  the  case.  No  man  ever  moulded  the 
destiny  of  a  nation  except  by  making  the  sentiment  of 
that  nation  his  ally — by  working  with  it,  by  shaping  his 
measures  and  his  policy  to  its  successive  developments. 
But  little  more  than  a  year  before  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  was  issued,  Washington  wrote  to  a  friend  in 
England  that  the  idea  of  separation  from  Great  Britain 
was  not  entertained  by  any  considerable  number  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  colonies.*  If  independence  had  then 
been  proclaimed,  it  would  not  have  been  supported  by 
public  sentiment ;  and  its  proclamation  would  have  ex 
cited  hostilities  and  promoted  divisions  which  might  have 

*  Letter  to  Captain  Maclcensie,  October  9,  1774. 
46 


722  THE  LIFE,  PUBLIC  SERVICES,  AND 

proved  fatal  to  the  cause.  Time, — the  development  of 
events, — the  ripening  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  such 
a  measure,  were  indispensable  as  preliminary  conditions 
of  its  success.  And  one  of  the  greatest  elements  of  Wash 
ington'  s  strength  was  the  patient  sagacity  with  which  he 
could  watch  and  wait  until  these  conditions  were  fulfilled. 
The  position  and  duty  of  President  Lincoln  in  regard  to 
slavery  were  very  similar.  If  he  had  taken  counsel  only 
of  his  own  abstract  opinions  and  sympathies,  and  had 
proclaimed  emancipation  at  the  outset  of  the  war,  or  had 
sanctioned  the  action  of  those  department  commanders 
who  assumed  to  do  it  themselves,  the  first  effect  would 
have  been  to  throw  all  the  Border  Slave  States  into  the 
bosom  of  the  slaveholding  Confederacy,  and  add  their 
formidable  force  to  the  armies  of  the  rebellion  ;  the  next 
result  would  have  been  to  arouse  the  political  opposition 
in  the  loyal  States  to  fresh  activity  by  giving  it  a  rally 
ing- cry  ;  and  the  third  would  have  been  to  divide  the 
great  body  of  those  who  agreed  in  defending  the  Union, 
but  who  did  not  then  agree  in  regard  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery.  Candid  men,  who  pay  more  regard  to  facts  than 
to  theory,  and  who  can  estimate  with  fairness  the  results 
of  public  action,  will  have  no  difficulty  in  seeing  that  the 
probable  result  of  these  combined  influences  would  have 
been  such  a  strengthening  of  the  forces  of  the  Confederacy, 
and  such  a  weakening  of  our  own,  as  might  have  over 
whelmed  the  Administration,  and  given  the  rebellion  a 
final  and  a  fatal  victory.  By  awaiting  the  development 
of  public  sentiment,  President  Lincoln  secured  a  support 
absolutely  essential  to  success  ;  and  there  are  few  per 
sons  now,  whatever  may  be  their  private  opinions  on 
slavery,  who  will  not  concede  that  his  measures  in  regard 
to  that  subject  were  adopted  with  sagacity,  and  prose 
cuted  with  a  patient  wisdom  which  crowned  them  with 
final  triumph. 

In  his  personal  appearance  and  manners,  in  the  tone 
and  tendency  of  his  mind  and  in  the  fibre  of  his  general 
character,  President  Lincoln  presented  more  elements  of 
originality  than  any  other  man  ever  connected  with  the 


STATE  PAPERS  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  723 

government  of  this  country.  He  was  tall  and  thin,  angu 
lar  and  ungraceful  in  his  motions,  careless  in  dress,  un 
studied  in  manner,  and  too  thoroughly  earnest  and  hearty, 
in  every  thing  he  said  or  did,  to  be  polished  and  polite. 
But  there  was  a  native  grace,  the  out-growth  of  kindness 
of  heart,  which  never  failed  to  shine  through  all  his 
words  and  acts.  His  heart  was  as  tender  as  a  woman's, — 
as  accessible  to  grief  and  gladness  as  a  child's,— yet 
strong  as  Hercules  to  bear  the  anxieties  and  responsibil 
ities  of  the  awful  burden  that  rested  on  it.  Little  inci 
dents  of  the  war,— instances  of  patient  suffering  in  devo 
tion  to  duty, — tales  of  distress  from  the  lips  of  women, 
never  failed  to  touch  the  innermost  chords  of  his  nature, 
and  to  awaken  that  sweet  sympathy  which  carries  with 
it,  to  those  who  suffer,  all  the  comfort  the  human  heart  can 
crave.  Those  who  have  heard  him,  as  many  have,  relate 
such  touching  episodes  of  the  war,  cannot  recall  without 
emotion  the  quivering  lip,  the  face  gnarled  and  writhing 
to  stifle  the  rising  sob,  and  the  patient,  loving  eyes  swim 
ming  in  tears,  which  mirrored  the  tender  pity  of  his 
gentle  and  loving  nature.  He  seemed  a  stranger  to  the 
harsher  and  stormier  passions  of  man.  Easily  grieved,  he 
seemed  incapable  of  hate.  Nothing  could  be  truer  than 
his  declaration,  after  the  heated  political  contest  which 
secured  his  re-election,  that  he  had  ' c  never  willingly 
planted  a  thorn  in  any  human  breast," — and  that  it  was 
not  in  his  nature  to  exult  over  any  human  being.  It  is 
first  among  the  marvels  of  a  marvellous  time,  that  to  such 
a  character,  so  womanly  in  all  its  traits,  should  have 
beeii  committed,  absolutely  and  with  almost  despotic 
power,  the  guidance  of  a  great  nation  through  a  bloody 
and  terrible  civil  war ;  and  the  success  which  crowned 
his  labors  proves  that,  in  dealing  with  great  communities, 
as  with  individuals,  it  is  not  the  stormiest  natures  that 
are  most  prevailing,  and  that  strength  of  principle  and  of 
purpose  often  accompanies  the  softest  emotions  of  the 
human  heart. 

Nothing  was  more  marked  in  Mr.  Lincoln' s  personal 
demeanor  than  its  utter  unconsciousness  of  his  position. 


724-     LIFE  AND  PUBLIC  SERVICES  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

It  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  find  another  mail 
who  would  not,  upon  a  sudden  transfer  from  the  obscu 
rity  of  private  life  in  a  country  town  to  the  dignities  and 
duties  of  the  Presidency,  feel  it  incumbent  upon  him  to 
assume  something  of  the  manner  and  tone  befitting  that 
position.  Mr.  Lincoln  never  seemed  to  be  aware  that  his 
place  or  his  business  were  essentially  different  from  those 
in  which  he  had  always  been  engaged.  He  brought  to 
every  question, — the  loftiest  and  most  imposing, — the 
same  patient  inquiry  into  details,  the  same  eager  longing 
to  know  and  to  do  exactly  what  was  j  ust  and  right,  and  the 
same  working-day,  plodding,  laborious  devotion,  which 
characterized  his  management  of  a  client' s  case  at  his  law 
office  in  Springfield.  He  had  duties  to  perform  in  both 
places — in  the  one  case  to  his  country,  as  to  his  client 
in  the  other.  But  all  duties  were  alike  to  him.  All 
called  equally  upon  him  for  the  best  service  of  his  mind 
and  heart,  and  a*ll  were  alike  performed  with  a  conscien 
tious,  single-hearted  devotion  that  knew  no  distinction, 
but  was  absolute  and  perfect  in  every  case. 


Mr.  Lincoln's  place  in  the  history  of  this  country  will 
be  fixed  quite  as  much  by  the  importance  of  the  events 
amidst  which  he  moved,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  results 
which  he  achieved,  as  by  his  personal  characteristics. 
The  Chief  Magistrate  whose  administration  quelled  a  re 
bellion  of  eight  millions  of  people,  set  free  four  millions 
of  slaves,  and  vindicated  the  ability  of  the  people,  under 
all  contingencies,  to  maintain  the  Government  which  rests 
upon  their  will,  whose  wisdom  and  unspotted  integrity 
of  character  secured  his  re-election,  and  who,  finally, 
when  his  work  was  done,  found  his  reward  in  the  mar 
tyrdom  which  came  to  round  his  life  and  set  the  final 
seal  upon  his  renown,  will  fill  a  place  hitherto  unoccu 
pied  in  the  annals  of  the  world. 


FUNERAL      A  R  O  H      ON      THE      HUDSON 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES 


OF 


PRESIDENT    LINCOLN 


BY  FRANK  B.  CARPENTER. 


I -WENT  to  Washington  the  last  week  in  February,  1864,  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  out  my  cherished  project  of  painting  the  scene 
commemorative  of  the  first  reading  in  cabinet  council  of  the  Emanci 
pation  Proclamation.  To  my  friends,  Samuel  Sinclair  and  F.  A.  Lane, 
of  New  York,  the  Honorable  Schuyler  Colfax,  and  Honorable  Owen 
L;>vejoy,  shall  I  ever  be  indebted  for  the  opening  up  of  the  way  for 
the  successful  accomplishment  of  this  undertaking.  Through  the 
latter  gentleman  arrangements  were  made  with  the  President  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  by  which  the  spacious  "State  dining-room"  of  the  Executive 
Mansion  was  placed  at  my  disposal  for  a  studio,  in  order  that  I  might 
enjoy  every  facility  for  studying  my  subjects  from  the  life. 

The  painting  of  the  picture  occupied  about  six  months.  It  em 
braced  full-length  life-size  portraits  of  the  President  and  entire  cabinet, 
and  portrays,  as  faithfully  as  I  was  capable  of  rendering  it,  the  scene  as 
it  transpired  in  the  old  cabinet  chamber  of  the  White  House,  when  the 
Act  of  Emancipation  first  saw  the  light. 

My  relations  with  Mr.  Lincoln  of  course  became  of  an  intimate 
character.  Permitted  the  freedom  of  his  private  office  at  almost  all 
hours,  I  was  privileged  to  see  and  know  more  of  his  daily  life  than 
has  perhaps  fallen  to  the  lot  of  any  one  not  sustaining  to  him  domestic 
or  official  relations. 

In  compiling  a  chapter  of  anecdotes,  I  have  endeavored  to  embrace 
only  those  which  bear  the  marks  of  authenticity.  Many  in  this  col 
lection  I  myself  heard  the  President  relate ;  others  were  communi 
cated  to  me  by  persons  who  either  heard  or  took  part  in  them.  Sev- 


726  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

eral  have  had  a  wide  circulation,  in  connection  with  subjects  of  interest 
at  different  times  which  called  them  out.  The  reminiscences  are  mainly 
my  own,  and  are  taken,  for  the  most  part,  from  articles  contributed  on 
various  occasions,  since  the  assassination,  to  the  public  press. 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  SADNESS. 

Many  persons  formed  their  impressions  of  the  late  President  from 
the  stories  in  circulation  attributed  to  him,  and  consequently  supposed 
him  to  have  been  habitually  of  a  jocund,  humorous  disposition.  There 
was  this  element  in  his  nature  in  a  large  degree,  but  it  was  the  sparkle 
and  ripple  of  the  surface.  Underneath  was  a  deep  undercurrent  of 
sadness,  if  not  melancholy.  When  most  depressed,  it  was  his  way 
frequently  to  seek  relief  in  some  harmless  pleasantry.  I  recollect  an 
instance  related  to  me,  by  a  radical  member  of  the  last  Congress.  It 
was  during  the  dark  days  of  1862.  He  called  upon  the  President  early 
one  morning,  just  after  news  of  a  disaster.  Mr.  Lincoln  commenced 
telling  some  trifling  incident,  which  the  Congressman  was  in  no  mood 
to  hear.  He  rose  to  his  feet,  and  said,  "  Mr.  President,  I  did  not 
come  here  this  morning  to  hear  stories ;  it  is  too  serious  a  time."  In- 
Btantly  the  smile  disappeared  from  Mr.  Lincoln's  face,  who  exclaimed, 

"  A ,  sit  down !  I  respect  you  as  an  earnest,  sincere  man.  You 

cannot  be  more  anxious  than  I  am  constantly,  and  I  say  to  you  now, 
that  were  it  not  for  this  occasional  vent,  I  should  die !" 

It  has  been  the  business  of  my  life  to  study  the  human  face,  and  I 
have  said  repeatedly  to  friends  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  the  saddest  face  I 
ever  attempted  to  paint.  During  some  of  the  dark  days  of  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1864,  I  saw  him  at  times  when  his  care-worn,  troubled 
appearance  was  enough  to  bring  tears  of  sympathy  into  the  eyes  of 
his  most  bitter  opponents.  I  recall  particularly  one  day,  when,  having 
occasion  to  pass  through  the  main  hall  of  the  domestic  apartments,  I 
met  him  alone,  pacing  up  and  down  a  narrow  passage,  his  hands  be 
hind  him,  his  head  bent  forward  upon  his  breast,  heavy  black  rings 
under  his  eyes,  showing  sleepless  nights — altogether  such  a  picture  of 
the  effects  of  sorrow  and  care  as  I  have  never  seen  ! 

"  No  man,"  says  Mrs.  Stowe,  "  has  suffered  more  and  deeper,  albeit 
with  a  dry,  weary,  patient  pain,  that  seemed  to  some  like  insensibility, 
than  President  Lincoln."  "  Whichever  way  it  ends,"  he  said  to  her, 
"  I  have  the  impression  that  /  shan't  last  long  after  it  is  over." 

After  the  dreadful  repulse  of  Fredericksburg,  he  is  reported  to  havo 
said  :  "  If  there  is  a  man  out  of  perdition  that  suffers  more  than  I  do, 
I  pity  him." 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  727 

The  Honorable  Schuyler  Colfax,  in  his  funeral  oratipn  at  Chicago, 
said  of  him  : — 

"He  bore  the  nation's  perils,  and  trials,  and  sorrows,  ever  on  hia 
mind.  You  know  him,  in  a  large  degree,  by  the  illustrative  stories 
of  which  his  memory  and  his  tongue  were  so  prolific,  using  them  to 
point  a  moral,  or  to  soften  discontent  at  his  decisions.  But  this  was 
the  mere  badinage  which  relieved  him  for  the  moment  from  the  heavy 
weight  of  public  duties  and  responsibilities  under  which  he  .often 
wearied.  Those  whom  he  admitted  to  his  confidence,  and  with  whom 
he  conversed  of  his  feelings,  knew  that  his  inner  life  was  checkered 
with  the  deepest  anxiety  and  most  discomforting  solicitude.  Elated 
by  victories  for  the  cause  which  was  ever  in  his  thoughts,  reverses  to 
our  arms  cast  a  pall  of  depression  over  him.  One  morning,  over  two 
years  ago,  calling  upon  him  on  business,  I  found  him  looking  more 
than  usually  pale  and  careworn,  and  inquired  the  reason.  He  replied, 
with  the  bad  news  he  had  received  at  a  late  hour  the  previous 
night,  which  had  not  yet  been  communicated  to  the  press — he  had 
not  closed  his  eyes  or  breakfasted;  and,  with  an  expression  I  shall 
never  forget,  he  exclaimed,  *  How  willingly  would  I  exchange  places 
to-day  with  the  soldier  who  sleeps  on  the  ground  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac !' " 

He  may  not  have  looked  for  it  from  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  but  he 
felt  sure  that  his  life  would  end  with  the  war  long  ago.  "  He  told 
me,"  says  a  correspondent  of  the  Boston  Journal,  "  that  he  was 
certain  he  should  not  outlast  the  rebellion."  It  was  in  last  July.  As 
will  be  remembered,  there  was  dissension  then  among  the  Republican 
leaders.  Many  of  his  best  friends  had  deserted  him,  and  were  talking 
of  an  opposition  convention  to  nominate  another  candidate ;  and  uni 
versal  gloom  was  among  the  people. 

The  North  was  tired  of  the  war,  and  supposed  an  honorable  peace 
attainable.  Mr.  Lincoln  knew  it  was  not — that  any  peace  at  that  time 
would  be  only  disunion.  Speaking  of  it,  he  said  :  "  I  have  faith  in  the 
people.  They  will  not  consent  to  disunion.  The  danger  is,  they  are 
misled.  Let  them  know  the  truth,  and  the  country  is  safe."  He 
looked  haggard  and  careworn ;  and  further  on  in  the  interview  I  re 
marked  on  his  appearance,  "  You  are  wearing  yourself  out  with  work." 
"  I  can't  work  less,"  he  answered ;  "  but  it  isn't  that — work  never 
troubled  me.  Things  look  badly,  and  I  can't  avoid  anxiety.  Person 
ally  I  care  nothing  about  a  re-election,  but  if  our  divisions  defeat  us,  I 
fear  for  the  country."  When  I  suggested  that  right  must  eventually 
triumph ;  that  I  had  never  despaired  of  the  result,  he  said,  "  Neither 


728  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

have  I,  tat  I  may  never  live  to  see  it.  I  feel  a  presentiment  that  I 
shall  not  outlast  the  rebellion.  When  it  is  over,  my  work  will  be 
done." 

HIS  FAVORITE  POEM. 

The  evening  of  March  22d,  1864,  was  a  most  interesting  one  to  inc. 
I  was  with  the  President  alone  in  his  office  for  several  hours.  Busy 
with  pen  and  papers  when  I  went  in,  he  presently  threw  them  aside 
and  commenced  talking  to  me  of  Shakspeare,  of  whom  he  was  very 
fond.  Little  "  Tad,"  his  son,  coming  in,  he  sent  him  to  the  library 
for  a  copy  of  the  plays,  and  then  read  to  me  several  of  his  favorite 
passages.  Relapsing  into  a  sadder  strain,  he  laid  the  book  aside,  and 
leaning  back  in  his  chair,  said : — 

"  There  is  a  poem  which  has  been  a  great  favorite  with  me  for  years, 
which  was  first  shown  to  me  when  a  young  man  by  a  friend,  and  which 
I  afterwards  saw  and  cut  from  a  newspaper  and  learned  by  heart.  I 
would,"  he  continued,  "  give  a  great  deal  to  know  who  wrote  it,  but 
I  have  never  been  able  to  ascertain." 

Then,  half  closing  his  eyes,  he  repeated  the  verses  to  me.  Greatly 
pleased  and  interested,  I  told  him  I  would  like  some  time  to  write 
them  down.  A  day  or  two  afterwards,  he  asked  me  to  accompany  him 
to  the  temporary  studio  in  the  Treasury  Department  of  Mr.  Swayne, 
the  sculptor,  who  was  making  a  bust  of  him.  While  "  sitting,"  it  oc 
curred  to  me  that  then  would  be  a  good  opportunity  to  secure  the 
lines.  He  very  willingly  complied  with  my  request  to  repeat  them, 
and,  sitting  upon  some  books  at  his  feet,  as  nearly  as  I  remember,  I 
wrote  the  verses  down,  one  by  one,  as  he  uttered  them  :* — 

Oh  !  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud  ? — 
Like  a  swift-fleeting  meteor,  a  fast-flying  cloud, 
A  flash  of  the  lightning,  a  break  of  the  wave, 
He  passeth  from  life  to  his  rest  in  the  grave. 

The  leaves  of  the  oak  and  the  willow  shall  fade, 

Bo  scattered  around,  and  together  be  laid ; 

And  the  young  and  the  old,  and  the  low  and  the  high, 

Shall  moulder  to  dust,  and  together  shall  lie. 

The  infant  a  mother  attended  and  loved ; 
The  mother,  that  infant's  affection  who  proved 

*  The  authorship  of  this  poem  has  been  made  known  since  its  publication  in  the  Evening 
Post.  It  was  written  by  "William  Knox,  a  yonng  Scotchman,  a  contemporary  of  Sir  Walter 
Bcutt — who  thought  highly  of  his  promise.  He  died  quite  young. 

The  U-o  versus  in  brackets  were  not  repeated  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  but  belong  to  the  origins! 
poem 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  729 

The  husband,  that  mother  and  infant  who  blest, — 
Each,  all,  are  away  to  their  dwellings  of  rest. 

[The  maid  on  whose  cheek,  on  whose  brow,  in  whose  eye, 
Shone  beauty  and  pleasure — her  triumphs  are  by; 
And  the  memory  of  those  who  loved  her  and  praised, 
Are  alike  from  the  minds  of  the  living  erased.] 

The  hand  of  the  king,  that  the  sceptre  hath  borne, 
The  brow  of  the  priest,  that  the  mitre  hath  worn, 
The  eye  of  the  sage,  and  the  heart  of  the  brave, 
Are  hidden  and  lost  in  the  depths  of  the  grave. 

The  peasant,  whose  lot  was  to  sow  and  to  reap, 
The  herdsman,  who  climbed  with  his  goats  up  the-  steep, 
The  beggar,  who  wandered  in  search  of  his  bread, 
Have  faded  away  like  the  grass  that  we  tread. 

[The  saint,  who  enjoyed  the  communion  of  heaven, 
The  sinner,  who  dared  to  remain  uuforgiven, 
The  wise  and  the  foolish,  the  guilty  and  just, 
Have  quietly  mingled  their  bones  in  the  duat.] 

So  the  multitude  goes — like  the  flower  or  the  weed, 
That  withers  away  to  let  others  succeed ; 
So  the  multitude  comes — even  those  we  behold, 
To  repeat  every  tale  that  has  often  been  told : 

For  we  are  the  same  our  fathers  have  been; 
We  see  the  same  sights  our  fathers  have  seen ; 
We  drink  the  same  stream,  we  view  the  same  sun, 
And  run  the  same  course  our  fathers  have  run. 

The  thoughts  we  are  thinking,  our  fathers  would  think ; 
From  the  death  we  are  shrinking,  our  fathers  would  shrink  ; 
To  the  life  we  are  clinging,  they  also  would  cling — 
But  it  speeds  from  us  all  like  a  bird   on  the  wing. 

They  loved — but  the  story  we  cannot  unfold ; 
They  scorned — but  the  heart  of  the  haughty  is  cold ; 
They  grieved — but  no  wail  from  their  slumber  will  come ; 
They  joyed — but  the  tongue  of  their  gladness  is  dumb. 

They  died — ay,  they  died — we  things  that  are  now, 
That  walk  on  the  turf  that  lies  over  their  brow, 
And  make  in  their  dwellings  a  transient  abode, 
Meet  the  things  that  they  met  on  their  pilgrimage  road. 

Fea!  hope  and  despondency,  pleasure  and  pain, 
Are  mingled  together  in  sunshine  and  rain ; 


730  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

And  the  smile  and  the  tear,  the  song  and  the  dirge, 
Still  follow  each  other,  like  surge  upon  surge. 

"Pis  the  wink  of  an  eye, — 'tis  tho  draught  of  a  breath ; 
From  the  blossom  of  health  to  the  paleness  of  death, 
From  the  gilded  saloon  to  the  bier  and  the  shroud : — 
Oh !  why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud  ? 

Discussing  briefly  the  merits  of  this  poem,  and  its  probable  author 
ship,  Mr.  Lincoln  continued : — 

"There  are  some  quaint,  queer  verses,  written,  I  think,  by  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  entitled  '  The  Last  Leaf,'  one  of  which  is  to  me  inex 
pressibly  touching."  He  then  repeated  these  also  from  memory.  The 
verse  he  referred  to  occurs  in  about  the  middle  of  the  poem,  and 
is  this : — 

"The  mossy  marbles  rest 
On  the  lips  that  he  has  pressed 

In  their  bloom, 

And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 

On  the  tomb." 

As  he  finished  this  verse  he  said,  in  his  emphatic  way :  "  For  pure 
pathos,  in  my  judgment,  there  is  nothing  finer  than  those  six  lines  in 
the  English  language  !" 

Mr.  R.  McCormick,  in  some  "  Reminiscences,"  published  in  the 
Evening  Post,  says  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  fond  of  the  works  of  Robert 
Burns ;  and  although  I  myself  never  heard  him  allude  to  the  great 
Scottish  poet,  I  can  readily  conceive  that  it  may  have  been  true. 
"  There  was  something,"  says  Mr.  McCormick,  "  in  the  humble  origin 
of  Burns,  and  in  his  checkered  life,  no  less  than  in  his  tender,  homely 
songs,  that  appealed  to  the  great  heart  of  the  plain  man  who,  trans 
ferred  from  the  prairies  of  Illinois  to  the  Executive  Mansion  at  Wash 
ington  at  a  time  of  immense  responsibility,  gave  a  fresh  and  memora 
ble  illustration  .of  the  truth  that 

1  The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp, 
The  man's  the  gowd  for  a'  that.' " 

HIS  RELIGIOUS  EXPERIENCE. 

There  is  a  very  natural  and  proper  desire,  at  this  time,  to  know 
something  of  the  religious  experience  of  the  late  President.  Two  or 
three  stories  have  been  published  in  this  connection,  which  I  have 
never  yet  been  able  to  trace  to  a  reliable  source,  and  I  feel  impelled  to 
say  here,  that  I  believe  the  facts  in  the  case — if  there  were  such — have 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  731 

been  added  unto,  or  unwarrantably  embellished.  Of  all  men  in  the 
world,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  most  unaffected  and  truthful.  He  rarely 
or  never  used  language  loosely  or  carelessly,  or  for  the  sake  of  compli 
ment.  He  was  the  most  utterly  indifferent  to,  and  unconscious  of, 
the  effect  he  was  producing,  either  upon  official  representatives,  or  the 
common  people,  of  any  man  ever  in  public  position. 

Mr.  Lincoln  could  scarcely  be  called  a  religious  man,  in  the  common 
acceptation  of  the  term,  and  yet  a  sincerer  Christian  I  believe  never 
lived.  A  constitutional  tendency  to  dwell  upon  sacred  things ;  an 
emotional  nature  which  finds  ready  expression  in  religious  conver 
sation  and  revival  meetings ;  the  culture  and  development  of  the  de 
votional  element  till  the  expression  of  religious  thought  and  experi 
ence  becomes  almost  habitual,  were  not  among  his  characteristics. 
Doubtless  he  felt  as  deeply  upon  the  great  questions  of  the  soul  and 
eternity  as  any  other  thoughtful  man,  but  the  very  tenderness  and  hu 
mility  of  his  nature  would  not  permit  the  exposure  of  his  inmost  con 
victions,  except  upon  the  rarest  occasions,  and  to  his  most  intimate 
friends.  And  yet,  aside  from  emotional  expression,  I  believe  no  man 
had  a  more  abiding  sense  of  his  dependence  upon  God,  or  faith  in  the 
Divine  government,  and  in  the  power  and  ultimate  triumph  of  Truth 
and  Right  in  the  world.  In  the  language  of  an  eminent  clergyman  of 
this  city,  who  lately  delivered  an  eloquent  discourse  upon  the  life  and 
character  of  the  departed  President,  "  It  is  not  necessary  to  appeal  to 
apocryphal  stories,  in  circulation  in  the  newspapers — which  illustrate 

as  much  the  assurance  of  his  visitors  as  the  simplicity  of  his  faith 

for  proof  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Christian  character."  If  his  daily  life  and 
various  public  addresses  and  writings  do  not  show  this,  surely  nothing 
can  demonstrate  it. 

But  while  inclined,  as  I  have  said,  to  doubt  the  truth  of  some  of 
the  statements  published  on  this  subject,  I  feel  at  liberty  to  relate  an 
incident,  which  bears  upon  its  face  unmistakable  evidence  of  truthful 
ness.  A  lady  interested  in  the  work  of  the  Christian  Commission  had 
occasion,  in  the  prosecution  of  her  duties,  to  have  several  interviews 
with  the  President  of  a  business  nature.  He  was  much  impressed 
with  the  devotion  and  earnestness  of  purpose  she  manifested,  and 
on  one  occasion,  after  she  had  discharged  the  object  of  her  visit, 

he   said  to  her :  "  Mrs.  ,  I  have  formed  a  very  high   opinion 

of  your  Christian  character,  and  now,  as  we  are  alone,  I  have  a 
mind  to  ask  you  to  give  me,  in  brief,  your  idea  of  what  consti 
tutes  a  true  religious  experience."  The  lady  replied  at  some  length, 
stating  that,  in  her  judgment,  it  consisted  of  a  conviction  of  one's  OWE 


732  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

sinfulncss  and  weakness,  and  personal  need  of  the  Saviour  for  strength 
and  support ;  that  views  of  mere  doctrine  might  and  would  differ,  but 
when  one  was  really  brought  to  feel  his  need  of  Divine  help,  and  to 
seek  the  aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  for  strength  and  guidance,  it  was  sat 
isfactory  evidence  of  his  having  been  born  again.  This  was  the  sub 
stance  of  her  reply.  When  she  had  concluded,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very 
thoughtful  for  a  few  moments.  He  at  length  said,  very  earnestly,  "  If 
what  you  have  told  me  is  really  a  correct  view  of  this  great  subject,  I 
think  I  can  say  with  sincerity,  that  I  hope  I  am  a  Christian.  I  had 
lived,"  he  continued,  "  until  my  boy  Willie  died,  without  realizing  fully 
these  things.  That  blow  overwhelmed  me.  It  showed  me  mv  weak- 

O  ^ 

ness  as  I  had  never  felt  it  before,  and  if  I  can  take  what  you  have 
stated  as  a  test,  I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  I  know  something  of  that 
change  of  which  you  speak ;  and  I  will  further  add,  that  it  has  been  my 
intention  for  some  time,  at  a  suitable  opportunity,  to  make  a  public 
religious  profession  !" 

A  clergyman,  writing  to  the  Friends1  Review  of  Philadelphia,  gives 
the  following  interesting  incident : — 

"  Al'ter  visiting  schools,  and  holding  meetings  with  the  freed- 
people,  and  attending  to  other  religious  service  south  of  Wash 
ington  and  in  that  city  I  felt  that  I  must  attend  to  manifest 
duty,  and  offer  a  visit  in  Gospel  love  to  our  noble  President ;  it 
was  immediately  granted,  and  a  quarter  past  six  that  evening  was 
fixed  as  the  time.  Under  deep  feeling  I  went ;  my  Heavenly 
Father  went  before  and  prepared  the  way.  The  President  gave  us  a 
cordial  welcome,  and  after  pleasant,  instructive  conversation,  during 
which  he  said,  in  reference  to  the  freed  men,  *  If  I  have  been  one  of  the 
instruments  in  liberating  this  long-suffering,  down-trodden  people,  I 
thank  God  for  it' — a  precious  covering  spread  over  us.  The  good 
man  rested  his  head  upon  his  hand,  and,  under  a  precious,  gathering 
influence,  I  knelt  in  solemn  prayer.  He  knelt  close  beside  me,  and  I 
felt  that  his  heart  went  with  every  word  as  utterance  was  given.  I 
afterwards  addressed  him,  and  when  we  rose  to  go,  he  shook  my  hand 
heartily,  and  thanked  me  for  the  visit." 

Mr.  Noah  Brooks,  one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  most  intimate  personal 
friends,  in  an  admirable  article  in  Harper's  Magazine,  gives  the  fol 
lowing  reminiscence  of  his  conversation  : — 

"  Just  after  the  last  Presidential  election  he  said,  *  Being  only  mor 
tal,  after  all  I  should  have  been  a  little  mortified  if  I  had  been  beaten 
in  this  canvass  before  the  people  ;  but  that  sting  would  have  been  more 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  733 

than  compensated  by  the  thought  that  the  people  had  notified  me  that 
all  my  official  responsibilities  were  soon  to  be  lifted  off  my  back.'  In 
reply  to  the  remark  that  he  might  remember  that  in  all  these  cares  ho 
was  daily  remembered  by  those  who  prayed,  not  to  be  heard  of  men, 
as  no  man  had  ever  before  been  remembered,  he  caught  at  the  homely 
phrase,  and  said,  *  Yes,  I  like  that  phrase  "  not  to  be  heard  of  men," 
and  guess  it  is  generally  true  as  you  say  ;  at  least,  I  have  been  told  so, 
and  I  have  been  a  good  deal  helped  by  just  that  thought,'  Then  he 
solemnly  and  slowly  added,  *I  should  be  the  most  presumptuous  block 
head  upon  this  footstool,  if  I  for  one  day  thought  that  I  could  discharge 
the  duties  which  have  come  upon  me  since  I  came  into  this  place, 
without  the  aid  and  enlightenment  of  One  who  is  stronger  and  wiser 
than  all  others.' " 

By  the  Act  of  Emancipation  Mr.  Lincoln  built  for  himself  forever 
the  first  place  in  the  affections  of  the  African  race  in  this  country.  The 
love  and  reverence  manifested  for  him  by  many  of  these  poor,  ignorant 
people  has,  on  some  occasions,  almost  reached  adoration.  One  day 
Colonel  McKaye,  of  New  York,  who  had  been  one  of*  a  committee  to 
investigate  the  condition  of  the  freed  men,  upon  his  return  from  Hilton 
Head  and  Beaufort,  called  upon  the  President,  and  in  the  course  of 
the  interview  mentioned  the  following  incident  : — 

He  had  been  speaking  of  the  ideas  of  power  entertained  by  these 
people.  They  had  an  idea  of  God,  as  the  Almighty,  and  they  had 
realized  in  their  former  condition  the  power  of  their  masters.  Up  to 
the  time  of  the  arrival  among  them  of  the  Union  forces,  they  had  no 
knowledge  of  any  other  power.  Their  masters  fled  upon  the  approach 
of  our  soldiers,  and  this  gave  the  slaves  the  conception  of  a  power 
greater  than  their  masters  exercised.  This  power  they  called  "Massa 
Linkum."  Colonel  McKaye  said  that  their  place  of  worship  was  a 
large  building  which  they  called  "the  praise  house,"  and  the  leader 
of  the  "meeting,"  a  venerable  black  man,  was  known  as  "the  praise 
man."  On  a  certain  day,  when  there  was  quite  a  large  gathering  of 
the  people,  considerable  confusion  was  created  by  different  persons 
attempting  to  tell  who  and  what  "  Massa  Linkum  "  was.  In  the  midst 
of  the  excitement  the  white-headed  leader  commanded  silence. 
"Brederin,"  said  he,  "you  don't  know  nosen'  what  you'se  talkin' 
'bout.  Now,  you  just  listen  to  me.  Massa  Linkum,  he  ebery  whar. 
Lie  know  ebery  ting."  Then,  solemnly  looking  up,  he  added :  "  He 
walk  de  earf  like  de  Lord  !  " 

Colonel  McKaye  told  me  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very  much  affected 
by  this  account.  He  did  not  smile,  as  another  might  have  done,  but 


734  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

got  up  from  his  chair  and  walked  in  silence  two  or  three  times  across 
the  floor.  As  he  resumed  his  seat,  he  said,  very  impressively,  "  It  is 
a  momentous  thing  to  be  the  instrument,  under  Providence,  of  the 
liberation  of  a  race  !" 

"  At  another  time,  he  said  cheerfully,  *  I  am  very  sure  that  if  I  do 
not  go  away  from  here  a  wiser  man,  I  shall  go  away  a  better  man,  for 
having  learned  here  what  a  very  poor  sort  of  a  man  I  am.'  Afterwards, 
referring  to  what  he  called  a  change  of  heart,  he  said  he  did  not  re 
member  any  precise  time  when  he  passed  through  any  special  change 
of  purpose,  or  of  heart ;  but,  he  would  say,  that  his  own  election  to 
office,  and  the  crisis  immediatly  following,  influentially  determined  him 
in  what  he  called  '  a  process  of  crystallization,'  then  going  on  in  his 
mind.  Reticent  as  he  was,  and  shy  of  discoursing  much  of  his  own 
mental  exercises,  these  few  utterances  now  have  a  value  with  those  who 
knew  him,  which  his  dying  words  would  scarcely  have  possessed." 

Says  Rev.  Dr.  Thompson,  of  New  York : — "  A  calm  trust  in  God  was 
the  loftiest,  worthiest  characteristic  in  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
He  had  learned  this  long  ago.  *  I  would  rather  my  son  would  be  able 
to  read  the  Bible  than  to  own  a  farm,  if  he  can't  have  but  one,'  said  hia 
godly  mother.  That  Bible  was  Abraham  Lincoln's  guide." 

"Mr.  Jay  states  that,  being  on  the  steamer  which  conveyed  the  gov 
ernmental  party  from  Fortress  Monroe  to  Norfolk,  after  the  destruction  of 
the  Merrimac,  while  all  on  board  were  excited  by  the  novelty  of  the  excur 
sion  and  by  the  incidents  that  it  recalled,  he  missed  the  President  from 
the  company,  and,  on  looking  about,  found  him  in  a  quiet  nook,  read 
ing  a  well-worn  Testament.  Such  an  incidental  revelation  of  his  relig 
ious  habits  is  worth  more  than  pages  of  formal  testimony." 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  visited  New  York  in  1860,  he  felt  a  great  interest 
in  many  of  the  institutions  for  reforming  criminals  and  saving  the 
young  from  a  life  of  crime.  Among  others,  he  visited,  unattended,  the 
Five  Points'  House  of  Industry,  and  a  teacher  in  the  Sabbath-school 
there  gives  the  following  account  of  the  event : — 

"  One  Sunday  morning  I  saw  a  tall,  remarkable-looking  man  enter 
the  room  and  take  a  seat  among  us.  He  listened  with  fixed  attention 
to  our  exercises,  and  his  countenance  expressed  such  genuine  interest 
that  I  approached  him  and  suggested  that  he  might  be  willing  to  say 
something  to  the  children.  He  accepted  the  invitation  with  evident 
pleasure ;  and,  coming  forward,  began  a  simple  address,  which  at  once 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES .  735 

fascinated  every  little  hearer  and  hushed  the  room  into  silence.  His 
language  was  strikingly  beautiful,  and  his  tones  musical  with  intense 
feeling.  The  little  faces  would  droop  into  sad  conviction  as  he  uttered 
sentences  of  warning,  and  would  brighten  into  sunshine  as  he  spoke 
cheerful  words  of  promise.  Once  or  twice  he  attempted  to  close  his 
remarks,  but  the  imperative  shout  of  'Go  on  !  O,  do  go  on !'  would 
compel  him  to  resume.  As  I  looked  upon  the  gaunt  and  sinewy  frame 
of  the  stranger,  and  marked  his  powerful  head  and  determined  features, 
now  touched  into  softness  by  the  impressions  of  the  moment,  I  felt  an 
irrepressible  curiosity  to  learn  something  more  about  him,  and  while 
he  was  quietly  leaving  the  room  I  begged  to  know  his  name.  He 
courteously  replied,  '  It  is  Abraham  Lincoln,  from  Illinois.'  " 

In  the  article  in  Harper's  Magazine  already  quoted  from  above,  Mr. 
Brooks  says : — 

"  On  Thursday  of  a  certain  week,  two  ladies,  from  Tennessee, 
came  before  the  President,  asking  the  release  of  their  husbands, 
held  as  prisoners  of  war  at  Johnson's  Island.  They  were  put  off  until 
Friday,  when  they  came  again,  and  were  again  put  off  until  Saturday. 
At  each  of  the  interviews  one  of  the  ladies  urged  that  her  husband  was 
a  religious  man.  On  Saturday,  when  the  President  ordered  the  release  of 
the  prisoner,  he  said  to  this  lady,  *  You  say  your  husband  is  a  religious 
man  ;  tell  him,  when  you  meet  him,  that  I  say  I  am  not  much  of  a 
judge  of  religion,  but  that  in  my  opinion  the  religion  which  sets  men 
to  rebel  and  fight  against  their  Government,  because,  as  they  think, 
that  Government  does  not  sufficiently  help  some  men  to  eat  their  bread 
in  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces,  is  not  the  sort  of  religion  upon  which 
people  can  get  to  heaven.' " 

The  Western  Christian  Advocate  says: — "On  the  day  of  the  receipt 
of  the  capitulation  of  Lee,  as  we  learn  from  a  friend  intimate  with 
the  late  President  Lincoln,  the  cabinet  meeting  was  held  an  hour  earlier 
than  usual.  Neither  the  President  nor  any  member  was  able,  for  a 
time,  to  give  utterance  to  his  feelings.  At  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln  all  dropped  on  their  knees,  and  offered,  in  silence  and  in  tears, 
their  humble  and  heartfelt  acknowledgments  to  the  Almighty  for  the 
triumph  He  had  granted  to  the  National  cause." 

HIS  SYMPATHY. 

A  large  number  of  those  whom  he  saw  every  day  came  with  appeals 
to  his  feelings  in  reference  to  relatives  and  friends  in  confinement  and 
under  sentence  of  death.  It  was  a  constant  marvel  to  me  that,  with 


736  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

all  his  other  cares  and  duties,  he  could  give  so  much  time  and  be  so 
patient  with  this  multitude.  I  have  known  him  to  sit  for  hours  lis 
tening  to  details  of  domestic  troubles  from  poor  people — much  of  which, 
of  course,  irrelevant — carefully  sifting  the  facts,  and  manifesting  as 
much  anxiety  to  do  exactly  right  as  in  matters  of  the  gravest  interest. 
Poorly-clad  people  were  more  likely  to  get  a  good  hearing  than  those 
who  came  in  silks  and  velvets.  No  one  was  ever  turned  away  from  hia 
door  because  of  poverty.  If  he  erred,  it  was  sure  to  be  on  the  side 
of  mercy.  It  was  one  of  his  most  painful  tasks  to  confirm  a  sentence 
of  death.  I  recollect  the  case  of  a  somewhat  noted  rebel  prisoner, 
who  had  been  condemned  to  death,  I  believe,  as  a  spy.  A  strong  ap 
plication  had  been  made  to  have  his  sentence  commuted.  While  this 
was  pending,  he  attempted  to  escape  from  confinement,  and  was  shot 
by  the  sentinel  on  guard.  Although  he  richly  deserved  death,  Mr. 
Lincoln  remarked  in  my  presence,  that  "  it  was  a  great  relief  to  him 
that  the  man  took  his  fate  into  his  own  hands." 

"No  man  in  our  era,"  says  Mr.  Colfax,  "clothed  with  such  vast  power, 
has  ever  used  it  so  mercifully.  No  ruler  holding  the  keys  of  life  and 
death,  ever  pardoned  so  many  and  so  easily.  When  friends  said  to 
him  they  wished  he  had  more  of  Jackson's  sternness,  he  would  say, 
*  I  am  just  as  God  made  me,  and  cannot  change.'  It  may  not  be  gen 
erally  known  that  his  door-keepers  had  standing  orders  from  him  that 
no  matter  how  great  might  be  the  throng,  if  either  senators  or  repre 
sentatives  had  to  wait,  or  to  be  turned  away  without  an  audience,  ho 
must  see,  before  the  day  closed,  every  messenger  who  came  to  him  with 
a  petition  for  the  saving  of  life." 

A  touching  instance  of  his  kindness  of  heart  was  told  me  incident 
ally  by  one  of  the  servants.  A  poor  woman  from  Philadelphia  had 
been  waiting,  with  a  baby  in  her  arms,  for  three  days  to  see  the  Presi 
dent.  Her  husband  had  furnished  a  substitute  for  the  army,  but  some 
time  afterwards  became  intoxicated  while  with  some  companions,  and 
in  this  state  was  induced  to  enlist.  Soon  after  he  reached  the  army 
he  deserted,  thinking  that,,  as  he  had  provided  a  substitute,  the  Govern 
ment  was  not  entitled  to  his  services.  Returning  home,  he  was,  of 
course,  arrested,  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  be  shot.  The  sen 
tence  was  to  be  executed  on  Saturday.  On  Monday  his  wife  left  her 
home  with  her  baby,  to  endeavor  to  see  the  President.  Said  old 
Daniel,  "  She  had  been  waiting  here  three  days,  and  there  was  no  chance 
for  her  to  get  in.  Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  the  President 
was  going  through  the  back  passage  to  his  private  rooms,  to  get  a  cup 
v>f  tea  or  take  some  rest."  .(This  passage-way  has  lately  Deen  con- 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  737 

strncted,  and  shuts  the  person  passing  entirely  out  of  view  of  the 
occupants  of  the  ante-room.)  "  On  his  way  through  he  heard  the 
baLy  cry.  He  instantly  went  back  to  his  office  and  rang  the  bell. 
'  Daniel,'  said  he,  *  is  there  a  woman  with  a  baby  in  the  ante-room  ?'  I 
said  there  was,  and  if  he  would  allow  me  to  say  it,  I  thought  it  was  a 
case  he  ought  to  see  ;  for  it  was  a  matter  of  life  and  death.  Said  he, 
'Send  her  to  me  at  once.'  She  went  in,  told  her  story,  and  the  Presi 
dent  pardoned  her  husband.  As  the  woman  came  out  from  his  pres 
ence,  her  eyes  were  lifted  and  her  lips  moving  in  prayer,  the  tears 
streaming  down  her  cheeks."  Said  Daniel,  "  I  went  up  to  her,  and 
pulling  her  shawl,  said,  '  Madam,  it  was  the  baby  that  did  it !' " 

Another  touching  incident  occurred,  I  believe,  the  same  week.  A 
woman  in  a  faded  shawl  and  hood,  somewhat  advanced  in  life,  at  length 
was  admitted,  in  her  turn,  to  the  President.  Her  husband  and  three  sons 
all  she  had  in  the  world,  enlisted.  Her  husband  had  been  killed,  and 
she  had  come  to  ask  the  President  to  release  to  her  the  oldest  son. 
Being  satisfied  of  the  truthfulness  of  her  story,  he  said,  "  Certainly,  if 
her  prop  was  taken  away  she  was  justly  entitled  to  one  of  her  boys." 
He  immediately  wrote  an  order  for  the  discharge  of  the  young  man. 
The  poor  woman  thanked  him  very  gratefully,  and  went  away.  On 
reaching  the  army  she  found  that  this  son  had  been  in  a  recent  engage 
ment,  was  wounded,  and  taken  to  a  hospital.  She  found  the  hospital, 
but  the  boy  was  dead,  or  died  while  she  was  there.  The  surgeon  in 
charge  made  a  memorandum  of  the  facts  upon  the  back  of  the  Presi 
dent's  order,  and,  almost  broken-hearted,  the  poor  woman  found  her 
way  again  into  his  presence.  He  was  much  affected  by  her  appearance 
and  story,  and  said,  "  I  know  what  you  wish  me  to  do  now,  and  I  shall 
do  it  without  your  asking  :  I  shall  release  to  you  your  second  son." 
Upon  this  he  took  up  his  pen  and  commenced  writing  the  order. 
While  he  was  writing  the  poor  woman  stood  by  his  side,  the  tears 
running  down  her  face,  and  passed  her  hands  softly  over  his  head, 
stroking  his  rough  hair,  as  I  have  seen  a  fond  mother  caress  a  son. 
By  the  time  he  had  finished  writing  his  own  heart  and  eyes  were  full. 
He  handed  her  the  paper.  "  Now,"  said  he,  "  you  have  one  and /one 
of  the  other  two  left ;  that  is  no  more  than  right."  She  took  the  paper, 
and  reverently  placing  her  hand  again  upon  his  head,  the  tears  still 
upon  her  cheeks,  said,  "  The  Lord  bless  you,  Mr.  President !  May  you 
live  a  thousand  years,  and  always  be  the  head  of  this  great  nation !" 

One  day  the  Hon.  Thaddeus  Stevens  called  with  an   elderly  lady,  in 
great  trouble,  whose  son  had  been  in  the  army,  but  for  some  offenco 
47 


738  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

had  been  court-martialled,  and  sentenced  either  to  death  or  imprison 
ment  at  hard  labor  for  a  long  terra,  I  do  not  recollect  which.  There 
were  some  extenuating  circumstances,  and  after  a  full  hearing  the  Pres 
ident  turned  to  the  representative  and  said  :  "  Mr.  Stevens,  do  you 
think  this  is  a  case  which  will  warrant  my  interference  ?"  "  With  my 
knowledge  of  the  facts  and  the  parties,"  was  the  reply,  "  I  should 
have  no  hesitation  in  granting  a  pardon."  "  Then,"  returned  Mr.  Lin 
coin,  "  I  will  pardon  him,"  and  he  proceeded  forthwith  to  execute  the 
paper.  The  gratitude  of  the  mother  was  too  deep  for  expression,  save 
by  her  tears,  and  not  a  word  was  said  between  her  and  Mr.  Stevens  until 
they  were  half  way  down  the  stairs  on  their  passage  out,  when  she  sud 
denly  broke  forth  in  an  excited  manner  with  the  words,  "  I  knew  it  was 
a  copperhead  lie  I"  "  What  do  you  refer  to,  madam  ?"  asked  Mr.  Ste 
vens.  "  Why,  they  told  me  he  was  an  ugly-looking  man,"  she  re 
plied,  with  vehemence.  "  He  is  the  handsomest  man  I  ever  saw  in 
my  life  !"  And  surely  for  that  mother,  and  for  many  another  through 
out  the  land,  no  carved  statue  of  ancient  or  modern  art,  in  all  its 
symmetry,  can  have  the  charm  which  will  forevermore  encircle  that 
care-worn  but  gentle  face,  expressing  as  was  never  expressed  before, 
"  Malice  towards  none — Charity  for  all." 

M.  Laugel,  in  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  relates  from  personal 
observation  one  or  two  interesting  incidents : — 

"  A  soldier's  wife  reduced  almost  to  destitution  by  the  absence 
of  her  husband,  sought  to  obtain  his  discharge  from  the  army — 
this,  Mr.  Lincoln  told  her  was  beyond  his  power;  but  he  listened 
patiently  to  the  poor  creature's  tale  of  suffering  and  sorrow,  cheered 
her  and  comforted  her,  reminded  her  how  not  herself  alone,  but 
the  nation  generally,  were  passing  through  a  season  of  trial,  and 
dismissed  her  not  only  with  many  kind  and  thoughtful  words,  but 
with  substantial  proofs  of  sympathy."  A  beautiful  and  touching 
picture  M.  Laugel  places  before  us  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  that  fatal 
theatre  —  months  before  the  real  tragedy  which  ended  his  life — 
listening  to  that  representation  of  manly  sorrow  in  "King  Lear" — with 
his  little  son  pressed  close  to  his  ample  breast,  at  times  answering 
patiently  the  little  prattling  fellow — then  showing  in  every  feature  how 
keenly  he  felt  the  great  dramatist's  representation  of  the  sorrows  of 
paternity.  To  him  Shakspeare  was,  as  to  all  true  men,  a  great  teacher, 
whose  words  cannot  be  heard  too  often,  and  cannot  be  rendered  more 
powerful  by  any  extrinsic  circumstances.  "  It  matters  not  to  me,"  he 
said  one  day,  "  whether  Shakspeare  be  well  or  ill  acleu  ;  with  him,  the 
thought  suffices." 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  739 

Here  is  a  characteristic  touch  of  humor  as  well  as  pathos ; — the  inci 
dent  is  strictly  true : — 

A  distinguished  citizen  of  Ohio  had  an  appointment  with  the  Presi 
dent  one  evening  at  six  o'clock.  As  he  entered  the  vestibule  of  the 
White  House,  his  attention  was  attracted  by  a  poorly-clad  young  woman 
who  was  violently  sobbing.  He  asked  her  the  cause  of  her  distress. 
She  said  she  had  been  ordered  away  by  the  servants,  after  vainly  wait 
ing  many  hours  to  see  the  President  about  her  only  brother,  who  had 
been  condemned  to  death.  Her  story  was  this : — She  and  her  brother 
were  foreigners,  and  orphans.  They  had  been  in  this  country  several 
years.  Her  brother  enlisted  in  the  army,  but,  through  bad  influences, 
was  induced  to  desert.  He  was  captured,  tried,  and  sentenced  to  be 
shot — the  old  story.  The  poor  girl  had  obtained  the  signatures  of 
some  persons  who  had  formerly  known  him,  to  a  petition  for  a  pardon, 
and  alone  had  come  to  Washington  to  lay  the  case  before  the  Presi 
dent.  Thronged  as  the  waiting-rooms  always  were,  she  had  passed 
the  long  hours  of  two  days  trying  in  vain  to  get  an  audience,  and  had 
at  length  been  ordered  away. 

The  gentleman's  feelings  were  touched.  He  said  to  her  that  he  had 
come  to  see  the  President,  but  did  not  know  as  he  should  succeed.  He 
told  her,  however,  to  follow  him  up-stairs,  and  he  would  see  what  could 
be  done  for  her.  Just  before  reaching  the  door,  Mr.  Lincoln  came  out, 
and  meeting  his  friend  said  good-humoredly,  "  Are  you  not  ahead  of 
time  ?"  The  gentleman  showed  him  his  watch,  with  the  hand  upon  the 
hour  of  six.  "  Well,"  returned  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  I  have  been  so  busy 
to-day  that  I  have  not  had  time  to  get  a  lunch.  Go  in,  and  sit  down  ; 
I  will  be  back  directly." 

The  gentleman  made  the  young  woman  accompany  him  into  the 
office,  and  when  they  were  seated,  said  to  her,  "  Now,  my  good  girl,  I 
want  you  to  muster  all  the  courage  you  have  in  the  world.  When  the 
President  comes  back,  he  will  sit  down  in  that  arm-chair.  I  shall  get  up 
to  speak  to  him,  and  as  I  do  so  you  must  force  yourself  between  us, 
and  insist  upon  his  examination  of  your  papers,  telling  him  it  is  a  case 
of  life  and  death,  and  admits  of  no  delay."  These  instructions  were 
carried  out  to  the  letter.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at  first  somewhat  surprised 
at  the  apparent  forwardness  of  the  young  woman,  but  observing  her 
distressed  appearance,  he  ceased  conversation  with  his  friend,  and  com 
menced  an  examination  of  the  document  she  had  placed  in  his  hands. 
Glancing  from  it  to  the  face  of  the  petitioner,  whose  tears  had  broken 
forth  afresh,  he  studied  its  expression  for  a  moment,  and  then  his  eye 
fell  upon  her  scanty  but  neat  dress.  Instantly  his  face  lighted  up. 


740  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

"My  poor  girl,"  said  be,  "you  have  come  here  with  no  governor,  or 
senator,  or  member  of  Congress,  to  plead  your  cause.  You  seem 
honest  and  truthful ;  and  you  don't  wear  hoops — and  I  will  be  whipped 
but  I  will  pardon  your  brother." 

Though  kind-hearted  almost  to  a  fault,  nevertheless  he  always  en 
deavored  to  be  just.  A  member  of  Congress  called  upon  him  one  day 
with  the  brother  of  a  deserter  who  had  been  arrested.  The  excuse 
was  that  the  soldier  had  been  home  on  a  sick-furlough,  and  that  he 
afterwards  became  partially  insane,  and  had  consequently  failed  to 
return  and  report  in  proper  time.  He  was  on  his  way  to  his  regiment 
at  the  front  to  be  tried.  The  President  at  once  ordered  him  to  be 
stopped  at  Alexandria  and  sent  before  a  board  of  surgeons  for  exami 
nation  as  to  the  question  of  insanity.  "  This  seemed  to  me  so  proper," 
said  the  representative,  "  that  I  expressed  myself  satisfied.  But  on 
going  out,  the  brother,  who  was  anxious  for  an  immediate  discharge, 
said  to  me,  '  The  trouble  with  your  President  is,  that  he  is  so  afraid 
of  doing  something  wrong.'  " 

A  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Times,  writing  from  Kentucky, 
gives  the  following  : — 

"  Among  the  large  number  of  persons  waiting  in  the  room  to 
speak  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  a  certain  day  in  November  last,  was  a 
small,  pale,  delicate-looking  boy  about  thirteen  years  old.  The 
President  saw  him  standing,  looking  feeble  and  faint,  and  said : — • 
4  Come  here,  my  boy,  and  tell  me  what  you  want.'  The  boy  advanced, 
placed  his  hand  on  the  arm  of  the  President's  chair,  and  with  bowed 
head  and  timid  accents  said :  *  Mr.  President,  I  have  been  a  drummer 
in  a  regiment  for  two  years,  and  my  colonel  got  angry  with  me  and 
turned  me  off;  I  was  taken  sick,  and  have  been  a  long  time  in  hospi 
tal.  This  is  the  first  time  I  have  been  out,  and  I  came  to  see  if  you 
could  not  do  something  for  me.'  The  President  looked  at  him  kindly 
and  tenderly,  and  asked  him  where  he  lived.  'I  have  no  home,'  answered 
the  boy.  'Where  is  your  father?'  'He  died  in  the  army,' was  the 
reply.  'Where  is  your  mother?'  continued  the  President.  'My 
mother  is  dead  also.  I  have  no  mother,  no  father,  no  brothers,  no 
sisters,  and,'  bursting  into  tears,  'no  friends — nobody  cares  for  me.' 
Mr.  Lincoln's  eyes  filled  with  tears,  and  he  said  to  him,  '  Can't  you  sell 
newspapers  ?'  '  No,'  said  the  boy,  '  I  am  too  weak,  and  the  surgeon 
of  the  hospital  told  me  I  must  leave,  and  I  have  no  money,  and  no 
place  to  go  to.'  The  scene  was  wonderfully  affecting.  The  President 
irew  forth  a  card,  and  addressing  on  it  certain  officials  to  whom  hia 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  741 

request,  was  law,  gave  special  directions  *  to  care  for  this  poor  boy,1 
The  \van  face  of  the  little  drummer  lit  up  with  a  happy  smile  as  he 
received  the  paper,  and  he  went  away  convinced  that  he  had  one  good 
and  true  friend,  at  least,  in  the  person  of  the  President." 

Mr.  Van  Alen,  of  New  York,  writing  to  the  Evening  Post,  relates 
the  following : — 

"  I  well  remember  one  day  when  a  poor  woman  sought,  with  the 
persistent  affection  of  a  mother,  for  the  pardon  of  her  son  con 
demned  to  death.  She  was  successful  in  her  petition.  When  she 
had  left  the  room,  he  turned  to  me  and  said :  '  Perhaps  I  have  done 
wrong,  but  at  all  events  I  have  made  that  poor  woman  happy.' " 

One  night  Schuylcr  Colfax  left  all  other  business  to  ask  him  to 
respite  the  son  of  a  constituent,  who  was  sentenced  to  be  shot,  at 
Davenport,  for  desertion.  He  heard  the  story  with  his  usual  patience, 
though  he  was  wearied  out  with  incessant  calls,  and  anxious  for  rest, 
and  then  replied : — "  Some  of  our  generals  complain  that  I  impair  dis 
cipline  and  subordination  in  the  army  by  my  pardons  and  respites,  but 
it  makes  me  rested,  after  a  hard  day's  work,  if  I  can  find  some  good 
excuse  for  saving  a  man's  life,  and  I  go  to  bed  happy  as  I  think  how 
joyous  the  signing  of  my  name  will  make  him  and  his  family  and  his 
friends."  And  with  a  happy  smile  beaming  over  that  care-furrowed 
face,  he  signed  that  name  that  saved  that  life. 

Said  the  Rev.  Dr.  Storrs,  in  his  eulogy  upon  Mr.  Lincoln,  pronounced 
at  the  Brooklyn  Academy  of  Music  : — 

"Of  course  his  sensibilities  came  gradually  to  be  under  the  con 
trol  of  his  judgment,  and  the  councils  of  others  constrained  him 
sometimes  to  a  severity  which  he  hated;  so  that  at  length  the 
order  for  the  merited  restraint  or  punishment  of  public  offenders 
was  frequently,  though  always  reluctantly,  ratified  by  him.  But 
his  sympathy  with  men,  in  whatever  condition,  of  whatever  opinions, 
in  whatever  wrongs  involved,  was  so  native  and  constant,  and  so  con 
trolling,  that  he  was  always  not  so  much  inclined  as  predetermined 
to  the  mildest  and  most  generous  theory  possible.  And  some 
thing  of  peril  as  well  as  promise  was  involved  to  the  public  in  this 
element  of  his  nature.  lie  would  not  admit  that  he  was  in  danger  of 
the  very  assassination  by  which  at  last  his  life  was  taken,  and  only 
yielded  with  a  protest  to  the  precautions  which  others  felt  bound  to 
take  for  him ;  because  his  own  sympathy  with  men  was  so  strong  that 
he  could  not  believe  that  any  would  meditate  serious  harm  to  him. 


742  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  public  policy  of  his  administration  was  constantly  in  danger  of 
being  too  tardy,  lenient,  pacific  toward  those  who  were  combined  for 
deadly  battle  against  the  Government,  because  he  was  so  solicitous  to 
win,  so  anxious  to  bless,  and  so  reluctant  sharply  to  strike.  ljSic  se??z- 
per  tyrannis  /'  shouted  his  wild  theatric  assassin,  as  he  leaped  upon  the 
stage,  making  the  ancient  motto  of  Virginia  a  legend  of  shame  forever- 
more.  But  no  magistrate  ever  lived  who  had  less  of  the  tyrant  in  his 
natural  or  his  habitual  temper.  In  all  the  veins  of  all  his  frame  no 
drop  of  unsympathetic  blood  found  a  channel.  When  retaliation 
seemed  the  only  just  policy  for  the  Government  to  adopt  to  save  its 
soldiers  from  being  shot  in  cold  blood  or  being  starved  into  idiocy,  it 
was  simply  impossible  for  him  to  adopt  it.  And  if  he  had  met  the 
arch-conspirators  face  to  face,  those  who  had  racked  and  really  enlarged 
the  English  vocabulary  to  get  terms  to  express  their  hatred  and  dis 
gust  toward  him  individually — those  who  were  striking  with  desperate 
blows  at  the  national  existence — it  would  have  been  hard  for  him  not 
to  greet  them  with  open  hand  and  a  kindly  welcome.  The  very  ele 
ment  of  sadness,  which  was  so  inwrought  with  his  mirthfulness  and 
humor,  and  which  will  look  out  on  coming  generations  through  the 
pensive  lines  upon  his  face  and  the  light  of  his  pathetic  eyes,  came 
into  his  spirit  or  was  constantly  nursed  there  through  his  sympathy 
with  men,  especially  with  the  oppressed  and  the  poor.  He  took  upon 
himself  the  sorrows  of  others.  He  bent  in  extrernest  personal  suffering 
under  the  blows  that  fell  upon  his  countrymen.  And  when  the  bloody 
rain  of  battle  was  sprinkling  the  trees  and  the  sod  of  Virginia  during 
successive  dreary  campaigns,  his  inmost  soul  felt  the  baptism  of  it,  and 
was  sickened  with  grief.  '  I  cannot  bear  it,'  he  said  more  than  once, 
as  the  story  was  told  him  of  the  sacrifice  made  to  secure  some  result. 
No  glow  even  of  triumph  could  expel  from  his  eyes  the  tears  occasioned 
by  the  suffering  that  had  bought  it !'" 

Too  much  has  not  been  said  of  his  uniform  meekness  and  kindness 
of  heart,  but  there  would  sometimes  be  afforded  evidence  that  one 
grain  of  sand  too  much  would  break  even  this  camel's  back.  Among 
the  callers  at  the  White  House  one  day,  was  an  officer  who  had 
been  cashiered  from  the  service.  He  had  prepared  an  elaborate  de 
fence  of  himself,  which  he  consumed  much  time  in  reading  to  the 
President.  When  he  had  finished,  Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  that  even  upon 
his  own  statement  of  the  case  the  facts  would  not  warrant  executive 
interference.  Disappointed,  and  considerably  crest-fallen,  the  man 
withdrew.  A  few  days  afterward  he  made  a  second  attempt  to  alter 
the  President's  convictions,  going  over  substantially  the  same  ground, 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  743 

and  occupying  about  the  same  space  of  time,  but  without  accomplish 
ing  his  end.  The  third  time  he  succeeded  in  forcing  himself  into  Mr. 
Lincoln's  presence,  who  with  great  forbearance  listened  to  another  repe 
tition  of  the  case  to  its  conclusion,  but  made  no  reply.  Waiting  for  ji 
moment,  the  man  gathered  from  the  expression  of  his  countenance  that 
his  mind  was  unconvinced.  Turning  very  abruptly,  he  said :  "  Well, 
Mr.  President,  I  see  that  you  are  fully  determined  not  to  do  me  jus 
tice  !"  This  was  too  aggravating  even  for  Mr.  Lincoln.  Manifesting, 
however,  no  more  feeling  than  that  indicated  by  a  slight  compression 
of  the  lips,  he  very  quietly  arose,  laid  down  a  package  of  papers  he 
held  in  his  hand,  and  then  suddenly  seizing  the  defunct  officer  by  the 
coat-collar,  he  marched  him  forcibly  to  the  door,  saying,  as  he  ejected 
him  into  the  passage :  "  Sir,  I  give  you  fair  warning  never  to  show 
yourself  in  this  room  again.  I  can  bear  censure,  but  not  insult !"  In 
a  whining  tone  the  man  begged  for  his  papers  which  he  had  dropped. 
"Begone,  sir,"  said  the  President;  "your  papers  will  be  sent  to  you. 
I  never  wish  to  see  your  face  again !" 

Late  one  afternoon  a  lady  with  two  gentlemen  were  admitted.  She 
had  come  to  ask  that  her  husband,  who  was  a  prisoner  of  war,  might 
be  permitted  to  take  the  oath  and  be  released  from  confinement.  To 
secure  a  degree  of  interest  on  the  part  of  the  President,  one  of  the 
gentlemen  claimed  to  be  an  acquaintance  of  Mrs.  Lincoln ;  this,  how 
ever,  received  but  little  attention,  and  the  President  proceeded  to  ask 
what  position  the  lady's  husband  held  in  the  rebel  service.  "Oh," 
said  she,  "  he  was  a  captain.  "  A  captain"  rejoined  Mr.  Lincoln ; 
"indeed,  rather  too  big  a  fish  to  set  free  siiriply  upon  his  taking  the 
oath !  If  he  was  an  officer,  it  is  proof  positive  that  he  has  been  a 
zealous  rebel ;  I  cannot  release  him."  Here  the  lady's  friend  reiterated 
the  assertion  of  his  acquaintance  with  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Instantly  the 
President's  hand  was  upon  the  bell-rope.  The  usher  in  attendance 
answered  the  summons.  "Cornelius,  take  this  man's  name  to  Mrs. 
Lincoln,  and  ask  her  what  she  knows  of  him."  The  boy  presently 
returned,  with  the  reply  that  "  the  Madam  "  (as  she  was  called  by  the 
servants)  knew  nothing  of  him  whatever.  "  It  is  just  as  I  suspected," 
said  the  President.  The  party  made  one  more  attempt  to  enlist  his 
sympathy,  but  without  effect.  "  It  is  of  no  use,"  was  the  reply.  "  I 
cannot  release  him  !"  and  the  trio  withdrew  in  high  displeasure. 

HIS  HUMOR,   SHREWDNESS,   AND   SENTIMENT. 
It  has  been  well  said  by  a  profound  critic  of  Shakspeare,  and   it 
occurs  to  me  as  very  appropriate  in  this  connection,  that  "  the  spirit 


744  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

uhich  held  the  woe  of  Lear  and  the  tragedy  of  Hamlet  would  have 
broken,  had  it  not  also  had  the  humor  of  the  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor 
and  the  merriment  of  the  Midsummer  Night's  Dream."  This  is  as 
true  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  it  was  of  Shakspeare.  The  capacity  to  tell 
and  enjoy  a  good  anecdote  no  doubt  prolonged  his  life.  I  have  often 
heard  this  asserted  by  one  of  his  most  intimate  friends.  And  the 
public  impression  of  his  fecundity  in  this  respect  was  not  exaggerated. 
Mr.  Beochcr  once  observed  to  me  of  his  own  wealth  of  illustration,  that 
he  "thought  in  figures,"  or,  in  other  words,  that  an  argument  habitu 
ally  took  on  that  form  in  his  mind.  This  was  pre-eminently  true  of 
Mr.  Lincoln.  The  "points"  of  his  argument  were  driven  home  in  this 
way  as  they  could  be  in  no  other.  In  the  social  circle  chis  character 
istic  had  full  play.  I  never  knew  him  to  sit  down  with  a  friend  for  a 
five  minutes'  chat,  without  being  "reminded"  of  one  or  more  inci 
dents  about  somebody  alluded  to  in  the  course  of  the  conversation, 
la  a  corner  of  his  desk  he  kept  a  copy  of  the  latest  humorous  work ; 
and  it  was  frequently  his  habit,  when  greatly  fatigued,  annoyed,  or 
depressed,  to  take  this  up  and  read  a  chapter,  with  great  relief. 

The  Saturday  evening  before  he  left  Washington  to  go  to  the  front, 
just  previous  to  the  capture  of  Richmond,  I  was  with  him  from  seven 
o'clock  till  nearly  twelve.  It  had  been  one  of  his  most  trying  days. 
The  pressure  of  office-seekers  was  greater  at  this  juncture  than  I  ever 
knew  it  to  be,  and  he  was  almost  worn  out.  Among  the  callers  that 
evening  was  a  party  composed  of  two  senators,  a  representative,  an 
ex-lieutenant-governor  of  a  Western  State,  and  several  private  citizens. 
They  had  business  of  great  importance,  involving  the  necessity  of  the 
President's  examination  of  voluminous  documents.  Pushing  every 
thing  aside,  he  said  to  one  of  the  party,  "  Have  you  seen  the  Nasby 
papers?"  "No,  I  have  not,"  was  the  answer;  "who  is  Nasby?" 
"  There  is  a  chap  out  in  Ohio,"  returned  the  President,  "  who  has  been 
writing  a  series  of  letters  in  the  newspapers  over  the  signature  of  Pe 
troleum  V.  Nasby.  Some  one  sent  me  a  pamphlet  collection  of  them 
the  other  day.  I  am  going  to  write  to  '  Petroleum '  to  come  down 
here,  and  I  intend  to  tell  him  if  he  will  communicate  his  talent  to  me, 
I  will  swap  places  with  him !"  Thereupon  he  arose,  went  to  a  drawer 
in  his  desk,  and,  taking  out  the  "  Letters,"  sat  down  and  read  one 
to  the  company,  finding  in  their  enjoyment  of  it  the  temporary  ex 
citement  and  relief  which  another  man  would  have  found  in  a  glass 
of  wine.  The  instant  he  had  ceased,  the  book  was  thrown  aside,  his 
countenance  relapsed  into  its  habitual  serious  expression,  and  the  busi 
ness  wa.i  entered  upon  with  the  utmost  earnestness. 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  745 

• 

Just  here,  I  may  say  with  propriety,  and  I  feel  that  it  is  due  to  Mr. 
Lincoln's  memory  to  state,  that,  during  the  entire  period  of  my  stay 
in  Washington,  after  witnessing  his  intercourse  with  almost  all  classew 
of  people,  including  governors,  senators,  members  of  Congress,  offi 
cers  of  the  army,  and  familiar  friends,  I  cannot  recollect  to  have  ever 
heard  him  relate  a  circumstance  to  any  one  of  them  all  that  would 
have  been  out  of  place  uttered  in  a  ladies'  drawing-room  !  I  am  aware 
that  a  different  impression  prevails,  founded  it  may  be  in  some  instances 
upon  facts;  but  where  there  is  one*  fact  of  the  kind  lam  persuaded  that 
there  are  forty  falsehoods,  at  least.  At  any  rate,  what  I  have  stated  is 
voluntary  testimony,  from  a  stand-point,  I  submit,  entitled  to  respect 
ful  consideration. 

Among  his  stories  freshest  in  my  mind,  one  which  he  related  to  me 
shortly  after  its  occurrence,  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  famous  inter 
view  on  board  the  River  Queen,  at  Hampton  Roads,  between  himself 
and  Secretary  Seward,  and  the  rebel  Peace  Commissioners.  It  was 
reported  at  the  time  that  the  President  told  a  "  little  story  "  on  that 
occasion,  and  the  inquiry  went  around  among  the  newspapers,  "  What 
was  it  ?"  The  New  York  Herald  published  what  purported  to  be  a 
version  of  it,  but  the  "point"  was  entirely  lost,  and  it  attracted  no 
attention.  Being  in  Washington  a  few  days  subsequent  to  the  inter 
view  with  the  Commissioners  (my  previous  sojourn  there  having  ter 
minated  about  the  first  of  last  August),  I  asked  Mr.  Lincoln,  one  day, 
"  if  it  was  true  that  he  told  Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell  a  story." 
"Why,  yes,"  he  replied,  manifesting  some  surprise,  "but  has  it  leaked 
out  ?  I  was  in  hopes  nothing  would  be  said  about  it,  lest  some  over 
sensitive  people  should  imagine  there  was  a  degree  of  levity  in  the 
intercourse  between  us."  He  then  went  on  to  relate  the  circumstances 
which  called  it  out.  "  You  sec,"  said  he,  "  we  had  reached  and  were 
discussing  the  slavery  question.  Mr.  Hunter  said,  substantially,  that 
the  slaves,  always  accustomed  to  an  overseer,  and  to  work  upon  com 
pulsion,  suddenly  freed,  as  they  would  be  if  the  South  should  consent 
to  peace  on  the  basis  of  the  '  Emancipation  Proclamation,'  would  pre 
cipitate  not  only  themselves  but  the  entire  Southern  society  into 
irremediable  ruin.  No  work  would  be  done,  nothing  would  be  cul 
tivated,  and  both  blacks  and  whites  would  starve  /"  Said  the  Presi 
dent,  "  I  waited  for  Seward  to  answer  that  argument,  but  as  he  was 
silent,  I  at  length  said :  "  Mr.  Hunter,  you  ought  to  know  a  great  deal 
better  about  this  matter  than  /,  for  you  have  always  lived  under  the 
slave  system.  I  can  only  say,  in  reply  to  your  statement  of  the  case; 
that  it  reminds  me  of  a  man  out  in  Illinois,  by  the  name  of  Case,  who 


746  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

undertook,  a  few  years  ago,  to  raise  a  very  large  herd  of  hogs.  If 
was  a  great  trouble  to  feed  them,  and  how  to  get  around  this  was  a 
puzzle  to  him.  At  length  he  hit  on  the  plan  of  planting  an  immense 
field  of  potatoes,  and,  when  they  were  sufficiently  grown,  he  turned 
the  whole  herd  into  the  field,  and  let  them  have  full  swing,  thus  saving 
not  only  the  labor  of  feeding  the  hogs,  but  also  that  of  digging  the 
potatoes  !  Charmed  with  his  sagacity,  he  stood  one  day  leaning 
against  the  fence,  counting  his  hogs,  when  a  neighbor  came  along. 
*  Well,  well,'  said  he,  '  Mr.  Case,  this  is  all  very  fine.  Your  hogs  are 
doing  very  well  just  now,  but  you  know  out  here  in  Illinois  the  frost 
comes  early,  and  the  ground  freezes  for  a  foot  deep.  Then  what  are 
they  going  to  do  ?'  This  was  a  view  of  the  matter  Mr.  Case  had  not 
taken  into  account.  Butchering-time  for  hogs  was  'way  on  in  Decem 
ber  or  January !  He  scratched  his  head,  and  at  length  stammered, 
1  Well,  it  may  come  pretty  hard  on  their  snouts,  but  I  don't  see  but 
that  it  will  be  '  root,  hog,  or  die  !'  "  . 

The  simplicity  and  absence  of  all  ostentation  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  is  well  illustrated  by  an  incident  which  occurred  on  the  occa 
sion  of  a  visit  he  made  to  Commodore  Porter,  at  Fortress  Monroe. 
Noticing  that  the  banks  of  the  river  were  dotted  with  flowers,  he  said  • 
"Commodore,  Tad"  (the  pet  name  for  his  youngest  son,  who  had 
accompanied  him  on  the  excursion)  "  is  very  fond  of  flowers ;  won't  you 
let  a  couple  of  men  take  a  boat  and  go  with  him  for  an  hour  or  two, 
along  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  gather  the  flowers  ?"  Look  at 
this  picture,  and  then  endeavor  to  imagine  the  head  of  a  European 
nation  making  a  similar  request,  in  this  humble  way,  of  one  of  hia 
subordinates ! 

One  day  I  took  a  couple  of  friends  from  New  York  tip-stairs,  who 
wished  to  be  introduced  to  the  President.  It  was  after  the  hour  for 
business  calls,  and  we  found  him  alone,  and,  for  once,  at  leisure.  Soon 
after  the  introduction,  one  of  my  friends  took  occasion  to  indorse, 
very  decidedly,  the  President's  Amnesty  Proclamation,  which  had 
been  severely  censured  by  many  friends  of  the  Administration.  Mr. 

S 's  approval  touched  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  said,  with  a  great  deal  of 

emphasis,  and  with  an  expression  of  countenance  I  shall  never  forget, 
"  When  a  man  is  sincerely  penitent  for  his  misdeeds,  and  gives  satis 
factory  evidence  of.  the  same,  he  can  safely  be  pardoned,  and  there 
is  no  exception  to  the  rule  !" 

Shortly  afterwards,  he  told  us  this  story  of  "  Andy  Johnson,"  AS  he 
was  familiarly  in  the  habit  of  calling  him.  It  was  a  few  weeks  prior 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  747 

to  tne  Baltimore  Convention,  before  it  was  known  that  Governor  John 
son  would  be  the  nominee  for  the  Vice-Presidency.  Said  he,  "  I  had 
a  visit  last  night  from  Colonel  Moody,  '  the  fighting  Methodist  parson,' 
as  he  is  called  in  Tennessee.  He  is  on  his  way  to  the  Philadelphia 
Conference,  and,  being  in  Washington  over-night,  came  up  to  see  me. 
He  told  me,"  he  continued,  "  this  story  of  Andy  Johnson  and  General 
Buel,  which  interested  me  intensely.  Colonel  Moody  was  in  Nashville 
the  day  that  it  was  reported  that  Buel  had  decided  to  evacuate  the 
city.  The  rebels,  strongly  re-enforced,  were  said  to  be  within  two 
days'  inarch  of  the  capital.  Of  course,  the  city  was  greatly  excited. 
Said  Moody,  '  I  went  in  search  of  Johnson,  at  the  edge  of  the  evening, 
and  found  him  at  his  office,  closeted  with  two  gentlemen,  who  were 
walking  the  floor  with  him,  one  on  each  side.  As  I  entered,  they 
retired,  leaving  me  alone  with  Johnson,  who  came  up  to  me,  mani 
festing  intense  feeling,  and  said,  "  Moody,  we  are  sold  out !  Buel  is  a 
traitor !  He  is  going  to  evacuate  the  city,  and  in  forty-eight  hours  wo 
shall  all  be  in  the  hands  of  the  rebels."  Then  he  commenced  pacing  the 
floor  again,  twisting  his  hands,  and  chafing  like  a  caged  tiger,  utterly 
insensible  to  his  friend's  entreaties  to  become  calm.  Suddenly  ho 
turned  and  said,  "  Moody,  can  you  pray  ?"  "  That  is  my  business,  sir, 
as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel,"  returned  the  Colonel.  "  Well,  Moody,  I 
wish  you  would  pray,"  said  Johnson ;  and  instantly  both  went  down 
upon  their  knees,  at  opposite  sides  of  the  room.  As  the  prayer  be 
came  fervent,  Johnson  began  to  respond  in  true  Methodist  style. 
Presently  he  crawled  over  on  his  hands  and  knees  to  Moody's  side, 
and  put  his  arm  over  him,  manifesting  the  deepest  emotion.  Closing 
the  prayer  with  a  hearty  '  Amen !'  from  each,  they  arose.  Johnson 
took  a  long  breath,  and  said,  with  emphasis,  "  Moody,  I  feel  better !" 
Shortly  afterwards  he  asked,  "  Will  you  stand  by  me?"  "  Certainly, 
I  will,"  was  the  answer.  "  Well,  Moody,  I  can  depend  upon  you ;  you 
are  one  in  a  hundred  thousand  !"  He  then  commenced  pacing  the 
floor  again.  Suddenly  he  wheeled,  the  current  of  his  thought  having 
changed,  and  said,  "  Oh !  Moody,  I  don't  want  you  to  think  I  have 
become  a  religious  man  because  I  asked  you  to  pray.  I  am  sorry  to 
say  it,  but  I  am  not,  and  have  never  pretended  to  be,  religious.  No 
one  knows  this  better  than  you ;  but,  Moody,  there  is  one  thing  about 
it— I  DO  believe  in  ALMIGHTY  GOD  !  And  I  believe  also  in  the  BIBLE, 
and  I  say,  damn  me,  if  Nashville  shall  be  surrendered !"  '  " 
And  Nashville  was  not  surrendered  ! 

Judge  Baldwin,  of  California,  being  in  Washington,  called  one  day 
on  General  Halleck,  and,  presuming  upon  a  familiar  acquaintance  in 


748  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

California  a  few  years  since,  solicited  a  pass  outside  of  our  lines  to  sec 
a  brother  in  Virginia,  not  thinking  that  he  would  meet  with  a  re 
fusal,  as  both  his  brother  and  himself  were  good  Union  men.  "  We 
have  been  deceived  too  often,"  said  General  Halleck,  "  and  I  regret  I 
can't  grant  it."  Judge  B.  then  went  to  Stanton,  and  was  very  briefly 
disposed  of  with  the  same  result.  Finally,  he  obtained  an  interview 
with  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  stated  his  case.  "  Have  you  applied  to  Gen 
eral  Halleck  ?"  inquired  the  President.  "  Yes,  and  met  with  a  flat 
refusal,"  said  Judge  B.  "  Then  you  must  see  Stanton,"  continued  the 
President.  "  I  have,  and  with  the  same  result,"  was  the  reply. 
"  Well,  then,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  a  smile,  "  I  can  do  nothing ;  for 
you  must  know  that  I  have  very  little  influence  with  this  Administration" 

One  bright  morning,  last  May,  the  Sunday-school  children  of  the 
city  of  Washington,  marching  in  procession  on  "  anniversary "  day, 
passed  in  review  through  the  portico  on  the  north  side  of  the  White 
House.  The  President  stood  at  the  open  window  above  the  door, 
responding  with  a  smile  and  a  bow  to  the  lusty  cheers  of  the  little 
folks  as  they  passed.  Hon.  Mr.  Odell,  always  wide  awake  Avhen  Sun 
day-school  children  are  around,  with  one  or  two  other  gentlemen, 
stood  by  his  side  as  I  joined  the  group.  It  was  a  beautiful  sight ;  the 
rosy-cheeked  boys  and  girls,  in  their  "  Sunday's  best,"  with  banners 
and  flowers,  all  intent  upon  seeing  the  President,  and,  as  they  caught 
sight  of  his  tall  figure,  cheering  as  if  their  very  lives  depended  upon 
it !  After  enjoying  the  scene  for  some  time,  making  pleasant  remarks 
about  a  face  that  now  and  then  struck  him,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  :  "  I  heard 
a  story  last  night  about  Daniel  Webster  when  a  lad,  which  was  new 
to  me,  and  it  has  been  running  in  my  head  all  the  morning.  When 
quite  young,  at  school,  Daniel  was  one  day  guilty  of  a  gross  violation 
of  the  rules.  He  was  detected  in  the  act,  and  called  up  by  the  teacher 
for  punishment.  This  was  to  be  the  old-fashioned  'feruling'  of  the 
hand.  His  hands  happened  to  be  very  dirty.  Knowing  this,  on  his 
way  to  the  teacher's  desk  he  spit  upon  the  palm  of  his  right  hand, 
wiping  it  off  upon  the  side  of  his  pantaloons.  «  Give  me  your  hand, 
sir,'  said  the  teacher,  very  sternly.  Out  went  the  right  hand,  partly 
cleansed.  The  teacher  looked  at  it  a  moment,  and  said,  '  Daniel,  if 
you  will  find  another  hand  in  this  school-room  as  filthy  as  that,  I  will 
let  you  off  this  time !'  Instantly  from  behind  his  back  came  the  left 
hand.  *  Here  it  is,  sir,'  was  the  ready  reply.  *  That  will  do,'  said  the 
teacher,  '  for  this  time ;  you  can  take  your  seat,  sir !'  " 

A  new  levy  of  troops  required,  on  a  certain  occasion,  the  appoint- 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  749 

ment  of  a  large  additional  number  of  brigadier  and  major  generals. 
Among  the  immense  number  of  applications,  Mr.  Lincoln  came  upon 
one  wherein  the  claims  of  a  certain  worthy  (not  in  the  service  at  all) 
"  for  a  generalship "  were  glowingly  set  forth.  But  the  applicant 
didn't  specify  whether  he  wanted  to  be  brigadier  or  major  general. 
The  President  observed  this  difficulty,  and  solved  it  by  a  lucid  in 
dorsement.  The  clerk,  on  receiving  the  paper  again,  found  written 
across  its  back,  "Major-General,  I  reckon.  A.  Lincoln." 

It  is  said  that,  on  the  occasion  of  a  serenade,  the  President  was 
called  for  by  the  crowd  assembled.  He  appeared  at  a  window  with 
his  wife  (who  is  somewhat  below  the  medium  height),  and  made  the 
following  "  brief  remarks :"  "  Here  I  am,  and  here  is  Mrs.  Lincoln. 
That's  the  long  and  the  short  of  it." 

Soon  after  the  opening  of  Congress  last  winter,  my  friend,  the  Hon. 
Mr.  Shannon,  from  California,  made  the  customary  call  at  the  White 
House.  In  the  conversation  that  ensued,  Mr.  Shannon  said :  "  Mr. 
President,  I  met  an  old  friend  of  yours  in  California  last  summer,  a 
Mr.  Campbell,  who  had  a  good  deal  to  say  of  your  Springfield  life." 
"  Ah !"  returned  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  I  am  glad  to  hear  of  him.  Campbell 
used  to  be  a  dry  fellow  in  those  days,"  he  continued.  "  For  a  time  he 
was  Secretary  of  State.  One  day  during  the  legislative  vacation,  a 
meek,  cadaverous-looking  man,  with  a  white  neckcloth,  introduced 
himself  to  him  at  his  office,  and,  stating  that  he  had  been  informed 
that  Mr.  C.  had  the  letting  of  the  hall  of  representatives,  he  wished  to 
secure  it,  if  possible,  for  a  course  of  lectures  he  desired  to  deliver  in 
Springfield.  '  May  I  ask,'  said  the  Secretary,  *  what  is  to  be  the  sub 
ject  of  your  lectures  ?'  *  Certainly,'  was  the  reply,  with  a  very  solemn 
expression  of  countenance.  '  The  course  I  wish  to  deliver  is  on  the 
Second  Coming  of  our  Lord.'  *  It  is  of  no  use,'  said  C. ;  l  if  you  will 
take  my  advice,  you  will  not  waste  your  time  in  this  city.  It  is  my 
private  opinion  that,  if  the  Lord  has  been  in  Springfield  once,  He  wiU, 
never  come  the  second  time  !' " 

Some  gentlemen  were  once  finding  fault  with  the  President  because 
certain  Generals  were  not  given  commands.  "The  fact  is,"  replied 
Mr.  Lincoln,  "I  have  got  more  pegs  than  I  have  holes  to  put  them  in." 

A  clergyman  from  Springfield,  Illinois,  being  in  Washington  early  in 
Mr.  Lincoln's  administration,  called  upon  him,  and  in  the  course  of 
conversation  asked  him  what  was  to  be  his  policy  on  the  slavery  ques- 


750  "  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

tion.  <l  Well,"  said  the  President,  "  I  will  answer,  by  telling  yon  a 
story.  You  know  Father  B.,  the  old  Methodist  preacher  ?  and  you 
know  Fox  River  and  its  freshets  ?  Well,  once  in  the  presence  of 
Father  B.,  a  young  Methodist  was  worrying  about  Fox  River,  and  ex 
pressing  fears  that  he  should  be  prevented  from  fulfilling  some  of  his 
appointments  by  a  freshet  in  the  river.  Father  B.  checked  him  in  his 
gravest  manner.  Said  he  :  '  Young  man,  I  have  always  made  it  a  rule 
in  my  life  not  to  cross  Fox  River  till  I  get  to  it !'  And,"  added  Mr. 
Lincoln,  "  I  am  not  going  to  worry  myself  over  the  slavery  question 
till  I  get  to  it." 

"  I  shall  ever  cherish  among  the  brightest  memories  of  my  life," 
says  Rev.  Dr.  J.  P.  Thompson,  "  the  recollection  of  an  hour  in  his 
working-room  last  September,  which  was  one  broad  sheet  of  sunshine. 
He  had  spent  the  morning  poring  over  the  returns  of  a  court-martial 
upon  capital  cases,  and  studying  to  decide  them  according  to  truth ; 
and  upon  the  entrance  of  a  friend,  he  threw  himself  into  an  attitude 
of  relaxation,  and  sparkled  with  good-humor.  I  spoke  of  the  rapid 
rise  of  Union  feeling  since  the  promulgation  of  the  Chicago  platform, 
and  the  victory  at  Atlanta ;  and  the  question  was  started,  which  had 
contributed  the  most  to  the  reviving  of  Union  sentiment — the  victory 
or  the  platform.  "  I  guess,"  said  the  President,  "  it  was  the  victoiy  ; 
at  any  rate,  I'd  rather  have  that  repeated." 

Being  informed  of  the  death  of  John  Morgan,  he  said,  "  Well,  I 
wouldn't  crow  over  anybody's  death ;  but  I  can  take  this  as  resignedly 
as  any  dispensation  of  Providence." 

My  attention  has  been  two  ox  three  times  called  to  a  paragraph 
now  going  the  rounds  of  the  newspapers  concerning  a  singular  appa 
rition  of  himself  in  a  looking-glass,  which  Mr.  Lincoln  is  stated  to 
have  seen  on  the  day  he  was  first  nominated  at  Chicago.  The  story 
as  told  is  made  to  appear  very  mysterious,  and  believing  that  the  taste 
for  the  supernatural  is  sufficiently  ministered  unto  without  perverting 
the  facts,  I  will  tell  the  story  as  the  President  told  it  to  John  Hay,  the 
assistant  private  secretary,  and  myself.  We  were  in  his  room  together 
about  dark,  the  evening  of  the  Baltimore  Convention.  The  gas  had 
just  been  lighted,  and  he  had  been  telling  us  how  he  had  that  after 
noon  received  the  news  of  the  nomination  of  Andrew  Johnson  for 
Vice-President  before  he  heard  of  his  own. 

It  seemed  that  the  dispatch  announcing  his  renomination  had  been 
sent  to  his  office  from  the  War  Department  while  he  was  at  lunch. 
Directly  afterward,  without  going  back  to  the  official  chamber,  he  pro- 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  751 


rram   o.imo 


ccedcd  to  the  War  Department.  While  there,  the  telcgra 
announcing  the  nomination  of  Johnson.  "  What,"  said  he  to  the  oper 
ator,  "tlo  they  nominate  a  Vicc-President  before  they  do  a  President?" 
"Why,"  replied  the  astonished  official,  "have  you  not  heard  of  your 
own  nomination  ?  It  was  sent  to  the  White  House  two  hours  ago  " 
"It  is  all  right,"  replied  the  President;  "I  shall  probably  find  it  on 
my  return." 

Laughing  pleasantly  over  this  incident,  he  said,  soon  afterward:  "A 
very  singular  occurrence  took  place  the  day  I  was  nominated  at  Chi 
cago,  four  years  ago,  which  I  am  reminded  of  to-night.  In  the  after 
noon  of  the  day,  returning  home  from  down  town,  I  went  up-stairs  to 
Mrs.  Lincoln's  sitting-room.  Feeling  somewhat  tired,  I  lay  down 
upon  a  couch  in  the  room,  directly  opposite  a  bureau  upon  which  was 
a  looking-glass.  As  I  reclined,  my  eye  fell  upon  the  glass,  and  I  saw 
distinctly  two  images  of  myself,  exactly  alike,  except  that  one  was  a 
little  paler  than  the  other.  I  arose,  and  lay  down  again,  with  the 
same  result,  It  made  me  quite  uncomfortable  for  a  few  moments;  but 
some  friends  coming  in,  the  matter  passed  out  of  my  mind.  The  next 
day,  while  walking  in  the  street,  I  was  suddenly  reminded  of  the  cir 
cumstance,  and  the  disagreeable  sensation  produced  by  it  returned.  I 
had  never  seen  any  thing  of  the  kind  before,  and  did  not  know  what  tc 
make  of  it.  I  determined  to  go  home  and  place  myself  in  the  same 
position,  and  if  the  same  effect  was  produced,  I  would  make  up  my 
mind  that  it  was  the  natural  result  of  some  principle  of  refraction  or 
optics  which  I  did  not  understand,  and  dismiss  it.  I  tried  the  experi 
ment,  with  the  same  result,  and  as  I  had  said  to  myself,  accounting  for 
it  on  some  principle  unknown  to  me,  it  ceased  to  trouble  me.  But," 
said  he,  "some  time  ago  I  tried  to  produce  the  same  effect  here,  by 
arranging  a  glass  and  couch  in  the  same  position,  without  success." 
lie  did  not  say,  as  is  asserted  in  the  story  as  printed,  that  either  he  or 
Mrs.  Lincoln  attached  any  omen  to  it  whatever.  Neither  did  he  say 
the  double  reflection  was  seen  while  he  was  walking  about  the  room. 
On  the  contrary,  it  was  only  visible  in  a  certain  position,  and  at  a  cer 
tain  angle,  and  therefore,  he  thought,  could  be  accounted  for  upon  scien 
tific  principles. 

A  distinguished  public  officer  being  in  Washington,  in  an  interview 
with  the  President,  introduced  the  question  of  emancipation.  "  Well, 
you  see,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  we've  got  to  be  very  cautious  how  we 
manage  the  negro  question.  If  we're  not,  we  shall  be  like  the  barber 
out  in  Illinois,  who  was  shaving  a  fellow  with  a  hatchet  face  and  lan 
tern  iaws  like  mine.  The  barber  stuck  his  finger  in  his  customer's 


752  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

mouth  to  make  his  cheek  stick  out,  but  while  shaving  away  he  cut 
through  the  fellow's  cheek  and  cut  off  his  own  finger  !  If  we  are  not 
very  careful,  we  shall  do  as  the  barber  did  !" 

At  the  White  House  one  day  some  gentlemen  were  present  from 
the  West,  excited  and  troubled  about  the  commissions  or  omissions 
of  the  Administration.  The  President  heard  them  patiently,  and  then 
replied : — "  Gentlemen,  suppose  all  the  property  you  were  worth  was 
in  gold,  and  you  had  put  it  in  the  hands  of  Blondin  to  carry  across 
the  Niagara  River  on  a  rope,  would  you  shake  the  cable,  or  keep  shout 
ing  out  to  him — *  Blondin,  stand  up  a  little  straighter — Blondin,  stoop 
a  little  more — go  a  little  faster — lean  a  little  more  to  the  north — lean 
a  little  more  to  the  south  ?'  No,  you  would  hold  your  breath  as  well 
as  your  tongue,  and  keep  your  hands  off  until  he  was  safe  over.  The 
Government  are  carrying  an  immense  weight.  Untold  treasures  are 
in  their  hands.  They  are  doing  the  very  best  they  can.  Don't  badger 
them.  Keep  silence,  and  we'll  get  you  safe  across." 

Being  asked  at  another  time  by  an  "  anxious"  visitor  as  to  what  he 
would  do  in  certain  contingencies — provided  the  rebellion  was  not 
subdued  after  three  or  four  years  of  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Govern 
ment — "Oh,"  said  the  President,  "there  is  no  alternative  but  to  keep 
'pegging1  away!" 

After  the  issue  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  Governor 
Morgan,  of  New  York,  was  at  the  White  House  one  day,  when  the 
President  said : — "  I  do  not  agree  with  those  who  say  that  slavery  is 
dead.  We  are  like  whalers  who  have  been  long  on  a  chase — we  have 
at  last  got  the  harpoon  into  the  monster,  but  we  must  now  look  how 
we  steer,  or,  with  one  *  flop '  of  his  tail,  he  will  yet  send  us  all  into 
eternity !" 

During  a  public  "reception,"  a  farmer,  from  one  of  the  border 
counties  of  Virginia,  told  the  President  that  the  Union  soldiers,  in 
passing  his  farm,  had  helped  themselves  not  only  to  hay,  but  his 
horse,  and  he  hoped  the  President  would  urge  the  proper  officer  to 
consider  his  claim  immediately. 

Mr.  Lincoln  said  that  this  reminded  him  of  an  old  acquaintance  of 
his,  "  Jack  Chase,"  who  used  to  be  a  lumberman  on  the  Illinois,  a  steady, 
sober  man,  and  the  best  raftsman  on  the  river.  It  was  qiute  a  trick, 
twenty-five  years  ago,  to  take  the  logs  over  the  rapids ;  but  he  was 
skilful  with  a  raft,  and  always  kept  her  straight  in  the  channel 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  753 

% 

Finally  a  steamer  was  put  on,  and  Jack  was  made  captain  of  her. 
He  always  used  to  take  the  wheel,  going  through  the  rapids.  One 
day  when  the  boat  was  plunging  and  wallowing  along  the  boiling  cur 
rent,  and  Jack's  utmost  vigilance  was  being  exercised  to  keep  her  in 
the  narrow  channel,  a  boy  pulled  his  coat-tail,  and  hailed  him  with — 
"  Say,  Mister  Captain !  I  wish  you  would  just  stop  your  boat  a  min 
ute — I've  lost  my  apple  overboard  !" 

The  President  was  once  speaking  about  an  attack  made  on  him  by 
the  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War  for  a  certain  alleged  blun- 

o 

der,  Or  something  worse,  in  the  Southwest — the  matter  involved  being 
one  which  had  fallen  directly  under  the  observation  of  the  officer  to 
whom  he  was  talking,  who  possessed  official  evidence  completely  up 
setting  all  the  conclusions  of  the  Committee. 

"  Might  it  not  be  well  for  me,"  queried  the  officer,  "  to  set  this 
matter  right  in  a  letter  to  some  paper,  stating  the  facts  as  they  actually 
transpired  ?" 

"  Oh,  no,"  replied  the  President,  "  at  least,  not  now.  If  I  were  to 
try  to  read,  much  less  answer,  all  the  attacks  made  on  me,  this  shop 
might  as  well  be  closed  for  any  other  business.  I  do  the  very  best  I 
know  how — the  very  best  I  can  ;  and  I  mean  to  keep  doing  so  unti. 
the  end.  If  the  end  brings  me  out  all  right,  what  is  said  against  me 
won't  amount  to  any  thing.  If  the  end  brings  me  out  wrong,  ten 
angels  swearing  I  was  right  would  make  no  difference." 

A  gentleman  was  relating  to  the  President  how  a  friend  of  his  had 
been  driven  away  from  New  Orleans  as  a  Unionist,  and  how,  on  his 
expulsion,  when  he  asked  to  see  the  writ  by  which  he  was  expelled, 
the  deputation  which  called  on  him  told  him  that  the  Government  had 
made  up  their  minds  to  do  nothing  illegal,  and  so  they  had  issued  no 
illegal  writs,  and  simply  meant  to  make  him  go  of  his  own  free  will. 
"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  that  reminds  me  of  a  hotel-keeper  down 
at  St.  Louis,  who  boasted  that  he  never  had  a  death  in  his  hotel,  for 
whenever  a  guest  was  dying  in  his  house  he  carried  him  out  to  die  in 
the  gutter." 

One  evening  the  President  brought  a  couple  of  friends  into  the 
"  State  dining-room  "  to  see  my  picture.  Something  was  said,  in  the 
conversation  that  ensued,  that  "  reminded"  him  of  the  following  circum 
stance  :  "Judge  ,"  said  he,  "held  the  strongest  ideas  of  rigid 

government  and  close  construction  that  I  ever  met.     It  was  said  of 
him.  on  one  occasion,  that  he  would  hang  a  man  for  blowing  his  nose 
•18 


754  THE  ,LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

in  the  street,  but  he  would  quash  the  indictment  if  it  failed  to  specify 
which  hand  he  blew  it  with  !" 


On  one  occasion,  in  the  Executive  chamber,  there  were  present  a 
number  of  gentlemen,  among  them  Mr.  Seward. 

A  point  in  the  conversation  suggesting  the  thought,  Mr.  Lincoln 
said :  "  Seward,  you  never  heard,  did  you,  how  I  earned  my  first  dol 
lar  ?"  "  No,"  said  Mr.  Seward.  "  Well,"  replied  he,  "  I  was  about 
eighteen  years  of  age.  I  belonged,  you  know,  to  what  they  call 
down  South,  the  *  scrubs ;'  people  who  do  not  own  slaves  are  nobody 
there.  But  we  had  succeeded  in  raising,  chiefly  by  my  labor,  suffi 
cient  produce,  as  I  thought,  to  justify  me  in  taking  it  down  the  river 
to  sell. 

"  After  much  persuasion,  I  got  the  consent  of  mother  to  go,  and 
constructed  a  little  flatboat,  large  enough  to  take  a  barrel  or  two  of 
things,  that  we  had  gathered,  with  myself  and  little  bundle,  down  to 
New  Orleans.  A  steamer  was  coming  down  the  river.  We  have,  you 
know,  no  wharves  on  the  Western  streams;  and  the  custom  was,  if  pas 
sengers  were  at  any  of  the  landings,  for  them  to  go  out  in  a  boat,  the 
steamer  stopping  and  taking  them  on  board. 

"I  was  contemplating  my  new  flatboat,  and  wondering  whether  I 
could  make  it  stronger  or  improve  it  in  any  particular,  when  two  men 
came  down  to  the  shore  in  carriages  with  trunks,  and  looking  at  the 
different  boats  singled  out  mine,  and  asked,  'Who  owns  this?'  I 
answered,  somewhat  modestly,  '  I  do.'  *  Will  you,'  said  one  of  them, 
'  take  us  and  our  trunks  out  to  the  steamer  ?'  *  Certainly,'  said  I.  I 
was  very  glad  to  have  the  chance  of  earning  something.  I  supposed 
that  each  of  them  would  give  me  two  or  three  bits.  The  trunks  were 
put  on  my  flatboat,  the  passengers  seated  themselves  on  the  trunks, 
and  I  sculled  them  out  to  the  steamboat. 

"  They  got  on  board,  and  I  lifted  up  their  heavy  trunks,  and  put 
them  on  deck.  The  steamer  was  about  to  put  on  steam  again,  when  I 
called  out  that  they  had  forgotten  to  pay  me.  Each  of  them  took 
from  his  pocket  a  silver  half-dollar,  and  threw  it  on  the  floor  of  my 
bont.  I  could  scarcely  believe  my  eyes  as  I  picked  up  the  money. 
Gentlemen,  you  may  think  it  was  a  very  little  thing,  and  in  these  days 
it  seems  to  me  a  trifle ;  but  it  was  a  most  important  incident  in  my 
life.  I  could  scarcely  credit  that  I,  a  poor  boy,  had  earned  a  dollar  in 
h^ss  than  a  day — that  by  honest  work  I  had  earned  a  dollar.  The 
world  seemed  wider  and  fairer  before  me.  I  was  a  more  hopeful  and 
confident  being  from  that  time." 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  755 

In  August,  1864,  the  President  called  for  five  hundred  thousand 
more  men.  The  country  was  much  depressed.  The  rebels  had,  in 
comparatively  small  force,  only  a  short  time  before,  been  to  the  very 
gates  of  Washington,  and  returned  almost  unharmed. 

The  Presidential  election  was  impending.  Many  thought  another 
call  for  men  at  such  a  time  would  injure,  if  not  destroy,  Mr.  Lincoln's 
chances  for  re-election.  A  friend  said  as  much  to  him  one  day,  after 
the  President  had  told  him  of  his  purpose  to  make  such  a  call.  "  As  to 
my  re-election,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  it  matters  not.  We  must  have 
the  men.  If  I  go  down,  I  intend  to  go,  like  the  Cumberland,  with  my 
colors  flying !" 

A  gentleman  was  one  day  finding  fault  with  the  constant  agitation 
in  Congress  of  the  slavery  question.  He  remarked  that,  after  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Emancipation  policy,  he  had  hoped  for  something  new. 

"  There  was  a  man  down  in  Maine,"  said  the  President,  in  reply, 
"  who  kept  a  grocery-store,  and  a  lot  of  fellows  used  to  loaf  around 
that  for  their  toddy.  He  only  gave  'em  New  England  rum,  and  they 
drank  pretty  considerable  of  it.  But  after  a  while  they  began  to  get 
tired  of  that,  and  kept  asking  for  something  new — something  new — all 
the  time.  Well,  one  night,  when  the  whole  crowd  were  around,  the 
grocer  brought  out  his  glasses,  and  says  he,  *  I've  got  something  New 
for  you  to  drink,  boys,  now.'  '  Honor  bright  ?'  said  they.  '  Honor 
bright,'  says  he,  and  with  that  he  sets  out  a  jug.  'Thar,'  says  he, 
4  that's  something  new ;  it's  New  England  rum !'  says  he.  Now,"  re 
marked  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  I  guess  we're  a  good  deal  like  that  crowd,  and 
Congress  is  a  good  deal  like  that  store-keeper !" 

About  a  week  after  the  Chicago  Convention,  a  gentleman  from 
New  York  called  upon  the  President,  in  company  with  the  Assistant 
Secretary  of  War,  Mr.  Dana.  In  the  course  of  conversation,  the  gentle 
man  said :  "  What  do  you  think,  Mr.  President,  is  the  reason  General 
McClellan  does  not  reply  to  the  letter  from  the  Chicago  Convention  ?" 

"  Oh  !"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  a  characteristic  twinkle  of  the  eye, 
"he  is  intrenching!" 

On  the  occasion  when  the  telegram  from  Cumberland  Gap  reached 
Mr.  Lincoln  that  "  firing  was  heard  in  the  direction  of  Knoxville,"  he 
remarked  that  he  was  "  glad  of  it"  Some  person  present,  who  had 
the  perils  of  Burnside's  position  uppermost  in  his  mind,  could  not  see 
why  Mr.  Lincoln  should  be  glad  of  it,  and  so  expressed  himself. 
"  Why,  you  see,"  responded  the  President,  "  it  reminds  me  of  Mistress 


756  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Sallie  Ward,  a  neighbor  of  mine,  who  had  a  very  large  family.  Occa 
sionally  one  of  her  numerous  progeny  would  be  heard  crying  in  some 
out-of-the-way  place,  upon  which  Mrs.  Ward  would  exclaim,  'There's 
one  of  my  children  that  isn't  dead  yet  !'  " 

"On  Mr.  Lincoln's  reception-day,  after  the  nomination,"  wrote 
Theodore  Tilton,  in  a  letter  to  the  Independent,  "his  face  wore  an 
expression  of  satisfaction  rather  than  elation.  His  reception  of  Mr. 
Garrison  was  an  equal  honor  to  host  and  guest.  In  alluding  to  OUT 
failure  to  find  the  old  jail,  he  said,  '  Well,  Mr.  Garrison,  when  you  first 
went  to  Baltimore,  you  couldn't  get  out ;  but  the  second  time,  you 
couldn't  get  in?  When  one  of  us  mentioned  the  great  enthusiasm  at. 
the  convention  after  Senator  Morgan's  proposition  to  amend  the  Con 
stitution,  abolishing  slavery,  Mr.  Lincoln  instantly  said,  *  It  was  I  who 
suggested  to  Mr.  Morgan  that  he  should  put  that  idea  into  his  opening 
speech.'  This  was  the  very  best  word  he  has  said  since  the  procla 
mation  of  freedom." 

In  the  spring  of  1862,  the  President  spent  several  days  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  awaiting  military  operations  upon  the  Peninsula.  As  a  por 
tion  of  the  Cabinet  were  with  him,  that  was  temporarily  the  seat  of 
government,  and  he  bore  with  him  constantly  the  burden  of  public 
affairs.  His  favorite  diversion  was  reading  Shakspeare,  whom  he 
rendered  with  fine  discrimination  of  emphasis  and  feeling.  One  day 
(it  chanced  to  be  the  day  before  the  taking  of  Norfolk),  as  he  sat  read 
ing  alone,  he  called  to  his  aide  *  in  the  adjoining  room — "You  have 
been  writing  long  enough,  Colonel,  come  in  here ;  I  want  to  read  you 
a  passage  in  Hamlet."  He  read  the  discussion  on  ambition  between 
Hamlet  and  his  courtiers,  and  the  soliloquy,  in  which  conscience  de 
bates  of  a  future  state.  This  was  followed  by  passages  from  Macbeth. 
Then  opening  to  King  John,  he  read  from  the  third  act  the  passage  in 
which  Constance  bewails  her  imprisoned,  lost  boy. 

Then  closing  the  book,  and  recalling  the  words — 

"  And,  father  cardinal,  I  have  heard  you  say 
That  we  shall  see  and  know  our  friends  in  heaven : 
If  that  be  true,  I  shall  see  my  boy  again  " — 

Mr.  Lincoln  said  :  "  Colonel,  did  you  ever  dream  of  a  lost  friend,  and 
feel  that  you  were  holding  sweet  communion  with  that  friend,  and  yet 
have  a  sad  consciousness  that  it  was  not  a  reality  ? — just  so  I  dream  of 
my  boy  Willie."  Overcome  with  emotion,  he  dropped  his  head  on 
the  table,  and  sobbed  aloud. 

*  Colonel  Le  Grand  B.  Cannon,  of  General  Wool's  staff. 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  757 

A  few  days  before  the  President's  death,  Secretary  Stanton  tendered 
his  resignation  of  the  War  Department  He  accompanied  the  act  with 
a  most  heart-felt  tribute  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  constant  friendship  and  faith 
ful  devotion  to  the  country,  saying,  also,  that  he,  as  Secretary,  had 
accepted  the  position  to  hold  it  only  until  the  war  should  end,  and  that, 
now  he  felt  his  work  was  done,  and  his  duty  was  to  resign. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  greatly  moved  by  the  Secretary's  words,  and  tear 
ing  in  pieces  the  paper  containing  the  resignation,  and  throwing  his 
arms  about  the  Secretary,  he  said  :  "  Stanton,  you  have  been  a  good 
friend  and  a  faithful  public  servant,  and  it  is  not  for  you  to  say  when 
you  will  no  longer  be  needed  here."  Several  friends  of  both  parties 
were  present  on  the  occasion,  and  there  was  not  a  dry  eye  that  wit 
nessed  the  scene. 

One  of  the  last,  if  not  the  very  last  story  told  by  President  Lin 
coln,  was  to  one  of  his  Cabinet  who  came  to  see  him,  to  ask  if  it  would 
be  proper  to  permit  Jake  Thompson  to  slip  through  Maine  in  disguise 
and  embark  for  Portland.  The  President,  as  usual,  was  disposed  to 
be  merciful,  and  to  permit  the  arch-rebel  to  pass  unmolested,  but  the 
Secretary  urged  that  he  should  be  arrested  as  a  traitor.  "  By  permit 
ting  him  to  escape  the  penalties  of  treason,"  persistently  remarked  the 
Secretary,  "  you  sanction  it."  "  Well,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  let  me 
tell  you  a  story.  There  was  an  Irish  soldier  here  last  summer,  who 
wanted  something  to  drink  stronger  than  water,  and  stopped  at  a  drug- 
shop,  where  he  espied  a  soda-fountain.  '  Mr.  Doctor,'  said  he,  '  give 
me,  plase,  a  glass  of  soda-wather,  an'  if  yes  can  put  in  a  few  drops  of 
whiskey  unbeknown  to  any  one,  I'll  be  obleeged.'  Now,"  continued 
Mr.  Lincoln,  "  if  Jake  Thompson  is  permitted  to  go  through  Maine 
unbeknown  to  any  one,  what's  the  harm  ?  So  don't  have  him  arrested." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  an  extra  session  of  Congress  was  called 
in  July  following  Mr.  Lincoln's  inauguration.  In  the  message  then 
sent  in,  speaking  of  secession,  and  the  measures  taken  by  the  South 
ern  leaders  to  bring  it  about,  there  occurs  the  following  remark : — 
"With  rebellion  thus  sugar-coated,  they  have  been  drugging  the  public 
mind  of  their  section  for  more  than  thirty  years,  until  at  length  they 
have  brought  many  good  men  to  a  willingness  to  take  up  arms  against 
the  Government,"  &c.  Mr.  Defrees,  the  Government  printer,  told 
me  that,  when  the  message  was  being  printed,  he  was  a  good  deal 
disturbed  by  the  use  of  the  term  "  sugar-coated,"  and  finally  went  to 
the  President  about  it.  Their  relations  to  each  other  being  of  the 
most  intimate  character,  he  told  Mr.  Lincoln  frankly,  that  he  ought  to 


758  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

remember  that  a  message  to  Congress  was  a  different  affair  from  a 
speech  at  a  mass-meeting  in  Illinois — that  the  messages  became  a  part 
of  history,  and  should  be  written  accordingly. 

"  What  is  the  matter  now  ?"  inquired  the  President. 

"  Why,"  said  Mr.  Defrees,  "  you  have  used  an  undignified  expres 
sion  in  the  message ;"  and  then,  reading  the  paragraph  aloud,  he 
added,  "  I  would  alter  the  structure  of  that,  if  I  were  you." 

"  Defrees,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  that  word  expresses  precisely  my 
idea,  and  I  am  not  going  to  change  it.  The  time  will  never  come  in 
this  country  when  the  people  won't  know  exactly  what  sugar-coated 
means !" 

On  a  subsequent  occasion,  Mr.  Defrees  told  me,  a  certain  sentence 
of  another  message  was  very  awkwardly  constructed.  Calling  the 
President's  attention  to  it  in  the  proof-copy,  the  latter  acknowledged 
the  force  of  the  objection  raised,  and  said,  "Go  home,  Defrees,  and 
see  if  you  can  better  it."  The  next  day  Mr.  Defrees  took  in  to  him 
his  amendment.  Mr.  Lincoln  met  him  by  saying:  "Seward  found  the 
same  fault  that  you  did,  and  he  has  been  rewriting  the  paragraph 
also."  Then  reading  Mr.  Defrees's  version,  he  said :  "  I  believe  you 
have  beat  Seward ;  but,  '  I  jings' "  (a  common  expression  with  him), 
"  I  think  I  can  beat  you  both."  Then  taking  up  his  pen,  he  wrote  the 
sentence  as  it  was  finally  printed. 

A  Congressman  elect,  from  New  York  State,  was  once  pressing  a 
matter  of  considerable  importance  upon  Mr.  Lincoln,  urging  his  official 
action.  "  You  must  see  Raymond  about  this,"  said  the  President  (re 
ferring  to  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Times);  "  he  is  my  Lieutenant- 
General  in  politics.  Whatever  he  says  is  right  in  the  premises,  shall 
bo  done." 

The  evening  before  I  left  Washington,  an  incident  occurred,  illus 
trating  very  perfectly  the  character  of  the  man.  For  two  days  my 
large  painting  had  been  on  exhibition,  upon  its  completion,  in  the 
East  Room,  which  had  been  thronged  with  visitors.  Late  in  the  after 
noon  of  the  second  day,  the  "black-horse  cavalry"  escort  drew  up  as 
usual  in  front  of  the  portico,  preparatory  to  the  President's  leaving  for 
the  "  Soldiers'  Home,"  where  he  spent  the  midsummer  nights.  While 
the  carriage  was  waiting,  I  looked  around  for  him,  wishing  to  say  a 
farewell  word,  knowing  that  I  should  have  no  other  opportunity. 
Presently  I  saw  him  standing  half-way  between  the  portico  and  the 
gateway  leading  to  the  War  Department,  leaning  against  the  iron 
fence — one  arm  thrown  over  the  railing,  and  one  foot  on  the  stone 
coping  which  supports  it,  evidently  having  been  intercepted,  on  his 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  759 

way  in,  from  the  War  Department,  by  a  plain-looking  man,  who  was 
giving  him,  very  diffidently,  an  account  of  a  difficulty  which  he  had 
been  unable  to  have  rectified.  While  waiting,  I  walked  out  leisurely 
to  the  President's  side.  He  said  very  little  to  the  man,  but  was  intently 
studying  the  expression  of  his  face  while  he  was  narrating  his  trouble. 
When  he  had  finished,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  him,  "Have  you  a  blank 
card?"  The  man  searched  his  pockets,  but  finding  none,  a  gentleman 
standing  near,  who  had  overheard  the  question,  came  forward,  and 
said,  "  Here  is  one,  Mr.  President."  Several  persons  had,  in  the  mean 
time,  gathered  around.  Taking  the  card  and  a  pencil,  Mr.  Lincoln  sat 
down  upon  the  stone  coping,  which  is  not  more  than  five  or  six  inches 
above  the  pavement,  presenting  almost  the  appearance  of  sitting  upon 
the  pavement  itself,  and  wrote  an  order  upon  the  card  to  the  proper 
official  to  "  examine  this  man's  case."  While  writing  this,  I  observed 
several  persons  passing  down  the  promenade,  smiling  at  each  other,  at 
what  I  presume  they  thought  the  undignified  appearance  of  the  Head 
cf  the  Nation,  who,  however  seemed  utterly  unconscious,  either  of  any 
impropriety  in  the  action,  or  of  attracting  any  attention.  To  me  it 
was  not  only  a  touching  picture  of  the  native  goodness  of  the  man, 
but  of  innate  nobility  of  character,  exemplified  not  so  much  by  a  dis 
regard  of  conventionalities,  as  in  unconsciousness  that  there  could  be 
any  breach  of  etiquette,  or  dignity,  in  the  manner  of  an  honest  at 
tempt  to  serve,  or  secure  justice  to  a  citizen  of  the  Republic,  however 
humble  he  may  be. 

THE  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION. 

ON  the  afternoon  of  Friday,  February  5,  1864,  I  rang  the  bell  of 
Mr.  Lovejoy's  boarding-house,  on  Fifteenth  street,  Washington.  He 
was  then  very  ill,  though  his  friends  did  not  apprehend  that  he  was  so 
near  the  close  of  his  noble  and  faithful  career.  It  is  a  sad  satisfaction 
to  me  now  to  remember  that  one  of  the  last  acts  of  this  good  man's 
life  was  the  writing,  while  sitting  up  in  his  bed,  of  the  note  introdu 
cing  me  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  My  first  interview  with  the  President  took 
place  the  next  clay,  at  the  customary  Saturday  afternoon  public  recep 
tion.  Never  shall  I  forget  the  thrill  which  went  through  my  whole 
being  as  I  first  caught  sight  of  that  tall,  gaunt  form  through  a  distant 
door,  bowed  down,  it  seemed  to  me,  even  then,  with  the  weight  of  the 
nation  he  carried  upon  his  heart,  as  a  mother  carries  her  suffering 
child,  and  thought  of  the  place  he  held  in  the  affections  of  the  peo 
ple,  and  the  prayers  ascending  constantly,  day  after  day,  in  his  beha.f ! 
The  crowd  was  passing  through  the  rooms,  and  presently  it  was  my 


760  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

turn  and  name  to  be  announced.  Greeting  me  very  pleasantly,  ho 
soon  afterward  made  an  appointment  to  see  me  in  his  official  cham 
ber,  directly  after  the  close  of  the  "  reception."  The  hour  named 
found  me  at  the  well-remembered  door  of  the  apartment — that  dooi 
watched  daily,  with  so  many  conflicting  emotions  of  hope  and  fear,  by 
the  miscellaneous  throng  gathered  there.  The  President  was  alone, 
and  already  deep  in  official  business,  which  was  always  pressing.  He 
received  me  with  the  frank  kindness  and  simplicity  so  characteristic 
of  his  nature;  and,  after  reading  Mr.  Lovejoy's  note,  said:  "Well, 
Mr.  Carpenter,  wo  will  turn  you  in  loose  here,  and  try  to  give  you  a 
good  chance  to  work  out  your  idea."  Then  giving  me  a  place  close 
beside  his  own  arm-chair,  he  entered  upon  the  account  which  I  shall 
now  attempt  to  write  out,  as  nearly  as  possible  in  his  own  words,  of 
the  circumstances  attending  the  adoption  of  the  Emancipation  policy. 
First,  however,  let  me  glance  very  briefly  at  the  condition  of  the  coun 
try  at  this  juncture. 

The  summer  of  1862  was  the  gloomiest  period  of  the  war.  After 
the  most  stupendous  preparations  known  in  modern  warfare,  McClel- 
lan,  with  an  army  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men,  had  re 
treated  from  the  Peninsula,  after  the  "  seven  days' "  severe  fighting 
before  Richmond,  and  great  depression  followed  the  disappointment 
of  the  brilliant  hopes  of  the  beginning  of  the  campaign.  The  "  On 
to  Richmond  "  had  been  succeeded  by  "  Back  to  Washington  ;"  and 
the  Rebellion,  flushed  with  success,  was  more  defiant  than  ever ! 

Thus  far,  the  war  had  been  prosecuted  by  the  Administration  with 
out  touching  slavery  in  any  manner.  The  reasons  for  this  are  admi 
rably  set  forth  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  letter  to  Colonel  Hodges. 

Going  over  substantially  the  same  ground  on  an  occasion  I  well 
remember,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  : — "  The  paramount  idea  of  the  Consti 
tution  is  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  It  may  not  be  specified  in 
so  many  words,  but  of  this  there  can  be  no  question ;  for  without  the 
Union  the  Constitution  would  be  worthless.  The  Union  made  the 
Constitution,  not  the  Constitution  the  Union  !  It  seems  clear  that, 
if  the  emergency  should  arise  that  slavery,  or  any  other  institution, 
stood  in  the  way  of  the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  and  the  alterna 
tive  was  presented  to  the  Executive,  of  the  destruction  of  one  or  the 
other,  he  could  not  hesitate  between  the  two.  I  can  now,"  he 
continued,  "most  solemnly  assert  that  I  did  all  in  my  judgment  that 
could  be  done  to  restore  the  Union  without  interfering  with  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery.  We  failed,  and  the  blow  at  slavery  was  struck  !" 

I  now  take  up  the  history  of  the  Proclamation  itself,  as  Mr.  Lin- 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  761 

coin  gave  it  to  me,  on  the  occasion  of  our  first  interview,  and  written 
down  by  myself  soon  afterward  : — 

"It  had  got  to  be,"  said  he,  "midsummer,  1862.  Things  had 
gone  on  from  bad  to  worse,  until  I  felt  that  we  had  reached  the  end 
of  our  rope  on  the  plan  of  operations  we  had  been  pursuing  ;  that  we 
had  about  played  our  last  card,  and  must  change  our  tactics  or  lose 
the  game  !  I  now  determined  upon  the  adoption  of  the  Emancipation 
policy  ;  and,  without  consultation  with,  or  the  knowledge  of  the 
Cabinet,  I  prepared  the  original  draft  of  the  Proclamation  ;  and,  after 
much  anxious  thought,  called  a  Cabinet  meeting  upon  the  subject. 
This  was  the  last  of  July,  or  the  first  part  of  the  month  of  August, 
1862."  (The  exact  date  he  did  not  remember.)  "  This  Cabinet  meet 
ing  took  place,  I  think,  upon  a  Saturday.  All  were  present,  except 
ing  Mr,  Blair,  the  Postmaster-General,  who  was  absent  at  the  open 
ing  of  the  discussion,  but  came  in  subsequently.  I  said  to  the  Cabinet 
that  I  had  resolved  upon  this  step,  and  had  not  called  them  together 
to  ask  their  advice,  but  to  lay  the  subject-matter  of  a  proclamation 
before  them ;  suggestions  as  to  which  would  be  in  order,  after  they 
had  heard  it  read.  Mr.  Lovejoy,"  said  he,  "  was  in  error  when  he 
informed  you  that  it  excited  no  comment,  excepting  on  the  part  of 
Secretary  Seward.  Various  suggestions  were  offered.  Secretary 
Chase  wished  the  language  stronger  in  reference  to  the  arming  of  the 
blacks.  Mr.  Blair,  after  he  came  in,  deprecated  the  policy,  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  cost  the  Administration  the  fall  elections. 
Nothing,  however,  was  offered  that  I  had  not  already  fully  anticipated 
and  settled  in  my  own  mind,  until  Secretary  Seward  spoke.  Said  he  : — 
'  Mr.  President,  I  approve  of  the  Proclamation,  but  I  question  the  expedi 
ency  of  its  issue  at  this  juncture.  The  depression  of  the  public  mind, 
consequent  upon  our  repeated  reverses,  is  so  great,  that  I  fear  the 
effect  of  so  important  a  step,  It  may  be  viewed  as  the  last  measure 
of  an  exhausted  Government — a  cry  for  help ;  the  Government 
stretching  forth  its  hands  to  Ethiopia,  instead  of  Ethiopia  stretching 
forth  her  hands  to  the  Government.'  His  idea,"  said  the  President, 
"  was,  that  it  would  be  considered  our  last  shriek  on  the  retreat." 
(This  was  his  precise  expression.)  "  *  Now,'  continued  Mr.  Seward, 
1  while  I  approve  the  measure,  I  suggest,  sir,  that  you  postpone  its 
issue  until  you  can  give  it  to  the  country  supported  by  military  suc 
cess,  instead  of  issuing  it,  as  would  be  the  case  now,  upon  the  greatest 
disasters  of  the  war  !' "  Said  Mr.  Lincoln  : — "  The  wisdom  of  the  view 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  struck  me  with  very  great  force.  It  was  an 
aspect  of  the  case  that,  in  all  my  thought  upon  the  subject,  I  had 


762  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

entirely  overlooked.  The  result  was,  that  I  put  the  draft  of  the  Proc 
lamation  aside,  as  you  do  your  sketch  for  a  picture,  waiting  for  a  vic 
tory.  From  time  to  time  I  added  or  changed  a  line,  touching  it  up 
here  and  there,  waiting  the  progress  of  events.  Well,  the  next  news 
we  had  was  of  Pope's  disaster,  at  Bull  Run.  Things  looked  darker 
than  ever.  Finally,  came  the  week  of  the  battle  of  Antietam.  I  de 
termined  to  wait  no  longer.  The  news  came,  I  think,  on  Wednesday, 
that  the  advantage  was  on  our  side.  I  was  then  staying  at  the  *  Sol 
diers'  Home' "  (three  miles  out  of  Washington).  "  Here  I  finished 
writing  the  second  draft  of  the  preliminary  Proclamation  ;  came  up  on 
Saturday,  called  the  Cabinet  together  to  hear  it,  and  it  was  published 
the  following  Monday. 

"It  was  a  somewhat  remarkable  fact,"  he  continued,  "that  there 
were  just  one  hundred  days  between  the  dates  of  the  two  proclama 
tions,  issued  upon  the  22d  of  September  and  the  1st  of  January.  I 
had  not  made  the  calculation  at  the  time." 

At  the  final  meeting  on  Saturday,  another  interesting  incident  oc 
curred  in  connection  with  Secretary  Seward.  The  President  had  writ 
ten  the  important  part  of  the  Proclamation  in  these  words  : — 

"  That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves 
within  any  State  or  designated  part  of  a  State,  the  people  whereof 
shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then, 
thenceforward,  and  forever,  FREE  ;  and  the  Executive  Government  of 
the  United  States,  including  the  military  and  naval  authority  thereof, 
will  recognize  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no  act  or  acts 
to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in  any  efforts  they  may  make 
for  their  actual  freedom." — "  When  I  finished  reading  this  paragraph," 
resumed  Mr.  Lincoln,  "  Mr.  Seward  stopped  me,  and  said  :  *  I  think, 
Mr.  President,  that  you  should  insert  after  the  word  "  recognize"  in 
that  sentence,  the  words  u  and  maintain"  '  I  replied  that  I  had  already 
fully  considered  the  import  of  that  expression  in  this  connection,  but 
I  had  not  introduced  it,  because  it  was  not  my  way  to  promise  what 
I  was  not  entirely  sure  that  I  could  perform,  and  I  was  not  prepared 
to  say  that  I  thought  we  were  exactly  able  to  *  maintain '  this." 

"But,"  said  he,  "  Mr.  Seward  insisted  that  we  ought  to  take  this 
ground ;  and  the  words  finally  went  in." 

Mr.  Lincoln  then  proceeded  to  show  me  the  various  positions  oc 
cupied  by  himself  and  the  different  members  of  the  cabinet  on  the 
occasion  of  the  first  meeting.  "As  nearly  as  I  remember,"  said  he, 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  763 

"  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  the  Secretary  of  War  were  here, 
at  my  right  hand — the  others  were  grouped  at  the  left." 

From  the  first,  the  President  seemed  much  interested  in  my  work , 
but  as  it  progressed,  his  interest  increased.  He  was  in  the  habit  of 
bringing  many  friends  in  to  see  what  advance  I  was  making  from  day 
to  day,  and  I  have  known  him  to  come  by  himself  as  many  as  three  or 
four  times  in  a  single  day.  It  seemed  a  pleasant  diversion  to  him 
to  watch  the  gradual  progress  of  the  work,  and  his  suggestions,  though 
sometimes  quaint  and  homely,  were  almost  invariably  excellent.  Sel 
dom  was  he  heard  to  allude  to  any  thing  that  might  be  construed  into 
a  personality  in  connection  with  any  member  of  his  Cabinet.  On 
one  occasion,  however,  I  remember,  with  a  sly  twinkle  of  the  eye,  he 
turned  to  a  senatorial  friend  whom  he  had  brought  in  to  see  the  pic 
ture,  and  said :  "  Mrs.  Lincoln  calls  Mr.  Carpenter's  group  "  The 
Happy  Family" 

At  the  end  of  about  six  months'  incessant  labor,  the  picture  drew 
near  completion.  The  curiosity  of  the  public  to  see  it  was  so  great 
that,  by  special  permission  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln,  it  was  placed  in 
the  "  East  Room,"  and,  for  two  days,  thrown  open  for  free  exhibition. 
At  the  close  of  the  second  day,  just  previous  to  the  canvas  being  taken 
down  and  rolled  up,  the  President  came  in  to  take,  as  he  said,  a  "  fare 
well  look  at  the  picture."  He  sat  in  front  of  it  for  some  time,  and  I 
asked  him  if  he  had  aught  of  criticism  to  make.  He  said  he  could 
suggest  nothing  whatever  as  to  the  portraiture — "  the  likenesses  seemed 
to  him  absolutely  perfect."  I  then  called  his  attention  to  the  accesso 
ries  of  the  picture,  stating  that  these  had  been  selected  from  the  ob 
jects  in  the  Cabinet  chamber  with  reference  solely  to  their  bearing  upon 
the  subject.  "  Yes,"  said  he,  "  I  see  the  war-maps,  the  portfolios,  the 
slave-map,  and  all ;  but  the  book  in  the  corner,  leaning  against  the 
chair-leg,  you  have  changed  the  title  of  that,  I  see."  "  Yes,"  I  replied, 
"  at  the  last  moment  I  learned  that  you  frequently  consulted,  during 
the  period  you  were  preparing  the  Proclamation,  Solicitor  Whiting's 
work  on  the  *  War  Powers  of  the  President,'  so  I  simply  changed  the 
title  of  the  book,  leaving  the  old  sheepskin  binding  as  it  was." 
"  Now,"  said  he,  "  Whiting's  book  is  not  a  regular  law-book.  It  is  all 
very  well  that  it  should  be  there;  but  I  would  suggest  that  you  change 
the  character  of  the  binding.  It  now  looks  like  an  old  volume  of 
United  States  Statutes."  I  thanked  him  for  this  criticism,  and  then 
said,  "  Is  there  any  thing  else  that  you  would  like  changed  2"  "  I  see 
nothing,"  said  he;  "all  else  is  perfectly  satisfactory  to  me.  In  my 
judgment,  it  is  as  good  a  piece  of  work  as  the  subject  will  admit  of." 


764  THE  LIFE  OP  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

And  then,  in  his  simple-hearted,  earnest  way,  he  said  to  me,  "  And  I 
am  right  glad  you  have  done  it !" 

In  February  last,  a  few  days  after  the  passage  of  the  "  Constitutional 
Amendment,"  I  was  in  Washington,  and  was  received  by  Mr.  Lincoln 
with  the  kindness  and  familiarity  which  had  characterized  our  previ 
ous  intercourse.  I  said  to  him  one  day  that  I  was  very  proud  to  have 
been  the  artist  to  have  first  conceived  of  the  design  of  painting  a  pic 
ture  commemorative  of  the  Act  of  Emancipation  ;  that  subsequent 
occurrences  had  only  confirmed  my  own  first  judgment  of  that  act  as 
the  most  sublime  moral  event  in  our  history.  "  Yes,"  said — he  and 
never  do  I  remember  to  have  noticed  in  him  more  earnestness  of  ex 
pression  or  manner — "  as  affairs  have  turned,  it  is  the  central  act  of  my 
Administration,  and  the  great  event  of  the  nineteenth  century." 

I  remember  to  have  asked  him,  on  one  occasion,  if  there  was  not 
some  opposition  manifested  on  the  part  of  several  members  of  the 
Cabinet  to  the  Emancipation  policy.  He  said,  in  reply:  "Nothing 
more  than  I  have  stated  to  you.  Mr.  Blair  thought  we  should  lose  the 
fall  elections,  and  opposed  it  on  that  ground  only."  Said  I,  "  I  have 
understood  that  Secretary  Smith  was  not  in  favor  of  your  action.  Mr. 
Blair  told  me  that,  when  the  meeting  closed,  he  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  went  away  together,  and  that  the  latter  t:-*d  him,  if  the 
President  carried  out  that  policy,  he  might  count  on  losing  Indiana, 
sure !"  "  He  never  said  any  thing  of  the  kind  to  me,"  returned  the 
President.  "  And  how,"  said  I,  "  does  Mr.  Blair  feel  about  it  now  ?" 
"Oh,"  was  the  prompt  reply,  "he  proved  right  in  regard  to  the  fall 
elections,  but  he  is  satisfied  that  we  have  since  gained  more  than  we 
lost."  "  I  have  been  told,"  said  I,  "  that  Judge  Bates  doubted  the 
constitutionality  of  the  Proclamation.  ""  He  never  expressed  such  an 
opinion  in  my  hearing,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln.  "No  member  of  the 
Cabinet  ever  dissented  from  the  policy,  in  any  conversation  with  me." 

There  was  one  marked  element  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character  admirably 
expressed  by  the  Hon.  Schuyler  Colfax,  in  his  oration  at  Chicago  upon 
his  death :  "  When  his  judgment,  which  acted  slowly,  but  which  was 
almost  as  immovable  as  the  eternal  hills  when  settled,  was  grasping 
some  subject  of  importance,  the  arguments  against  his  own  desires 
seemed  uppermost  in  his  mind,  and,  in  conversing  upon  it,  he  would 
present  those  arguments,  to  see  if  they  could  be  rebutted." 

In  illustration  of  this,  I  need  only  here  recall  the  fact  that  the  in 
terview  between  himself  and  the  Chicago  delegation  of  clergymen, 
appointed  to  urge  upon  him  the  issue  of  a  Proclamation  of  Emanci 
pation,  took  place  September  13,  1862,  just  about  a  month  after  the 


ANECDOTES  AND  REMINISCENCES.  765 

President  had  declared  his  established  purpose  to  take  this  step  at  the 
Cabinet  meeting  which  I  have  described.  He  said  to  this  commit-, 
tee:  "I  do  not  want  to  issue  a  document  that  the  whole  world  will 
see  must  necessarily  be  inoperative,  like  the  Pope's  bull  against  the 
comet!"  After  drawing  out  their  views  upon  the  subject,  he  con 
cluded  the  interview  with  these  memorable  words : — 

"Do  not  misunderstand  me,  because  I  have  mentioned  these  objec 
tions.  They  indicate  the  difficulties  which  have  thus  far  prevented 
my  action  in  some  such  way  as  you  desire.  I  have  not  decided  against 
a  proclamation  of  liberty  to  the  slaves,  but  hold  the  matter  under  ad 
visement.  And  I  can  assure  you  that  the  subject  is  on  my  mind,  by 
day  and  night,  more  than  any  other.  Whatever  shall  appear  to  be 
God's  will,  I  will  do !  I  trust  that,  in  the  freedom  with  which  I  have 
canvassed  your  views,  I  have  not  in  any  respect  injured  your  feelings." 

In  further  illustration  of  this  peculiarity  of  his  mind,  I  will  say 
here,  to  silence  forever  the  cavils  of  those  who  have  asserted  that  he 
was  forced  by  the  pressure  of  public  opinion  to  nominate  Mr.  Chase 
as  Judge  Taney's  successor,  that,  notwithstanding  his  apparent  hesita 
tion  upon  this  subject,  and  all  that  was  reported  at  the  time  in  the 
newspapers  as  to  the  chances  of  the  various  candidates,  it  is  a  fact  well 
known  to  several  of  his  most  intimate  friends  that  "  there  had  never 
been  a  time  during  his  Presidency,  that,  in  the  event  of  the  death  of 
Judge  Taney,  he  had  not  fully  intended  and  expected  to  nominate 
Salmon  P.  Chase  for  Chief  Justice."  These  were  his  very  words,  ut 
tered  in  this  connection. 

Mr.  Chase  told  me  that  at  the  Cabinet  meeting,  immediately  after 
the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  just  prior  to  the  issue  of  the  September 
Proclamation,  the  President  entered  upon  the  business  before  them,  by 
saying  that  "  the  time  for  the  annunciation  of  the  Emancipation  policy 
could  no  longer  be  delayed.  Public  sentiment,"  he  thought,  "  would 
sustain  it,  many  of  his  warmest  friends  and  supporters  demanded  it — 
and  he  had  promised  his  God  that  he  would  do  it!"  The  last  part  of 
this  was  uttered  in  a  low  tone,  and  appeared  to  be  heard  by  no  one 
but  Secretary  Chase,  who  was  sitting  near  him.  He  asked  the  Presi 
dent  if  he  correctly  understood  him.  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  :  "  I  made 
a  solemn  vow  before  God  that,  if  General  Lee  were  driven  back  from 
Pennsylvania,  I  would  crown  the  result  by  the  declaration  of  freedom 
to  the  slaves !" 

In  concluding  this  article,  it  will  perhaps  be  expected  that  I  should 
take  some  notice  of  an  assertion,  made  originally  in  an  editorial  article 
in  The  Independent^  upon  the  withdrawal  of  Mr.  Chase  from  the  polit- 


766  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

ical  canvass  of  1864,  and  widely  copied,  in  which  it  was  stated  that 
the  concluding  paragraph  of  the  Proclamation  was  from  the  pen  of 
Secretary  Chase.  One  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  intimate  friends  (this  incident 
was  related  to  me  by  the  gentleman  himself),  who  felt  that  there  was 
an  impropriety  in  this  publication,  at  that  time,  for  which  Mr.  Chase 
was  in  some  degree  responsible,  went  to  see  the  President  about  it, 
"  Oh,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  his  characteristic  simplicity  and  freedoip 
from  all  suspicion,  "  Mr.  Chase  had  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  I  think  / 
mentioned  the  circumstance  to  Mr.  Tilton  myself." 

The  facts  in  the  case  are  these :  while  the  measure  was  pending. 
Mr.  Chase  submitted  to  the  President  a  draft  of  a  proclamation,  em 
bodying  his  views  upon  the  subject,  which  closed  with  the  appropriate 
and  solemn  words  referred  to :  "  And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed 
to  be  an  act  of  justice  warranted  by  the  Constitution,  I  invoke  the 
considerate  judgment  of  mankind,  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty 
God !" 

Mr.  Lincoln  adopted  this  sentence  intact,  excepting  that  he  inserted 
after  the  word  "  Constitution"  the  words  "upon  military  necessity." 

Thus  is  ended  what  I  have  long  felt  to  be  a  duty  I  owed  to  the 
world — the  record  of  circumstances  attending  the  preparation  and 
issue  of  the  third  great  state  paper  which  has  marked  the  progress  of 
our  Anglo-Saxon  civilization. 

First,  is  the  "  MAGNA  CIIARTA,"  wrested  by  the  barons  of  England 
from  King  John ;  second,  the  "  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  ;"  and 
third,  worthy  to  be  placed  upon  the  tablets  of  history,  side  by  side 
with  the  two  first,  is  "  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  PROCLAMATION  OF  EMAN- 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  LETTERS.  767 


APPENDIX. 


A. 

LETTERS    ON    SUNDRY    OCCASIONS. 


TO    MR.    HODGES,    OF    KENTUCKY. 

EXKCUTIVB  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  April  4, 1S64 

.V  G.  HODGES,  Esq.,  Frankfort,  Kentucky: 

MY  DEAK  SIR  : — You  ask  me  to  put  in  writing  the  substance  of  what  I 
verbally  said  the  other  day,  in  your  presence,  to  Governor  Bramlette  and 
Senator  Dixon.  It  was  about  as  follows: — 

I  am  naturally  anti-slavery.  If  slavery  is  not  wrong,  nothing  is 
wrong.  I  cannot  remember  when  I  did  not  so  think  and  feel,  and  yet 
[  have  never  understood  that  the  Presidency  conferred  upon  me  an  un 
restricted  right  to  act  officially  upon  this  judgment  and  feeling.  It  was 
In  the  oath  1  took  that  I  would  to  the  best  of  my  ability  preserve,  pro 
tect,  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  could  not  take 
the  office  without  taking  the  oath.  oSTor  was  it  my  view  that  I  might 
take  an  oath  to  get  power,  and  break  the  oath  in  using  the  power.  I 
understood,  too,  that  in  ordinary  civil  administration  this  oath  even  for 
bade  me  to  practically  indulge  my  primary  abstract  judgment  on  the 
moral  question  of  slavery.  I  had  publicly  declared  this  many  times,  and 
in  many  ways.  And  I  aver  that,  to  this  day,  I  have  done  no  official  act 
in  mere  deference  to  my  abstract  judgment  and  feeling  on  slavery.  I 
did  understand,  however,  that  my  oath  to  preserve  the  Constitution  to 
the  best  of  my  ability,  imposed  upon  me  the  duty  of  preserving,  by  every 
indispensable  means,  that  government,  that  nation,  of  which  that  Con 
stitution  was  the  organic  law.  Was  it  possible  to  lose  the  nation  and 
yet  preserve  the  Constitution?  By  general  law,  life  and  limb  must  be 
protected;  yet  often  a  limb  must  be  amputated  to  save  a  life;  but  a  life 
is  never  wisely  given  to  save  a  limb.  I  felt  that  measures,  otherwise 
unconstitutional,  might  become  lawful,  by  becoming  indispensable  to  the 
preservation  of  the  Constitution,  through  the  preservation  of  the  nation. 
Right  or  wrong,  I  assumed  this  ground,  and  now  avow  it.  I  could  not 
feel  that  to  the  best  of  my  ability  I  had  even  tried  to  preserve  the  Con 
stitution,  if,  to  save  slavery,  or  any  minor  matter,  I  should  permit  the 
wreck  of  government,  country,  and  Constitution,  altogether.  When, 
early  in  the  war,  General  Fremont  attempted  military  emancipation,  1 
forbade  it,  because  I  did  not  then  think  it  an  indispensable  necessity. 
When,  a  little  later,  General  Cameron,  then  Secretary  of  War.  suggested 
the  arming  of  the  blacks,  I  objected,  because  I  did  not  yet  think  it  an 
indispensable  necessity.  When,  still  later,  General  Hunter  attempted 
military  emancipation,  I  again  forbade  it,  because  I  did  not  yet  think  the 


768  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

indispensable  necessity  had  come.  When,  in  March,  and  May,  and  July, 
1862,  I  made  earnest  and  successive  appeals  to  the  Border  States  to 
favor  compensated  emancipation,  I  believed  the  indispensable  neces 
sity  for  military  emancipation  and  arming  the  blacks  would  come,  unless 
averted  by  that  measure.  They  declined  the  proposition,  and  I  was,  in 
my  best  judgment,  driven  to  the  alternative  of  either  surrendering  the 
Union,  and  with  it  the  Constitution,  or  of  laying  strong  hand  upon  the 
colored  element.  I  chose  the  latter.  In  choosing  it,  I  hoped  for  greater 
gain  than  loss,  but  of  this  I  was  not  entirely  confident.  More  than  a 
year  of  trial  now  shows  no  loss  by  it  in  our  foreign  relations,  none  in 
our  home  popular  sentiment,  none  in  our  white  military  force,  no  loss 
by  it  any  how,  or  anywhere.  On  the  contrary,  it  shows  a  gain  of 
quite  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers. 
These  are  palpable  facts,  about  which,  as  facts,  there  can  be  no  cavil 
ling.  "VVe  have  the  men  ;  and  we  could  not  have  had  them  without  the 
measure. 

And  now  let  any  Union  man  who  complains  of  the  measure,  test  him 
self  by  writing  down  in  one  line,  that  he  is  for  subduing  the  rebellion 
by  force  of  arms;  and  in  the  next,  that  he  is  for  taking  one  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  men  from  the  Union  side,  and  placing  them  where 
they  would  be  but  for  the  measure  he  condemns.  If  he  cannot  face  hia 
case  so  stated,  it  is  only  because  he  cannot  face  the  truth. 

I  add  a  word  which  was  not  in  the  verbal  conversation.  In  telling 
this  tale,  I  attempt  no  compliment  to  my  own  sagacity.  I  claim  not  to 
have  controlled  events,  but  confess  plainly  that  events  have  controlled 
me.  Now,  at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the  nation's  condition  is 
not  what  either  party,  or  any  man,  devised  or  expected.  God  alone  can 
claim  it.  Whither  it  is  tending,  seems  plain.  If  God  now  wills  the  re 
moval  of  a  great  wrong,  and  wills  also  that  we  of  the  North,  as  well  as 
you  of  the  South,  shall  pay  fairly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong,  im 
partial  history  will  find  therein  new  causes  to  attest  and  revere  the  jus 
tice  and  goodness  of  God.  Yours  truly, 

(Signed)  A.  LINCOLN. 

TO    GENERAL    HOOKER. 

The  following  letters  were  written  by  the  President  to  General  Hooker 
soon  after  the  latter  had  succeeded  General  Burnside  in  command  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  The  first  was  written  just  after  the  battle  of 
Chancellorsville,  as  follows  : — 

WASHINGTON,  2  p.  M. — May  8,  18C3. 

GENERAL  HOOKER: — The  news  is  here  of  the  capture  by  our  forces  of 
Grand  Gulf,  a  large  and  very  important  thing.  General  Willich,  an 
exchanged  prisoner  just  from  Richmond,  has  talked  with  me  this  morn 
ing.  He  was  there  when  our  cavalry  cut  the  roads  in  that  vicinity.  He 
Bays  there  was  not  a  sound  pair  of  legs  in  Richmond,  and  that  our  men, 
had  they  kno\vn  it,  could  have  safely  gone  in  and  burnt  every  thing  and 
brought  Jeff.  Davis,  captured  and  paroled  three  or  four  hundred  men. 
He  says  as  he  came  to  City  Point  there  was  an  army  three  miles  long— 
Longstreet,  he  thought,  moving  towards  Richmond.  Milroy  has  captured 
a  dispatch  of  General  Lee,  in  which  he  says  his  loss  was  fearful  in  his 
late  battle  with  you.  A.  LINCOLN. 

After  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville  General  Hooker  withdrew  his 
forces  to  the  north  side  of  the  Rappahannock,  and  received  the  following 
from  the  President : — 


LETTERS  TO  GENERAL  HOOKER.  7G9 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  "WASHINGTON,  M<ty  14,  1S63. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  : — When  T  wrote  on  the  7th  I  had  an  impression  that 
possibly,  by  an  early  movement,  you  could  get  some  advantage,  from  the 
supposed  facts  that  the  enemy's  communications  were  disturbed,  and  that 
he  was  somewhat  deranged  in  position.  That  idea  has  now  passed  away, 
the  enemy  having  re-established  his  communications,  regained  his  posi 
tions,  and  actually  received  re-enforcements.  It  does  not  now  appear  to 
me  probable  that  you  can  gain  any  thing  by  an  early  renewal  of  the  at 
tempt  to  cross  the  Rappahannock.  1  therefore  shall  not  complain  if  you 
do  no  more  for  a  time  than  to  keep  the  enemy  at  bay,  and  out  of  other 
mischief,  by  menaces  and  occasional  cavalry  raids,  if  practicable,  and  to 
put  your  own  army  in  good  condition  again.  Still,  if,  in  your  own  clear 
judgment,  you  can  renew  the  attack  successfully,  I  do  not  mean  to  re 
strain  you.  Bearing  upon  this  last  point  I  must  tell  you  I  have  some  pain 
ful  intimations  that  some  of  your  corps  and  division  commanders  are  not 
giving  you  their  entire  confidence.  This  would  be  ruinous  if  true,  and 
you  should,  therefore,  first  of  all,  ascertain  the  real  facts  beyond  all  possi 
bility  of  doubt.  Yours  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Both  armies  remained  inactive  till  the  5u*  %f  June,  when  General 
Hooker  wrote  to  the  President  that  appearances  indicated  an  advance  by 
General  Lee.  The  President  answered  him  as  follows  : — 

Jur\*  5,  1SC3 

MAJOR-GENERAL  HOOKER: — Yours  of  to-day  was  received  an  hour 
ago.  So  much  of  professional  military  skill  is  requisite  to  answer  it,  that 
I  have  turned  the  task  over  to  General  Halleck.  He  promises  to  perform 
it  with  his  utmost  care.  I  have  but  one  idea  which  I  think  worth  sug 
gesting  to  you,  and  that  is,  in  case  you  find  Lee  coining  to  the  north  of 
the  Rappahannock,  I  would  by  no  means  cross  to  the  south  of  it.  If  he 
should  leave  a  rear  force  at  Fredericksburg,  tempting  you  to  fall  upon  it,  it 
would  fight  in  intrenchments  and  have  you  at  advantage,  and  so,  man  for 
man,  worst  you  at  that  point,  while  his  main  force  would  in  some  way 
be  getting  an  advantage  of  you  northward.  In  one  word,  I  would  not 
take  any  risk  of  being  entangled  up  on  the  river  like  an  ox  jumped  half 
over  a  fence  and  liable  to  be  torn  by  dogs  front  and  rear  without  a  fair 
chance  to  gore  one  way  or  to  kick  the  other. 

If  Lee  would  come  to  my  side  of  the  river  I  would  keep  on  the  same 
side  and  fight  him,  or  act  on  the  defensive,  according  as  might  be  my  es 
timate  of  his  strength  relatively  to  my  own.  But  these  are  mere  sugges 
tions,  which  I  desire  to  be  controlled  by  the  judgment  of  yourself  and 
General  Halleck.  A.  LINCOLN. 

By  the  10th  of  June  Lee's  forward  movement  was  well  developed. 
The  President's  views  as  to  the  proper  course  to  be  pursued  by  our  army 
remained  as  before,  and  he  sent  the  following  letter  expressing  them  : — 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  10,  1SG3. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  HOOKER  : — Your  long  dispatch  of  to-day  is  just  re 
ceived.  If  left  to  me,  I  would  not  go  south  of  the  Rappahannock  upon 
Lee's  moving  north  of  it.  If  you  had  Richmond  invested  to-day  you 
would  not  be  able  to  take  it  in  twenty  days ;  meanwhile  your  communi 
cations,  and  with  them  your  army,  would  be  ruined.  I  think  Lee's  army, 
and  not  Richmond,  is  your  true  objective  point.  If  he  comes  towards  the 
Upper  Potomac,  follow  on  his  flank,  and  on  the  inside  track,  shortening 
49 


770  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

your  lines   while  he  lengthens  his.     Fight  him,  too,   when  opportunity 
offers.     If  he  stay  where  he  is,  fret  him  and  fret  him. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Lee's  advance  was  to  the  northwest,  through  the  Valley  of  the  Shenan- 
doah.  His  advance  was  heard  of  far  down  that  valley  while  yet  his 
rear  was  near  Fredericksburg,  and  on  the  14th  the  President  wrote  to 

General  Hooker  as  follows  : — 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  14, 1863. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  HOOKER:  —  So  for  as  we  can  make  out  here,  the 
enemy  have  Milroy  surrounded  at  "Winchester,  and  Tyler  at  Martins- 
burg.  If  they  couW  hold  out  a  few  days,  could  you  help  them?  If  the 
head  of  Lee's  army  is  at  Martinsburg  and  the  tail  of  it  on  the  plank- 
road  between  Fredericksburg  and  Chancellorsville,  the  animal  must  ~be 
very  slim  somewhere  ;  could  you  not  break  him  ? 

A.  LINCOLN. 

HON.    JOHN    MINOR    BOTTS. 

The  following  brief  letter,  written  during  the  first  Presidential  canvass, 
shows  what  were  Mr.  Lincoln's  views  in  regard  to  the  action  of  the  South 
ern  States  in  th<a  event  of  his  election  : — 

SPKINGFIKLD,  ILL.,  August  15, 1360. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :— Yours  of  the  9th,  enclosing  the  letter  of  Hon.  John 
Minor  Bot.ts,  was  duly  received.  The  latter  is  herewith  returned  according 
to  your  request.  It  contains  one  of  the  many  assurances  I  receive  from  the 
South,  that  in  no  probable  event  will  there  be  any  very  formidable  effort 
to  break  up  the  Union.  The  people  of  the  South  have  too  much  of  good 
e^nse  and  good  temper  to  attempt  the  ruin  of  the  Government  rather  than 
see  it  administered  as  it  was  administered  by  the  men  who  made  it.  At 
ieast,  so  I  hope  and  believe. 

I  thank  you  both  for  your  own  letter  and  a  sight  of  that  of  Mr.  Botts. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

JOHN  B.  FRY,  Esq. 

TO    GOVERNOR    MAGOFFIN. 

In  August,  1861,  Governor  Magoffin,  of  Kentucky,  urged  the  removal  by 
the  President  of  the  Union  troops  which  had  been  raised  and  were  en 
camped  within  that  State. 

To  this  request  he  received  the  following  reply  :— 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  August  24, 1961 

To  His  Excellency  B.  MAGOFFIN,  Governor  of  the  State  of  Kentucky 

SIR:— Your  letter  of  the  19th  instant,  in  which  you  "urge  the  removal 
from  the  limits  of  Kentucky  of  the  military  force  now  organized  and  in 
camp  within  that  State,  is  received. 

1  may  not  possess  full  and  precisely  accurate  knowledge  upon  this  sub 
ject,  but  I  believe  it  is  true  that  there  is  a  military  force  in  camp  within 
Kentucky,  acting  by  authority  of  the  United  States,  which  force  is  not 
very  large,  and  is  not  now  being  augmented. 

1  also  believe  that  some  arms  have  been  furnished  to  this  force  by  the 
United  States. 


LETTER  TO  COUNT  GASPAKIN.  771 

I  also  believe  that  this  force  consists  exclusively  of  Kentuckians,  Laving 
their  camp  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  their  own  homes,  and  not  assail 
ing  or  menacing  any  of  the  good  people  of  Kentucky. 

In  all  I  have  done  in  the  premises,  I  have  acted  upon  the  urgent  solici 
tation  of  many  .Kentuckians,  and  in  accordance  with  what  I  believed,  an(. 
still  believe,  to  be  the  wish  of  a  majority  of  all  the  Union-loving  people 
of  Kentucky. 

While  I  have  conversed  on  the  subject  with  many  eminent  men  o\ 
Kentucky,  including  a  large  majority  of  her  members  of  Congress,  I  da 
not  remember  that  any  one  of  them,  or  any  other  person,  except  your 
Excellency  and  the  bearers  of  your  Excellency's  letter,  has  urged  me  to 
remove  the  military  force  from  Kentucky  or  to  disband  it.  One  other 
very  worthy  citizen  of  Kentucky  did  solicit  me  to  have  the  augmenting 
of  the  force  suspended  for  a  time. 

Taking  all  the  means  within  my  reach  to  form  a  judgment,  I  do  not 
believe  it  is  the  popular  wish  of  Kentucky  that  the  force  shall  be  re 
moved  beyond  her  limits,  and,  with  this  impression,  I  must  respectfully 
decline  to  remove  it. 

I  most  cordially  sympathize  with  your  Excellency  in  the  wish  to  pre 
serve  the  peace  of  my  own  native  State,  Kentucky,  but  it  is  with  regret 
I  search  for,  and  cannot  find,  in  your  not  very  short  letter,  any  declara 
tion  or  intimation  that  you  entertain  any  desire  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Federal  Union.  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

TO    COUNT    GASPARIN. 

The  following  letter  addressed  by  President  Lincoln  to  the  Count  de 
Gasparin,  one  of  the  warmest  friends  of  the  United  States  in  Europe, 
who  had  written  to  the  President  concerning  the  state  of  the  country, 
will  be  read  with  interest : — 

EXECUTIVE  MAKSION,  WASHINGTON,  August  4,  1862. 

To  COUNT  A.  DE  GASPARIN: 

DEAR  SIR  : — Your  very  acceptable  letter  dated  Orbe,  Canton  de  Vaud, 
Switzerland,  18th  of  July,  1862,  is  received.  The  moral  effect  was  the 
worst  of  the  affair  before  Richmond,  and  that  has  run  its  course  down 
ward.  We  are  now  at  a  stand,  and  shall  soon  be  rising  again,  as  we 
hope.  I  believe  it  is  true  that,  in  men  and  material,  the  enemy  suffered 
more  than  we  in  that  series  of  conflicts,  while  it  is  certain  he  is  less  able 
to  bear  it. 

With  us  every  soldier  is  a  man  of  character,  and  must  be  treated  with 
more  consideration  than  is  customary  in  Europe.  Hence  our  great 
army,  for  slighter  causes  than  could  have  prevailed  there,  has  dwindled 
rapidly,  bringing  the  necessity  for  a  new  call  earlier  than  was  antici 
pated.  We  shall  easily  obtain  the  new  levy,  however.  Be  not  alarmed 
if  you  shall  learn  that  we  shall  have  resorted  to  a  draft  for  part  of  this. 
It  seems  strange  even  to  me,  but  it  is  true,  that  the  Government  is  now 
pressed  to  this  course  by  a  popular  demand.  Thousands  who  wish 
not  tu  personally  enter  the  service,  are  nevertheless  anxious  to  pay  arid 
send  substitutes,  provided  they  can  have  assurance  that  unwilling  per 
sons,  similarly  situated,  will  be  compelled  to  do  likewise.  Besides  this, 
volunteers  mostly  choose  to  enter  newly  forming  regiments,  while 
drafted  men  can  be  sent  to  fill  up  the  old  ones,  wherein  man  for  man 
they  are  quite  doubly  as  valuable. 

You  ask,  "  why  is  it  that  the  North  with  her  great  armies  so  often  is 
found  with  inferiority  of  numbers  face  to  face  with  the  armies  of  the 


772  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

South'?"  While  I  painfully  know  the  fact,  a  military  man,  which  T  am 
not,  would  better  answer  the  question.  The  fact  I  know  has  not  been 
overlooked,  and  I  suppose  the  cause  of  its  continuance  lies  mainly  in  the 
other  fact  that  the  enemy  holds  the  interior  and  we  the  exterior  lines ; 
and  that  we  operate  where  the  people  convey  information  to  the  enemy, 
while  he  operates  where  they  convey  none  to  us. 

I  have  received  the  volume  and  letter  which  you  did  me  the  honor  of 
addressing  to  me,  and  for  which  please  accept  my  sincere  thanks.  You 
are  much  admired  in  America  for  the  ability  of  your  writings,  and  much 
loved  for  your  generosity  to  us  and  your  devotion  to  liberal  principles 
generally. 

You  are  quite  right  as  to  the  importance  to  us  for  its  bearing  upon 
Europe,  that  we  should  achieve  military  successes,  and  the  same  is  true  for 
us  at  home  as  well  as  abroad.  Yet  it  seems  unreasonable  that  a  series 
of  successes,  extending  through  hall  a  year,  and  clearing  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  country,  should  help  us  so  little, 
while  a  «ing)e  half  defeat  should  hurt  us  so  much.  But  let  us  be  patient. 

I  am  very  happy  to  know  that  my  course  has  not  conflicted  with  your 
judgment  of  propriety  and  policy.  I  can  only  say  that  I  have  acted  upon 
my  best  convictions,  without  selfishness  or  malice,  and  that  by  the  help 
of  God  I  shall  continue  to  do  so. 

Please  be  assured  of  my  highest  respect  and  esteem. 

A.  LINCOLN. 


15. 

THE  PRESIDENT  AND   GENERAL  McCLELLAN. 

THE  transfer  of  General  McClellan's  army  from  the  Potomac,  where  it 
lay  in  front  of  the  rebels  at  Manassas,  was  a  movement  of  so  much  im 
portance,  and  has  given  rise  to  so  much  controversy,  that  we  append,  for 
its  further  elucidation,  a  memorandum  made  by  Major-General  McDowell 
of  the  private  discussions  which  preceded  it. 

A  copy  of  this  memorandum  was  given  by  General  McDowell,  in  tho 
spring  of  1864,  to  Mr.  Raymond,  and  by  him,  some  months  afterwards, 
submitted  to  the  President.  The  manuscript  was  returned  by  the  latter, 
with  the  following  indorsement : — 

I  well  remember  the  meetings  herein  narrated.  See  nothing  for  me  to 
object  to  in  the  narrative  as  being  made  by  General  McDowell,  except 
the  phrase  attributed  to  me  "of  the  Jacobinism  of  Congress"  which 
phrase  I  do  not  remember  using  literally  or  in  substance,  and  which  I 
wish  not  to  be  published  in  any  event. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

October  7, 1864 

The  following  is  the 

MEMORANDUM  OF  GENERAL  <MoDOWELL. 

January  10,  1862.— At  dinner  at  Arlington,  Virginia.  Received  a  note 
from  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  saying  the  President  wished  to  see 
me  that  evening  at  eight  o'clock,  if  I  could  safely  leave  my  post.  Soon 
after,  I  received  a  note  from  Quartermaster-General  Meigs,  marked  "Pri- 


THE  PRESIDENT  AND  GENERAL  MC€LELLAN.      773 

rate  and  confidential,"  saying  the  President  wished  to  see  me.  Note 
herewith. 

Repaired  to  the  President's  house  at  eight  o'clock  p.  M.  Found  the 
President  alone.  Was  taken  into  the  small  room  in  the  northeast  corner. 
Soon  after,  we  were  joined  by  Brigadier-General  Franklin,  the  Secretary 
of  State,  Governor  Seward,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  the  As 
sistant  Secretary  of  War.  The  President  was  greatly  disturbed  at  the 
state  of  affairs.  Spoke  of  the  exhausted  condition  of  the  Treasury ;  of  tho 
loss  of  public  credit;  of  the  Jacobinism  in  Congress;  of  the  delicate  con 
dition  of  our  foreign  relations;  of  the  bad  news  he  had  received  from  the 
West,  particularly  as  contained  in  a  letter  from  General  Halleck  on  the 
state  of  affairs  in  Missouri ;  of  the  want  of  co-operation  between  General 
Halleck  and  General  Buell ;  but,  more  than  all,  the  sickness  of  General 
McClellan. 

The  President  said  he  was  in  great  distress,  and,  as  he  had  been  to 
General  McOlellan's  house,  and  the  General  did  not  ask  to  see  him,  and 
as  he  must  talk  to  somebody,  he  had  sent  for  General  Franklin  and  my 
self,  to  obtain  our  opinion  as  to  the  possibility  of  soon  commencing  active 
operations  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

To  use  his  own  expression,  if  something  was  not  soon  done,  the  bottom 
would  be  out  of  the  whole  affair;  and,  if  General  McClellan  did  not  want 
to  use  the  army,  he  would  like  to  "borrow  t£,"  provided  he  could  see  how 
it  could  be  made  to  do  something. 

The  Secretary  of  State  stated  the  substance  of  some  information  he 
considered  reliable,  as  to  the  strength  of  the  forces  on  the  other  side, 
which  he  had  obtained  from  an  Englishman  from  Fortress  Monroe,  Rich 
mond,  Manassas,  and  Centreville,  which  was  to  the  effect  that  the  enemy 
had  twenty  thousand  men  under  linger  at  Norfolk,  thirty  thousand  at 
Centreville,  and,  in  all,  in  our  front  an  effective  force,  capable  of  being 
brought  up  at  short  notice,  of  about  one  hundred  and  three  thousand 
men — men  not  suffering,  but  well  shod,  clothed,  and  fed.  In  answer  to 
the  question  from  the  President,  what  could  soon  be  done  with  the  army, 
I  replied  that  the  question  as  to  the  when  must  be  preceded  by  the  one  as 
to  the  how  and  the  where.  That,  substantially,  I  would  organize  the  army 
into  four  army  corps,  placing  the  five  divisions  on  the  Washington  side  on 
the  right  bank.  Place  three  of  these  corps  to  the  front,  the  right  at 
Vienna  or  its  vicinity,  the  l«ft  beyond  Fairfax  Station,  the  centre  beyond 
Fairfax  Court-House,  and  connect  the  latter  place  with  the  Orange  and 
Alexandria  Railroad  by  a  railroad  now  partially  thrown  up.  This  would 
enable  us  to  supply  these  corps  without  the  use  of  horses,  except  to  dis 
tribute  what  was  brought  up  by  rail,  and  to  act  upon  the  enemy  without 
reference  to  the  bad  state  of  country  roads. 

The  railroads  all  lead  to  the  enemy's  position.  By  acting  upon  them  in 
force,  besieging  his  strongholds,  if  necessary,  or  getting  between  them,  if 
possible,  or  making  the  attempt  to  do  so,  and  pressing  his  left,  I  thought 
we  should,  in  the  first  place,  cause  him  to  bring  up  all  his  forces,  and 
mass  them  on  the  flank  mostly  pressed — the  left — and,  possibly,  I  thought 
probably,  we  should  again  get  them  out  of  their  works,  and  bring  on  a 
general" engagement  on  favorable  terms  to  us,  at  all  events  keeping  him 
fully  occupied  and  harassed.  The  fourth  corps,  in  connection  with  a 
force  of  heavy  guns  afloat,  would  operate  on  his  right  flank,  beyond  the 
Occoquan,  get  behind  the  batteries  on  the  Potomac,  take  Aquia,  which, 
being  supported  by  the  Third  Corps  over  the  Occoquan,  it  could  safely 
attempt,  and  then  move  on  the  railroad  from  Manassas  to  the  Rappahan- 
nock.  Having  a  large  cavalry  force  to  destroy  bridges,  I  thought  by  the 
use  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  men  thus  employed,  and  the 


774  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

great  facilities  which  the  railroads  gave  us,  and  the  compact  positioi.  <ve 
should  occupy,  we  muse  succeed  by  repeated  blows  in  crushing  out  the 
force  in  our  front,  even  if  it  were  equal  in  numbers  and  strength.  The 
road  by  the  Fairfax  Court-House  to  Centreville  would  give  us  the  means 
to  bring  up  siege  mortars  and  siege  materials,  and  even  if  we  could  not 
accomplish  the  object  immediately,  by  making  the  campaign  one  of  posi 
tions  instead  of  one  of  manoeuvres,  to  do  so  eventually,  and  without,  risk. 
That  this  saving  of  wagon  transportation  should  be  effected  at  once,  by 
connecting  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  with  the  Alexandria  roads 
by  running  a  road  over  the  Long  Bridge.  That  when  all  this  could  be 
commenced,  I  could  better  tell  when  I  knew  something  more  definite  as 
to  the  general  condition  of  the  army. 

General  Franklin  being  asked,  said  he  was  in  ignorance  of  many  things 
necessary  to  an  opinion  on  the  subject,  knowing  only  as  to  his  own 
division,  which  was  ready  for  the  field.  As  to  the  plan  of  operations,  on 
being  asked  by  the  President  if  he  had  ever  thought  what  he  would  do 
with  this  army  if  he  had  it,  he  replied  that  he  had,  and  that  it  was  his 
judgment  that  it  should  be  taken — what  could  be  spared  from  the  duty 
of  protecting  the  capital — to  York  River  to  operate  on  Hichmond.  The 
question  then  came  up  as  to  the  means  at  hand  of  transporting  a  large 
part  of  the  army  by  water.  The  Assistant  Secretary  of  War  said  the 
means  had  been  fully  taxed  to  provide  transportation  for  twelve  thousand 
men.  After  some  further  conversation,  and  in  reference  to  our  ignorance 
of  the  actual  condition  of  the  army,  the  President  wished  we  should  come 
together  the  next  night  at  eight  o'clock,  and  that  General  Franklin  and  I 
should  meet  in  the  mean  time,  obtain  such  further  information  as  we 
might  need,  and  to  do  so  from  the  staff  of  the  head-quarters  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac.  Immediate  orders  were  to  be  given  to  make  the  rail 
road  over  Long  Bridge. 

January  11. — Held  a  meeting  with  General  Franklin  in  the  morning  at 
the  Treasury  building,  and  discussed  the  question  of  the  operations  which 
in  our  judgment  were  best  under  existing  circumstances  of  season,  pres 
ent  position  of  the  forces,  present  condition  of  the  country,  to  be  under 
taken  before  going  into  the  matter  as  to  when  those  operations  could  be 
set  on  foot.  I  urged  that  we  should  now  find  fortifications  in  York  River, 
which  would  require  a  movement  in  that  direction  to  be  preceded  by  a 
naval  force  of  heavy  guns  to  clear  them  out,  as  well  as  the  works  at  West 
Point.  That  Richmond  was  now  fortified,  that  we  could  not  hope  to 
carry  it  by  a  simple  march  after  a  successful  engagement,  that  we  should 
be  obliged  to  take  a  siege  train  with  us.  That  all  this  would  take  time, 
which  would  be  improved  by  the  enemy  to  mass  his  forces  in  our  front, 
and  we  should  find  that  we  had  not  escaped  any  of  the  difficulties  we 
have  now  before  this  position,  but  simply  lost  time  and  money  to  find 
those  difficulties  where  we  should  not  have  so  strong  a  base  to  operate 
from,  nor  so  many  facilities,  nor  so  large  a  force  as  we  have  here,  nor,  in 
proportion,  so  small  a  one  to  overcome.  That  the  war  now  had  got  to 
be  one  of  positions  till  we  should  penetrate  the  line  of  the  enemy.  That 
to  overcome  him  in  front,  or  cut  his  communication  with  the  South, 
would,  by  its  moral  as  well  as  physical  effect,  prostrate  the  enemy,  and 
enable  us  to  undertake  any  future  operations  with  ease  arid  certainty  of 
success  ;  but  that,  in  order  of  time  as  of  importance,  the  first  thing  to  be 
done  was  to  overcome  this  army  in  our  front,  which  is  beleaguering  our 
capital,  blockading  the  river,  and  covering  us  day  by  day  with  the  re 
proach  of  impotence,  and  lowering  us  in  the  eyes  of  foreign  nations  and 
of  our  people,  both  North  and  South,  and  that  nothing  but  what  is  not 
necessary  for  this  purpose  should  go  elsewhere. 


THE  PRESIDENT  AND  GENERAL  MCCLELLAN.      775 

General  Franklin  suggested  whether  Governor  Chase,  in  view  of  what 
we  were  charged  to  do,  might  not  be  at  liberty  to  tell  us  where  General 
Burnside's  expedition  had  gone.  I  went  and  asked  him.  He  told  me 
that  under  the  circumstances  he  felt  he  ought  to  do  so,  and  said  he  was 
destined  for  Newbern,  North  Carolina,  by  way  of  Hatteras  Inlet  and 
Pamlico  Sound,  to  operate  on  Raleigh  and  Beaufort,  or  either  ef  them. 
That  General  McClellan  had,  by  direction  of  the  President,  acquainted 
him  with  his  plan,  which  was  to  go  with  a  large  part  of  this  Army  of  the 
Potomac  to  Urbana  or  Toppahannock,  on  the  Rappahannock,  and  then 
with  his  bridge  train  move  directly  on  Richmond.  On  further  consulta 
tion  with  General  Franklin,  it  was  agreed  that  our  inquiries  were  to  be 
directed  to  both  cases,  of  going  from  our  present  position,  and  of  remov 
ing  the  large  part  of  the  force  to  another  base  further  South. 

A  question  was  raised  by  General  Franklin,  whether,  in  deference  to 
General  McClellan,  we  should  not  inform  him  of  the  duty  we  were  or 
dered  to  perform.  I  said  the  order  I  received  was  marked  "private  and 
confidential,"  and  as  they  came  from  the  President,  our  Commander-in- 
Chief,  I  conceived,  as  a  common  superior  to  General  McClellan  and  both 
of  us,  it  was  for  the  President  to  say,  and  not  us,  and  that  I  would  con 
sult  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  was  at  hand,  and  could  tell  us 
what  was  the  rule  in  the  Cabinet  in  such  matters.  The  Secretary  was  of 
opinion  that  the  matter  lay  entirely  with  the  President.  "We  went  to 
Colonel  Kingsbury,  Chief  of  Ordnance  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
Brigadier-General  Van  Vliet,  Chief  Quartermaster,  and  Major  Shivers, 
Oommissary  of  Subsistence,  and  obtained  all  the  information  desired. 

Met  at  the  President's  in  the  evening  at  eight  o'clock.  Present  the 
same  as  on  the  first  day,  with  the  addition  of  the  Postmaster-General, 
Judge  Blair,  who  came  in  after  the  meeting  had  begun  the  discussion.  I 
read  the  annexed  paper,  marked  (A),  as  containing  both  General  Frank 
lin's  and  rny  own  views,  General  Franklin  agreeing  with  me,  in  view  of 
time,  &c.,  required  to  take  this  army  to  another  base,  that  the  operation 
could  best  now  be  undertaken  from  the  present  base,  substantially  as  pro 
posed.  The  Postmaster-General  opposed  the  plan,  and  was  for  having 
the  army,  or  as  much  of  it  as  could  be  spared,  go  to  York  River  or  For 
tress  Monroe,  either  to  operate  against  Richmond,  or  to  Suffolk  and  cut 
off  Norfolk,  that  being  in  his  judgment  the  point  (Fortress  Monroe  or 
York)  from  which  to  make  a  decisive  blow ;  that  the  plan  of  going  to  the 
front  from  this  position  was  Bull  Run  over  again,  that  it  was  strategically 
defective  as  was  the  effort  last  July,  as  then  we  would  have  the  operations 
upon  exterior  lines,  and  that  it  involved  too  much  risk ;  that  there  was 
not  as  much  difficulty  as  had  been  supposed  in  removing  the  army  down 
the  Chesapeake ;  that  only  from  the  Lower  Chesapeake  could  anything 
decisive  result  against  the  army  at  Manassas;  that  to  drive  them  from 
their  present  position  by  operating  from  our  present  base  would  only 
force  them  to  another  behind  the  one  they  now  occupy,  and  we  should 
have  all  our  work  to  do  over  again.  Mr.  Seward  thought  if  we  only  had 
a  victory  over  them,  it  would  answer,  whether  obtained  at  Manassas,  or 
further  South.  Governor  Chase  replied,  in  general  terms,  to  Judge 
Blair,  to  the  effect  that  the  moral  power  of  a  victory  over  the  enemy  in 
his  present  position  would  be  as  great  as  one  elsewhere,  all  else  equal ; 
and  the  danger  lay  in  the  probability  that  we  should  find,  after  losing 
time  and  millions,  that  we  should  have  as  many  difficulties  to  overcome 
below  as  we  now  have  above. 

The  President  wished  to  have  General  Meigs  in  consultation  on  the 
subject  of  providing  water  transportation,  and  desired  General  Franklin 


776  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

and  myself  to  see  him  in  the  morning,  and  meet  again  at  three  o'clock 
p.  M.  the  next  day. 

January  12. — Met  General  Franklin  at  General  Meigs's.  Conversed 
with  him  on  the  subject  of  our  mission  at  his  own  house.  I  expressed 
my  views  to  General  Meigs,  who  agreed  with  me  in  the  main  as  to  con 
centrating  our  efforts  against  the  enemy  in  front  by  moving  against  him 
from  our  present  position.  As  to  the  time  in  which  he  could  assemble 
water  transportation  for  thirty  thousand  men,  he  thought  in  about  from 
four  to  six  weeks. 

Met  at  the  President's.  General  Meigs  mentioned  the  time  in  which 
he  could  assemble  transports  as  a  month  to  six  weeks.  The  general  sub 
ject  of  operations  from  the  present  base  was  again  discussed,  General 
Meigs  agreeing  that  it  was  best  to  do  so,  and  to  concentrate  our  forces 
for  the  purpose.  The  President  and  Mr.  Seward  said  that  General  Mc 
Clellan  had  been  out  to  seethe  President,  and  was  looking  quite  well; 
and  that  now,  as  he  was  able  to  assume  the  charge  of  the  army,  the  Pres 
ident  would  drop  any  further  proceedings  with  us.  The  general  drift  of 
the  conversation  was  as  to  the  propriety  of  moving  the  army  further 
South,  and  as  to  the  destination  of  Burnside's  expedition.  The  Postmas 
ter-General  said  that  if  it  was  the  intention  to  fight  out  here  (Manassas), 
then  we  ought  to  concentrate.  It  was  suggested  and  urged  somewhat  on 
the  President  to  countermand,  or  to  have  General  McClellan  counter 
mand,  General  Burnside's  expedition,  and  bring  it  up  to  Acqtiia.  The 
President  was,  however,  exceedingly  averse  from  interfering,  saying  he 
disliked  exceedingly  to  stop  a  thing  long  since  planned,  just  as  it  was 
ready  to  strike.  Nothing  was  done  but  to  appoint  another  meeting  the 
next  day  at  11  o'clock,  when  we  were  to  meet  General  McClellan,  and 
again  discuss  the  question  of  the  movement  to  be  made,  &c.,  &c. 

January  13,  Monday.—  Went  to  the  President's  with  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury.  Present,  the  President,  Governor  Chase,  Governor  Seward, 
Postmaster-General,  General  McClellan,  General  Meigs,  General  Frank 
lin,  and  myself,  and  I  think  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  War.  The  Presi 
dent,  pointing  to  a  map,  asked  me  to  go  over  the  plan  I  had  before  spoken 
to  him  of.  lie,  at  the  same  time,  made  a  brief  explanation  of  how  he 
came  to  bring  General  Franklin  and  General  McDowell  before  him.  I 
mentioned,  in  as  brief  terms  as  possible,  what  General  Franklin  and  I  had 
done  under  the  President's  order,  what  our  investigations  had  been 
directed  upon,  and  what  were  our  conclusions,  giving  as  nearly  as  I  could 
the  substance  of  the  paper  hereto  annexed,  marked  (B),  referring  to  going 
to  the  front  from  our  present  base  in  the  way  I  have  hereinbefore  stated^ 
referring  also  to  a  transfer  of  a  part  of  the  army  to  another  base  further 
south  ;  that  we  had  been  informed  that  the  latter  movement  could  not  be 
commenced  under  a  month  to  six  weeks,  and  that  a  movement  to  the 
front  could  be  undertaken  in  all  of  the  present  week.  General  Franklin 
dissented  only  as  to  the  time  I  mentioned  for  beginning  operations  in  the 
front,  not  thinking  we  could  get  the  roads  in  order  by  that  time.  I 
added,  commence  operations  in  all  of  the  week,  to  which  he  assented. 

I  concluded  my  remarks  by  saying  something  apologetic  in  explanation 
of  the  position  in  which  we  were,  to  which  General  McClellan  replied 
somewhat  coldly,  if  not  curtly :  "  You  are  entitled  to  have  any  opinion 
you  please!"  No  discussion  was  entered  into  by  him  whatever,  the  above 
being  the  only  remark  he  made. 

General  Franklin  said,  that,  in  giving  his  opinion  as  to  going  to  York 
River,  he  did  t  knowing  it  was  in  the  direction  of  General  McClellan's 
plans. 

I  said  that  I  had  acte/l  entiiely  in  the  dark. 


THE  PRESIDENT  AND  GENERAL  MCCLELLAN.      777 

General  Meigs  spoke  of  his  agency  in  having  us  called  in  by  the  Presi 
dent. 

The  President  then  asked  what  and  when  any  thing  could  be  done, 
again  going  over  somewhat  the  same  ground  he  had  done  with  General 
Franklin  and  myself. 

General  McClellan  said  the  case  was  so  clear  a  blind  man  could  see  it, 
and  then  spoke  of  the  difficulty  of  ascertaining  what  force  he  could  count 
upon;  that  he  did  not  know  whether  he  could  let  General  Butler  go  to 
Ship  Island,  or  whether  he  could  re-enforce  General  Burnside.  Much  con 
versation  ensued,  of  rather  a  general  character,  as  to  the  discrepancy 
between  the  number  of  men  paid  for  and  the  number  effective. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  then  put  a  direct  question  to  General 
McClellan,  to  the  effect  as  to  what  he  intended  doing  with  his  army,  and 
when  he  intended  doing  it.  After  a  long  silence,  General  McClellan  an 
swered  that  the  movement  in  Kentucky  was  to  precede  any  one  from  this 
place,  and  that  that  movement  might  now  be  forced.  That  he  had  directed 
General  Buell,  if  he  could  not  hire  wagons  for  his  transportation,  that  he 
must  take  them.  After  another  pause,  he  said  he  must  say  he  was  very 
unwilling  to  develop  his  plans,  always  believing  that  in  military  matters 
the  fewer  persons  who  were  knowing  to  them  the  better;  that  he  would 
tell  them  if  he  was  ordered  to  do  so.  The  President  then  asked  him  if  he 
had  counted  upon  any  particular  time;  he  did  not  ask  what  that  time 
was,  but  had  he  in  his  own  mind  any  particular  time  fixed,  when  a  move 
ment  could  be  commenced.  lie  replied  he  had.  "  Then,"  rejoined  the 
President,  UI  will  adjourn  this  meeting." 

EXHIBIT  A. 

Memoranda  on  wliich  to  base  an  opinion,  required  by  the  President,  as  to 
when  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  can  assume  offensive  operations. 

The  time  of  moving  depends  on  whether  the  army  is  in  whole,  or  in 
great  part,  to  be  removed  by  water  to  another  base  of  operations  to  the 
south  ;  or,  whether  it  is  to  move  against  the  enemy  now  immediately  in 
its  front.  General  Franklin  favored  the  first,  and  I  inclined  to  the  second. 

Inquiries  were  directed  in  each  case. 

1st. — If  the  base  is  to  be  changed  to  York  River,  as  has  been  suggested, 
the  advance  would  have  to  be  accompanied  by  a  fleet  with  heavy  guns, 
to  silence  the  batteries  in  York  River  and  the  works  at  its  head,  and  to 
keep  the  river  from  being  obstructed  as  is  the  Potomac  at  this  time. 

To  organize  such  a  fleet  I  should  think  would  require  more  time  than 
the  present  state  of  affairs  would  permit. 

To  land  the  force  this  side  of  York  River  with  a  view  to  turn  the  head 
of  it  at  West  Point  would  require  additional  land  transportation,  and  a 
heavy  additional  item  for  the  means  to  pass  the  rivers  (perhaps  in  face  of 
an  enemy)  between  the  point  of  debarkation  and  Richmond,  which  is 
supposed  as  the  objective  point  in  such  a  campaign. 

As  Richmond  is  fortified,  a  siege  train  and  materials  would  be  required. 

In  considering  the  quantity  of  land  transportation  required  to  move  on 
Richmond  from  any  point  of  debarkation  this  side  of  York  River,  it  should 
be  kept  in  mind  that  at  this  season  in  this  climate  the  roads  are  heavy  ; 
and,  when  used  by  large  trains  of  artillery  or  baggage,  impassable,  unless 
corduroyed,  and,  as  the  army  could  not  move  on  only  one  road,  to  make 
several  would  take  time,  which  would  be  improved  by  the  enemy  to  mass 
forces  in  the  front.  It  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  conceal 
from  -the  enemy  our  point  of  landing;  and  he  is  at  this  time  expecting  us 
at  York,  where  he  has  already  a  considerable  force,  and  to  which,  from 


778  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Richmond,  he  has  a  railroad  upon  which  to  bring  re-enforcements,  and  a 
railroad  communication  to  Acquia  Creek  and  his  main  force  at  Manassas. 
It  would  therefore  be  necessary  to  land,  in  the  first  place,  with  a  heavy 
force,  to  avoid  the  disaster  of  being  overwhelmed  and  driven  into  the 
bay. 

The  Chief  of  the  Quartermaster's  Department  at  the  head-quarters  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  Brigadier-General  Van  Vliet  estimates  that 
with  every  exertion,  and  taking  canal-boats,  brigs,  &c.,  &c.,  to  be  found 
in  the  waters  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Delaware,  he  could  assemble  trans 
portation,  for  thirty  thousand  men,  in  about  twenty  days  from  the  time 
he  should  ret^Jvre  the  order.  Nothing  is  on  hand  s&ve  what  is  in  cur- 
rer,l  use  nere  on  the  Potomac.  The  above  estimate  does  not  include  any 
land  transportation  for  the  troops  after  their  debarkation,  nor  any  for  the 
horses  of  the  cavalry,  but  only  for  the  troops  and  their  baggage  and  sub 
sistence. 

The  Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  I  understand,  is  of  opinion  that  all  the 
available  means  of  water  transportation  would  be  fully  taxed  to  provide 
for  even  twelve  thousand  men. 

In  view  of  the  difficulties  mentioned,  and  unforeseen  delays,  always 
sure  to  happen,  I  do  not  think  a  move  by  water  of  so  large  a  force  as  I 
deem  necessary  could  be  counted  upon  under  a  month. 

To  move  against  the  enemy  in  front,  we  have  thirteen  divisions,  of 
about  ten  thousand  men  each,  and  General  Banks's  Division  at  Fred 
erick. 

There  is  for  this  force  four  thousand  four  hundred  wagons  ready  for 
service. 

If  we  use  the  railroads  out  of  Alexandria,  and  connect  them  over  the 
Long  Bridge  with  the  Baltimore  Railroad,  about  two  thousand  of  these 
wagons  and  ten  thousand  animals  may  be  dispensed  with,  certainly  for 
the  present. 

Of  artillery  there  is  sufficient  (three  hundred  and  fifty  pieces). 

Of  artillery  ammunition  there  is  sufficient  to  begin  with,  good  for  all 
but  New  York  regiments.  Twelve  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty 
new  Austrian  and  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand  rifles  in  New  York ;  ammu 
nition  for  the  latter,  none  for  the  former. 

Small-arms  ammunition  sufficient  to  commence  with. 

Siege  train: — ten  ten-inch  mortars,  with  ammunition;  five  thirty-two- 
pound  howitzers,  with  troops. 

Shelter  tents  and  stretchers,  forty -three  thousand. 

From  the  foregoing  it  seems  to  me  the  army  should  be  ready  to  move 
in  all  of  next  week.  The  main  difficulty,  I  think,  is  in  its  yet  incomplete 
organization,  which  could  soon  be  remedied. 

(Signed)  I.  MoDowEix,  Brigadier-  General. 

January  10, 1862. 

TO    GENERAL    M^CLELLAN. 

President  Lincoln  addressed  the  following  letter  to  General  McClellan 
after  the  latter  had  landed  his  forces  on  the  Peninsula  in  the  spring  of 
1862.  It  relates  to  several  points  in  which  the  General's  action  had 
already  excited  a  good  deal  of  public  uneasiness,  and  been  made  the  sub 
ject  of  public  comment: — 

FORTRESS  MONROE,  May  9, 1862. 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — I  have  just  assisted  the  Secretary  of  War  in  forming 
the  part  of  a  dispatch  to  you,  relating  to  army  corps,  which  aispatch, 


WARNINGS  AGAINST  ASSASSINATION.  779 

of  course,  will  have  reached  you  long  before  this  will.  I  wish  to  say  a 
few  words  to  you  privately  on  this  subject.  I  ordered  the  army  corps 
organization  not  only  on  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  twelve  generals 
of  division,  but  also  on  the  unanimous  opinion  of  every  military  man 
I  could  get  an  opinion  from,  and  every  modern  military  book,  yourself 
only  excepted.  Of  course,  I  did  not  on  my  own  judgment  pretend  to 
understand  the  subject.  I  now  think  it  indispensable  for  you  to  know 
how  your  struggle  against  it  is  received  in  quarters  which  we  cannot 
entirely  disregard.  It  is  looked  upon  as  merely  an  effort  to  pamper  one 
or  two  pets,  and  to  persecute  nnd  degrade  their  supposed  rivals.  I  have 
had  no  word  from  Sumner,  Heintzelman,  or  Keyes.  The  commanders 
of  these  corps  are  of  course  the  three  highest  officers  with  you,  but  I 
am  constantly  told  that  you  have  no  consultation  or  communication 
with  them ;  that  you  consult  and  communicate  with  nobody  but  Fitz 
John  Porter,  and  perhaps  General  Franklin.  I  do  not  say  these  com 
plaints  are  true  or  just;  but,  at  all  events,  it  is  proper  you  «bculu  know 
of  their  existence.  Do  the  commanders  of  corps  disobey  your  orders  in 
any  thing? 

When  you  relieved  General  Hamilton  of  his  command  the  other  day, 
you  thereby  lost  the  confidence  of  at  least  one  of  your  best  friends  in  the 
Senate.  And  here  let  me  say,  not  as  applicable  to  you  personally,  that 
Senators  and  Representatives  speak  of  me  in  their  places  as  they  please 
without  question ;  and  that  officers  of  the  army  must  cease  addressing 
insulting  letters  to  them  for  taking  no  greater  liberty  with  them.  But  to 
return,  are  you  strong  enough,  even  with  my  help,  to  set  your  foot  upon 
the  neck  of  Sumner,  Ileintzelman,  and  Keyes,  all  at  once?  This  is  a 
practical  and  very  serious  question  for  you. 

Yours  truly,  A.  LINCOLN. 


€. 

WARNINGS   AGAINST   ASSASSINATION. 

ALLUSION  is  made  in  the  preceding  pages  to  warnings  which  reached 
the  Government  at  various  times,  of  plots  on  foot  against  the  lives  of 
the  President  and  other  eminent  officials.  In  reply  to  a  letter  of  this 
kind  from  Hon.  John  Bigelow,  then  American  Consul  at  Paris,  Mr. 
Seward,  the  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  as  follows : — 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  WASHINGTON,  July  15,  1864. 

*  *  *  There  is  no  doubt  that,  from  a  period  anterior  to  the 
breaking  out  of  the  insurrection,  plots  and  conspiracies  for  the  purposes 
of  assassination  have  been  frequently  formed  and  organized,  and  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  such  a  one  as  has  been  reported  to  you  is  now  in  agitation 
among  the  insurgents.  If  it  be  so,  it  need  furnish  no  ground  for  anxiety. 
Assassination  is  not  an  American  practice  or  habit,  and  one  so  vicious 
and  so  desperate  cannot  be  engrafted  into  our  political  system.  This 
conviction  of  mine  has  steadily  gained  strength  since  the  civil  war  begun. 
Every  day's  experience  confirms  it.  The  President  during  the  heated 
season  occupies  a  country  house  near  the  Soldiers'  Home,  two  or  three 
miles  from  the  city.  He  goes  to  and  from  that  place  on  horseback  night 
and  morning  unguarded.  I  go  there  unattended  at  all  hours,  by  daylight 
and  moonlight,  by  starlight,  and  without  any  light. 


780  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

At  a  later  date,  very  soon,  indeed,  before  the  assassination  of  the 
President  and  the  horrible  attempt  upon  his  own  life,  Mr.  Seward  re 
ceived  the  following  communication  from  our  consul  in  London.  It  was 
upon  the  strength  of  these  letters  that  the  consultation  was  held  to 
which  allusion  is  made  in  the  preceding  page : — 

UNITED  STATES  CONSULATE,  LONDON,  March  17,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — I  herewith  enclose  for  your  perusal  two  private  letters 
received  this  week  from  "  B,"  my  secret  agent  in  France.  On  receiving 
the  first,  dated  March  12th,  I  immediately  wrote  to  him  for  a  more  full 
statement  of  all  he  knew  about  its  contents.  I  stated  to  him  that  the 
story  seemed  very  improbable ;  that  if  they  intended  to  resort  to  such 
diabolical  modes  of  warfare,  they  could  find  instruments  enough  near 
at  hand  to  serve  them  in  such  a  capacity,  and  have  their  work  done  or 
attempted  more  speedily  than  it  could  be  by  sending  assassins  from 
Europe ;  that  the  assassins  would  be  sure  to  forfeit  their  own  lives,  &c. 
At  the  same  time  I  could  not  shut  out  from  my  mind  the  idea  that  the 
starving  of  our  prisoners,  shooting  and  torturing  them,  the  hotel  burn 
ings,  the  piracies,  the  hanging  of  Union  men  in  the  insurgent  States,  the 
murdering  of  prisoners  of  war  in  cold  blood  after  surrendering,  and 
their  manifold  acts  of  cruelty,  rendered  the  purposes  named  not  only 
probable,  but  in  harmony  with  their  character  and  acts.  My  letter 
brought  the  further  explanation  contained  in  the  second  letter  of  the  14th 

inst.     You  perceive  the  statement  of  13.  rests  on  the  declaration  of , 

or  a  man  who  now  goes  by  that  name.  lie  is  a  business  agent  of  the  rebels, 
and  has  the  confidence  of  the  leaders  to  as  great  an  extent  perhaps  as 
any  one  employed  by  them,  or  any  one  under  their  direction.  He 
travels  most  of  the  time  from  place  to  place,  giving  directions  and  super 
intending  the  purchase  and  shipment  of  war  material.  B.  lias  travelled 
much  with  him,  and  seems  to  have  his  entire  confidence.  I  do  not  think 
—  would  make  such  a  revelation  to  B.  unless  he  believed  it  well 
founded.  If  they  are  to  come  out  openly  as  professional  assassins, 
it  is  not  at  all  probable  that  the  distinguished  persons  named  are  the 
only  ones  selected  for  their  vengeance,  or  that  our  Chief  Magistrate,  or 
General  Grant,  are  left  out  of  their  role.  The  dangers  they  see  to  them 
in  the  calm  forbearance,  the  inflexible  justice  and  firm  determination  of 
President  Lincoln,  will  not  be  overlooked  by  them. 

According  to  my  request,  a  full  description  of  the  man  calling  himself 
Clark  is  given  in  the  second  letter.  Johnston  is  unknown  to  u  B."  If 
Clark  has  really  set  forth  on  such  a  mission,  he  will  probably  attempt  to 
make  his  way  into  Sherman's  camp  as  a  private  soldier,  and  attempt  the 
deed  during  an  engagement  when  Sherman  is  under  fire. 

Whether  there  is  any  actual  foundation  for  what  is  set  forth  in  the 
letters  or  not,  I  think  it  not  my  duty  to  withhold  them,  for  fear  it  may  be 
only  another  added  to  the  thousand  false  rumors  which  have  got  into 
circulation.  I  send  you  all  I  have  been  able  to  learn  on  the  subject, 
that  you  may  act  as  you  deem  expedient  in  the  case,  rcrmit  me  to  ex 
press  my  earnest  desire,  whatever  may  be  the  wish  of  the  rebels  in  re 
gard  to  you,  and  I  dare  say  they  are  the  worst  that  fiendish  brains  can 
entertain,  that  your  valuable  life  may  long  be  spared  to  your  friends  and 
the  service  of  the  Republic. 

I  remain,  dear  sir,  most  truly  yours, 

F.  H.  MORSE. 

Hon.  WILLIAM  II.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  Slate. 

P.  S. —  Please  regard  B.'s  letter  as  strictly  confidential,  I  mean  as  far  as 
the  name  of  the  writer  is  concerned. 


WARNINGS  AGAINST  ASSASSINATION.  781 

FAKIS,  Sunday,  March  12,  1865. 

MY  DEAR  SIR  :— I  wrote  you  on  Friday  eve  late,  in  hopes  it  would 
reach  yon  at  your  hotel  last  evening.    I  have  learned  only  an  hour  since, 
that  on  Tuesday  or  Wednesday  a  steamer  will  he  in  waiting  at  Belisle, 
or  the  island  of  Oleron  (the  last  named  some  forty  miles  off  the  mouth 
of  Bordeaux  Erie)  with  war  material  and  supplies  for  the  rams;  most 
of  the  stuff  is  from  Hamburg,  reshipped  on  hoard  of  an  English  steamer, 
which  has  been  chartered  for  the  purpose.     She  is  a  Newcastle  steamer, 
and  said  to  be  very  swift.     I  must  communicate  at  once  with  Walker 
at  Ferrol.     Two   desperate   characters   have   just   left   here    (on  Wed 
nesday,   I  believe,  but  not  sure),   one  for  the 'North   and  the  other  for 
the  South  ;  one  of  them  I  know  ;  he  has  been  loafing  here  for  some  time, 
hard  up.     His  name  is  Qlark,  the  other  Johnston,  but  to  the  best  of  my 
knowledge  I  had  never  seen  him,  he  having  been  here  only  a  few  days. 
Their  object  is  the  assassination  of  Sherman  and  Mr.  Seward.     Clark  is 
to  join  Sherman's  army  and  accomplish  his  deed.     The  other  goes  direct 
to  Washington,  and  the  first  opportunity  that  offers  kill  Mr.  Seward. 
Their  expenses  are  paid,  and  if  successful  in  the  accomplishment  of  their 
murderous  designs,  are  to  receive  five  thousand  dollars  each.     Here  is  a 
pretty  state  of  affairs ;  and  I  fear  those  are  not  the  only  ones  that  they 
intend  wreaking  their  vengeance  upon,  and  you  must  take  immediate 
steps  to  convey  this  to  Mr.  Seward  and  General  Sherman,  as  1  feel  posi 
tive  it  ^is  true,  for  the  party  that  divulged  to  me  has  the  greatest  confi 
dence  in  me,  and  would  not  have  said  such  a  thing  to  me  were  it  not 
true.     They  think  by  getting  rid  of  Mr.  Seward  that  it  will  be  utterlv 
impossible  to  get  another  as  able  to  fill  his  place,  as  they  say,  so  rabid 
for  the  utter  annihilation  of  the  Southern  cause.     And  Sherman  being 
the  only  real  General  that  we  have  got,  if  he  could  be  got  rid  of,  the 
task  is  an  easy  one,  as  there  is  no  Yankee,  to  use  their  expression,  to  be 
found  that  can  fill  his  place.     And  only  see  the  ingenuity  of  the  rebels 
here  ;  they  have  caused  to  be  circulated,  and  it  is  quite  current,  that 
Genera]  Sherman  is  dead.     This  is  done  for  the  sole  cause  to  prepare  the 
public*mind  to  receive  his  death  beforehand,  so  as  that  they  may  not  be 
taken  by  surprise.     It  is  from  beginning  to  end  a  deep  laid  plot,  and  the 
Devil  himself  is  no  match  for  them.     I  have  given  you  all  the  facts  so  far 
as  I  know,  and  at  once,  as  I  considered  it  my  duty  so  to  do  as  soon  as 
possible,  so  that  you  may  convey  it  to  Washington  with  all  dispatch.     I 
don't  know  this  Johnston,  or  I  would  describe  him,  so  that  he  might  be 
arrested  at  once,  but  to  my  knoAvledge  I  have  never  seen  him.     Cooper 
came  last  night,  and  to-day  spent  an  hour  with  me.     On  leaving  he  said 
he  would  return  and  dine  with  me,  but  about  an  hour  since  1  learned 
that  he    went  off   in  haste  to    Cherbourg.     I  don't    know    what's    up 
there,  as  I  have  heard  nothing  from  them;  but  there  must  be  something 
in  the  wind.     Friday  a  courier  was  sent  off  as  I  stated  to  you,  as  I  was 
asked  to  go  ;  but  being  ill  I  could  not,  and  to-day,  Cooper  leaving  so  sud 
denly,  looks  suspicious.     I  can  give  you  a  full  description  of  Clark  at 
once  if  you  wish  it.     I  am  better,  and  quite  able  to  undertake  the  jour 
ney  to  Bordeaux  or  Ferrol,  but  as  yet  keep  myself  in  doors,  so  that  I 
may  not  be  called  on  to  go  anywhere  for  them  before  I  hear  from  you  : 
then  I  can  excuse  myself  for  a  few  days  in  the  country,  so  as  to  be  able 
to  get  to  Bordeaux.     I  hope  you  have  received  my  note  on  Saturday  eve, 

and  written  me  to-day.     If  I  am  to  go  to  B there  is  no  time  to  be 

lost.  If  you  have  not  written  me  before  you  receive  this,  send  me  twenty 
pounds,  so  that  I  may  be  prepared  for  any  emergency.  Hoping  that  all 
of  the  first  of  the  note  will  be  received  at  Washington  hi  time  to  frustrate 
the  hellish  designs,  I  am  truly  yours,  B. 


782  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


PARIS,  March  14,  1S65. 

DEAR  SIR: — Yours  of  yesterday  came  duly  to  hand  this  morning,  and  I 
answer  in  as  brief  a  manner  as  possible  to  its  contents  in  every  particular, 
as  you  request. 

The  ram,  at  Bordeaux,  leaves  that  port  to  go  to  Germany,  where  re 
port  says  she  is  to  be  sold  to  the  Prussian  Government.  So  did  the  other 
— now  the  Stonewall,  in  Confederate  hands,  laying  at  Ferrol,  Spain — 
leave  Bordeaux,  for  the  use  of  the  Danish  Government.  They  must  use 
strategy  to  get  them  out  of  a  French  port — once  out,  they  can  do  as  they 
please  with  her.  I  am  perfectly  satisfied,  and  I  believe  it  beyond  a  ques 
tion  of  doubt,  that  the  ram  now  at-Bordeaux  belongs  to,  and  is  intended 
for  the  use  of  the  rebels,  and  will  go  into  their  hands,  if  not  directly,  in 
directly,  especially  if  there  is  any  pressure  used  by  the  French  Govern 
ment.  But  my  opinion  is,  this  Government  will  only  wink  at  her  depar 
ture.  I  have  repeatedly  (being  one  of  the  order  of  the  Sons)  heard  the 
above  things  discussed,  from  time  to  time,  by  NcCulloch,  DeLeon,  Ileustis, 
Macfarlan,  and  others  of  the  secret  order.  The  captain  of  the  Stonewall, 
Captain  Page,  is  here,  and  has  been  for  some  days  (I  forgot  to  mention 
this  in  my  last),  as  well  as  several  of  the  officers  of  the  late  rebel  steamer 
Florida,  and  I  believe  they  leave  to-day.  The  Stonewall  is  lying  at 
Ferrol,  and  the  Niagara  is  at  Corunna — two  different  harbors,  but  not  far 
apart.  I  hear  nothing  as  to  when  they  intend  to  leave  Ferrol,  but  this 
much  I  have  learned — that  when  they  are  ready  to  go  to  sea,  they  will 
run  one  to  Corunna  where  the  Niagara  is,  and  demand  of  the  Spanish 
Government  twenty-four  hours'  detention  of  the  Niagara,  so  as  to  enable 
them  to  put  to  sea.  But  if  Commodore  Craven  adopts  the  plan  I  sug 
gested  when  I  last  saw  him,  this  plan  of  theirs  will  be  easily  evaded. 
Clark  I  believe  to  be  the  real  name  of  the  party  of  whom  I  wrote  you  in  my 
last;  he  has  been  hanging  on  here  for  some  time.  They  could  have  no 
possible  object  in  imposing  on  me  in  this  particular.  That's  his  business, 
and  both  he  and  Johnston  have  gone,  for  the  avowed  purpose,  as  I  have 
before  stated  to  you,  of  taking  the  lives  of  Mr.  Seward  and  General 
Sherman.  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  but  that  there  are  others  watch 
ing  for  the  same  opportunity.  The  opinion  is  with  many  of  them  here, 
that  Mr.  Seward  is  de facto  the  President,  and  does  just  as  he  pleases,  and 
were  it  not  for  him,  they  could  come  to  some  amicable  arrangement.  It 
would  be  useless  for  me  to  repeat  to  you  all  that  I  hear  on  the  subject,  and 
the  arguments  pro  and  con.  This  Clark,  I  believe,  has  some  other  mis 
sion  as  well  as  that  of  seeking  the  life  of  General  Sherman.  He  is  in  height 
about  five  feet  nine  inches,  rather  slender,  thin  in  flesh,  high  cheek-bones, 
low  forehead,  eyes  dark  and  sunken,  very  quiet,  seldom  or  ever  speaks 
in  company  unless  spoken  to,  has  a  large  dark-brown  mustache,  and 
large,  long  goatee ;  hair  much  darker  than  whiskers,  and  complexion 
rather  sallow.  While  here  wore  gray  clothes  and  wide-awake  slouch- 
hat.  He  is  a  Texan  by  birth,  has  a  very  determined  look,  and  from  all 
appearances,  I  should  judge,  would,  if  possible,  accomplish  whatever  he 
undertakes.  The  other  man,  Johnston,  I  know  nothing  of,  as  he  was 
only  here  some  three  or  four  days — he  came  from  Canada,  via  Liverpool — 
nor  would  it  be  prudent  for  me  to  make  any  inquiries  concerning  him, 
under  the  circumstances,  as,  if  any  thing  ever  transpires,  and  he  was 
taken,  suspicion  from  that  fact  might  point  to  me.  And  I  beg  that  on  no 
occasion  will  you  ever  make  use  of  my  name,  so  that  they  could  get  any 
clue  to  me;  if  you  did,  from  that  moment  my  fate  would  be  sealed,  espe 
cially  as  I  have  bound  myself  to  their  cause,  under  so  fearful  an  oath.  I 
once  entertained  a  very  high  opinion  of  the  Southerners,  but  from  recent 


RELATING  TO  THE  ASSASSINATION.  783 

facts  and  events  I  have  changed  those  opinions,  and  now  my  firm  belief 
is,  that  they  would  stop  at  no  act,  if  necessary  to  accomplish  their  dear, 
cherished  Confederation.  The  offer,  five  thousand  dollars,  is  a  good  one, 
and  there  is  to  be  found  plenty  who  would  gladly  catch  at  it.  You  can 
not  for  one  moment  have  the  slightest  idea  of  their  feelings  towards  the 
North,  and  it  increases  as  their  struggle  becomes  more  desperate.  The 
heads  here  are  in  daily  consultation,  and  what  is  there  discussed  I  have 
no  means  of  ascertaining.  It  was  Cooper  who  told  mo  of  these  two  men 
going  out  on  their  diabolical  mission,  or  I  perhaps  should  never  have 
heard  of  the  matter  at  all,  and  I  considered  it  my  duty  to  convey  to  you 
the  facts  as  I  got  them,  at  once,  so  that,  if  possible,  their  designs  might 
be  thwarted,  and  every  precaution  taken  that  was  necessary  ;  for  I  repeat 
again  what  I  have  already  done  to  you  before :  they  are  bent  on  destruc 
tion,  and  will  not  stop  at  any  object,  even  to  the  taking  of  life,  so  as  to 
attain  their  ends — and  mark  me,  Mr.  Seward  is  not  the  only  one  they 
will  assassinate.  I  have  heard  some  fearful  oaths,  and  it's  war  to  the 
teeth  with  them.  I  feel  confident  that  there  is  some  secret  understanding 
between  them  and  the  Emperor  of  this  Government;  at  least  I  am  given 
to  understand  so.  The  death  of  the  Duke  de  Moray  has  deprived  them 
of  an  interview  with  the  Emperor,  which  was  to  have  taken  place,  if  I  am 
rightly  informed,  on  Sunday  last.  My  sickness  has  prevented  me  from 
being  fully  posted  to  all  recent  movements,  but  I  am  in  hopes  that  my 
health  will  in  a  short  time  be  fully  re-established,  and  after  my  return 
from  Bordeaux,  I  shall  be  in  possession  of  all  movements.  I  have  written 
at  some  length,  but  required,  as  you  requested  a  full  explanation  of  the 
foregoing  facts.  Be  kind  enough  to  see  that  my  name  is  not  used  at 
Washington,  for  there  are  plenty  on  the  sharp  lookout  there,  and  it 
would  be  heralded  back  here,  and  it  might  prove  fatal  for  me.  I  believe 
I  cannot  add  any  thing  more  at  present.  You  did  not  send  me  all  I  re 
quested ;  please  send  it  at  once  to  Bordeaux  by  return  of  mail.  I  leave 
for  Bordeaux  to-night,  and  will  do  as  you  request. 

Believe  me  truly  yours,  B. 


REPORTS,  DISPATCHES,  AND  PROCLAMATIONS  RELATING 
TO  THE  ASSASSINATION. 

WAB  DEPARTMKNT,  WASHINGTON,  April  15, 1.30  A.  M. 

Major-General  Dix,  New  York : 

This  evening,  at  about  9.30  p.  M.,  at  Ford's  Theatre,  the  President, 
while  sitting  in  his  private  box  with  Mrs.  Lincoln,  Mrs.  Harris,  and  Major 
Rathburn,  was  shot  by  an  assassin,  who  suddenly  entered  the  box  and 
approached  behind  the  President. 

The  assassin  then  leaped  upon  the  stage,  brandishing  a  large  dagger  or 
knife,  and  made  his  escape  in  the  rear  of  the  theatre. 

The  pistol-ball  entered  the  back  of  the  President's  head  and  penetrated 
nearly  through  the  head.  The  wound  is  mortal. 

The  President  has  been  insensible  ever  since  it  was  inflicted,  and  is  now 
dyin°". 

About  the  same  hour  an  assassin,  whether  the  same  or  not,  entered  Mr." 
Reward's  apartments,  and,  under  pretence  of  having  a  prescription,  waa 
shown  to  the  Secretary's  sick  chamber.  The  assassin  immediately  rushed 
to  the  bed  and  inflicted' two  or  three  stabs  on  the  throat  and  two  on  the  face. 


784  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

It  is  hoped  the  wounds  may  not  be  mortal.  My  apprehe  nsioi  is  that 
they  will  prove  fatal. 

The  nurse  .alarmed  Mr.  Frederick  Seward,  who  was  in  an  adjoining 
room,  and  he  hastened  to  the  door  of  his  father's  room,  when  he  met  the 
assassin,  who  inllicted  upon  him  one  or  more  dangerous  wounds.  The 
recovery  of  Frederick  Seward  is  doubtful. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  President  will  live  through  tne  night. 

General  Grant  and  wife  were  advertised  to  be  at  the  theatre  this  even 
ing,  but  he  started  to  Burlington  at  six  o'clock  this  evening. 

At  a  Cabinet  meeting,  at  which  General  Grant  was  present,  the  subject 
of  the  state  of  the  country  and  the  prospect  of  a  speedy  peace  were  dis 
cussed.  The  President  was  very  cheerful  and  hopeful,  and  spoke  very 
kindly  of  General  Lee  and  others  of  the  Confederacy,  and  of  the  establish 
ment  of  government  in  Virginia. 

All  the  members  of  the  Cabinet,  except  Mr.  Seward,  are  now  in  attend 
ance  upon  the  President. 

I  have  seen  Mr.  Seward,  but  he  and  Frederick  were  both  unconscious. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 


DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  15,  3  A.  M. 

Major-General  Dix,  "New  York  : 

The  President  still  breathes,  but  is  quite  insensible,  as  he  has  been  ever 
since  he  was  shot.  He  evidently  did  not  see  the  person  who  shot  him, 
but  was  looking  on  the  stage,  as  he  was  approached  from  behind. 

Mr.  Seward  has  rallied,  and  it  is  hoped  he  may  live. 

Frederick  Se  ward's  condition  is  very  critical. 

The  attendant  who  was  present  was  shot  through  the  lungs,  and  is  not 
expected  to  live. 

The  wounds  of  Major  Seward  are  not  serious. 

Investigation  strongly  indicates  J.  Wilkes  Booth  as  the  assassin  of  the 
President.  Whether  it  was  the  same  or  a  different  person  that  attempted 
to  murder  Mr.  Seward  remains  in  doubt. 

Chief-Justice  Carter  is  engaged  in  taking  the  evidence. 

Every  exertion  has  been  made  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the  murderer. 
His  horse  has  been  found  on  the  road  near  Washington. 

EDWIN-  M.  STAXTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

WAK  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  15,  4.10  A.  M. 

Major-General  Dix: 

The  President  continues  insensible,  and  is  sinking. 

Secretary  Seward  remains  without  change. 

Frederick  Seward's  skull  is  fractured  in  two  places,  besides  a  severe 
cut  upon  the  head.  The  attendant  is  still  alive,  but  hopeless.  Major 
Seward's  wounds  are  not  dangerous. 

It  is  now  ascertained  with  reasonable  certainty  that  two  assassins  were 
engaged  in  the  horrible  crime  —  Wilkes  Booth  being  the  one  that  shot  the 
President,  and  the  other  a  companion  of  his,  whose  name  is  not  known, 
but  whose  description  is  so  clear  that  he  can  hardly  escape- 

It  appears,  from  a  letter  found  in  Booth's  trunk,  that  the  murder  was 
planned  before  the  4th  of  March,  but  fell  through  then  because  the 
accomplice  backed  out  until  "  Richmond  could  be  heard  from." 

Booth  and  his  accomplice  were  at  the  livery-stable  at  six  o'clock  last 
evening,  arid  lelt  there  with  their  horses  about  ten  o'clock,  or  shortly 
before  that  hour. 

It  would  appear  that  they  had  for  several  days  been   seeking  thei* 


THE  DEATH-BED.  785 

chance,  bat  for  some  unknown  reason  it  was  not  carried  into  effect  until 
last  night. 

One  of  them  has  evidently  made  his  way  to  Baltimore  ;  the  other  has 
not  yet  been  traced. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 


WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  15,  1865. 

To  Major-General  Dix,  New  York  : 

Abraham  Lincoln  died  this  morning  at  twenty-two  minutes  after 
seven  o'clock. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 


THE    DEATH-BED. 

Unofficial  Account  of  the  last  Moments  of  the  President. 

At  twenty  minutes  past  seven  o'clock  the  President  breathed  his  last, 
closing  his  eyes  as  if  falling  to  sleep,  and  his  countenance  assuming  an 
expression  of  perfect  serenity.  There  were  no  indications  of  pain,  and  it- 
was  not  known  that  he  was  dead  until  the  gradually  decreasing  respira 
tion  ceased  altogether. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley,  of  the  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church, 
immediately  on  its  being  ascertained  that  life  was  extinct,  knelt  at  the 
bedside  and  offered  an  impressive  prayer,  which  was  responded  to  by  all 
present. 

Dr.  Gurley  then  proceeded  to  the  front  parlor,  where  Mrs.  Lincoln, 
Captain  Robert  Lincoln,  Mr.  John  Hay,  the  Private  Secretary,  and  others 
were  waiting,  where  he  again  offered  a  prayer  for  the  consolation  of  the 
family. 

The  following  minutes,  taken  by  Dr.  Abbott,  show  the  condition  of  the 
late  President  throughout  the  night: — 

11  o'clock,  pulse  44. 

11.05  o'clock,  pulse  45.  and  growing  weaker. 

11.10  o'clock,  pulse  45. 

11.15  o'clock,  pulse  42. 

11.20  o'clock,  pulse  45,  resphation  27  to  29. 

11.25  o'clock,  pulse  42. 

11.32  o'clock,  pulse  48  and  full. 

1 1 .40  o'clock,  pulse  45. 

11.45  o'clock,  pulse  45,  respiration  22, 

12  o'clock,  pulse  48,  respiration  22. 
12.15  o'clock,  pulse  48,  respiration  21. 
Eochymosis  both  eyes. 

12.30  <iVlock,  pulse  45. 
12.32  o'clock,  pulse  60. 
12.35  o'clock,  pulse  66. 

12.40  o'clock,  pulse  69,  right  eye  much  swollen,  and  ecchymosis 
12.45  o'clock,  pulse  70. 

12.55  o'clock,  pulse  80,  struggling  motion  of  arms. 
1  o'clock,  pulse  86,  respiration  30. 
1.30  o'clock,  pulse  95,  appearing  easier. 

1.4-r>  o'clock,  pulse  Sfi,  very  quiet,  respiration  irregular,  Mrs.  Lmooin 
present. 

50 


786  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

2.10  o'clock,  Mrs.  Lincoln  retired  with  Eobert  Lincoln  to  an  adjoining 
room. 

2.30  o'clock,  President  very  quiet,  pulse  54,  respiration  28. 
2.52  o'clock,  pulse  48,  respiration  30. 

3  o'clock,  visited  again  by  Mrs.  Lincoln. 
3.25  o'clock,  respiration  24,  and  regular. 
3.35  o'clock,  prayer  by  Rev.  Dr.  Gurley. 

4  o'clock,  respiration  26,  and  regular. 
4.15  o'clock,  pulse  60,  respiration  25. 
5.50  o'clock,  respiration  28,  regular. 

6  t  clock,  pulse  failing,  respiration  28. 

6.30  o'clock,  still  failing,  and  labored  breathing. 

T  o'clock,  symptoms  of  immediate  dissolution. 

7.22  o'clock,  death. 

Surrounding  the  death-bed  of  the  President  were  Vice-President  John 
son;  Secretaries  Stanton,  Welles,  McCulloch,  and  Usher;  Postmaster- 
( reneral  Dennison  and  Attorney  -  General  Speed  ;  Generals  Halleck, 
Meigs,  Farnsworth,  Augur,  and  Todd;  Senator  Sumner;  Eev.  Dr. 
Gurley;  Speaker  Colfax ;  Ex-Governor  Farwell;  Judge  Garter,  Judge 
Otto ;  Surgeon-General  Barnes ;  Doctors  Crane,  Stone,  Abbott,  and  Hall ; 
M.  1).  Field  and  R.  F.  Andrews. 

WAK  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  15,  3  p.  M. 

ALij or- General  Dix,  New  York : 

Official  notice  of  the  death  of  the  late  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  was 
given  by  the  heads  of  departments  this  morning  to  Andrew  Johnson, 
Vice-President,  upon  whom  the  Constitution  devolved  the  office  of  Presi 
dent.  Mr.  Johnson,  upon  receiving  this  notice,  appeared  before  the  Hon. 
.Salmon  P.  Chase,  Chief- Justice  of  the  United  States,  and  took  the  oath 
<»f  office  as  President  of  the  United  States,  and  assumed  its  duties  and 
{'unctions.  At  twelve  o'clock  the  President  met  the  heads  of  departments 
in  Cabinet  meeting  at  the  Treasury  building,  and  among  other  business 
the  following  was  transacted  : — 

First.  The  arrangements  for  the7  funeral  of  the  late  President  were 
referred  to  the  several  secretaries,  as  far  as  relates  to  their  respective 
departments. 

Second.  William  Hunter,  Esq.,  was  appointed  Acting  Secretary  of  State 
during  the  disability  of  Mr.  Seward  and  his  son,  Frederick  Seward,  the 
Assistant  Secretary. 

Third.  The  President  formally  announced  that  he  desired  to  retain  the 
present  secretaries  of  departments  of  his  Cabinet,  and  they  would  go  on 
and  discharge  their  respective  duties  in  the  same  manner  as  before  the 
memorable  event  that  had  changed  the  head  of  the  Government. 

All  business  in  the  departments  was  suspended  during  the  day.  ^ 

The  surgeons  report  that  the  condition  of  Mr.  Seward  remains  un 
changed,  lie  is  doing  well. 

Xo  improvement  in  Mr.  Frederick  Seward. 

The  murderers  have  not  yet  been  apprehended. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

THE   ASSASSINS. 

Circular  from  the  Provost-Marshal  General. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  PROVOST-MARSHAL  GENERAL'S  BUREAU, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  (J.,  April  15,  9.40  A.  M. 

It  is  believed  that  the  assassins  of  the  President  and  Secretary  Seward 
are  attempting  to  escape  to  Canada.  You  will  make  a  careful  and  tnor 


REWARD  OFFERED  BY  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON.       787 

ough  examination  of  all  persons  attempting  to  cross  from  the  United 
States  into  Canada,  and  will  arrest  suspicious  persons.  The  most  vgilaiit 
scrutiny  on  your  part  and  the  force  at  your  disposal  is  demanded.  A  de 
scription  of  the  parties  supposed  to  be  implicated  in  the  murder  will  be 
telegraphed  you  to-day ;  but  in  the  mean  time  be  active  ia  preventing  the 
crossing  of  any  suspicious  persons. 

By  order  of  the  SECRETARY    OP  WAR. 

N.  L.  JEFFERS,  Brevet  Brigadier-General,  Acting  Provost-Marshal  Gen 
eral. 

REWARD    OFFERED     BY    SECRETARY    STANTON. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  20,  1865. 

Major-General  JOHN  A.  Dix,  New  York : 

The  murderer  of  our  late  beloved  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  is  still 
at  large.  Fifty  thousand  dollars  reward  will  be  paid  by  this  Department 
for  his  apprehension  in  addition  to  any  reward  offered  by  municipal 
authorities  or  State  Executives. 

Twenty-five  thousand  dollars  reward  will  be  paid  for  the  apprehension 
of  G.  A.  Atzerot,  sometimes  called  "Port  Tobacco,"  one  of  Booth's  ac 
complices.  Twenty -five  thousand  dollars  reward  will  be  paid  for  the 
apprehension  of  David  C.  Harold,  another  of  Booth's  accomplices.  A 
liberal  reward  will  be  paid  for  any  information  that  shall  conduce  to  the 
arrest  of  either  the  above-named  criminals  or  their  accomplices.  All 
persons  harboring  or  secreting  the  said  persons,  or  either  of  them,  or 
aiding  or  assisting  their  concealment  or  escape,  will  be  treated  as  accom 
plices  in  the  murder  of  the  President  and  the  attempted  assassination  of 
the  Secretary  of  State,  and  shall  be  subject  to  trial  before  a  military  com 
mission  and  the  punishment  of  death. 

Let  the  stain  of  innocent  blood  be  removed  from  the  land  by  the  arrest 
and  punishment  of  the  murderers. 

All  good  citizens  are  exhorted  to  aid  public  justice  on  this  occasion. 
Every  man  should  consider  his  own  conscience  charged  with  this  solemn 
duty,  and  rest  neither  night  nor  day  until  it  be  accomplished. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

FLIGHT    OF    THE    ASSASSINS. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  22. 
Major-General  JOHN  A.  Dix,  New  York: 

the  counties  of  Prince  George,  Charles,  and  St.  Mary's  have,  during 
the  whole  war,  been  noted  for  hostility  to  the  Government,  and  its  pro 
tection  to  rebel  blockade-runners,  rebel  spies,  and  every  species  of  public 
enemy ;  the  murderers  of  the  President  harbored  there  before  the  murder, 
and  Booth  fled  in  that  direction.  If  he  escapes  it  will  be  owing  to  rebel 
accomplices  in  that  direction. 

The  military  commander  of  the  department  will  surely  take  measures 
to  bring  these  rebel  sympathizers  and  accomplices  in  murder  to  a  sense  of 
their  criminal  conduct.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

THE    CONSPIRACY    ORGANIZED    IN    CANADA. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  24,  1SC5. 

Major-General  JOHN  A.  Dix,  New  York : 

This  Department  has  information  that  the  President's  murder  was 
organized  in  Canada,  and  approved  at  Richmond. 

One  of  the  assassins,  now  in  prison,  who  attempted  to  kill  Mr.  Seward, 
is  believed  to  be  one  of  the  St.  Albans  raiders. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 


788  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


BOOTH    KILLED HAROLD    CAPTURED. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  IP,  isrr.  II  r.  y. 

Major-General  Dix,  New  York : 

J.  Wilkes  Booth  and  Harold*  were  chased  from  the  swamp  in  ST,.  jLary'a 
County,  Maryland,  to  Garrett's  farm,  near  Port  Royal,  on  the  ilappahaii- 
nock,  by  Colonel  Baker's  forces. 

The  barn  in  which  they  took  refuge  was  fired. 

Booth,  in  making  his  escape,  was  shot  through  the  head  and  killed, 
lingering  about  three  hours,  and  Harold  was  captured. 

Booth's  body  and  Harold  are  now  here. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  /Secretary  of  War. 

REWARD    OFFERED    BY    PRESIDENT    JOHNSON. 

By  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

A    PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas,  It  appears  from  the  evidence  in  the  bureau  of  military  justice 
that  the  atrocious  murder  of  the  late  President  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
the  attempted  assassination  of  the  Hon.  AY.  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of 
State,  were  incited,  concerted,  and  procured  by  and  between  Jefferson  j 
Davis,  late  of  Richmond,  Va.,  and  Jacob  Thompson,  Clement  C.  Clay, 
Beverly  Tucker,  George  1ST.  Sauuders,  W.  C.  Cleary,  and  other  rebels  and 
traitors  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  harbored  in  Canada: 
now,  therefore,  to  the  end  that  justice  may  be  done,  I,  Andrew  Johnson, 
President  of  the  United  States,  do  offer  and  promise  for  the  arrest  of  said 
persons,  or  either  of  them,  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  so  that 
they  can  be  brought  to  trial,  the  following  rewards  :  One  hundred  thou 
sand  dollars  for  the  arrest  of  Jefferson  Davis;  twenty-five  thousand  dol 
lars  for  the  arrest  of  Client  C.  Clay  ;  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  for 
the  arrest  of  Jacob  Thompson,  late  of  Mississippi ;  twenty-five  thousand 
dollars  for  the  arrest  of  George  N.  Saunders ;  twenty-five  thousand  dol 
lars  for  the  arrest  of  Beverly  Tucker,  and  ten  thousand  dollars  for  the 
arrest  of  William  C.  Cleary,  late  clerk  of  Clement  C.  Clay. 

The  Provost-Marshal  General  of  the  United  States  is  directed  to  cause 
a  description  of  said  persons,  with  notice  of  the  above  rewards,  to  be 
published. 

In  testimony  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the 
seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  the  second  day  of  May,  in  the  year 
of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five,  and  of 

[L.  s.]  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the  eighty - 

ninth. 

By  the  President :  ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

W.  HUNTER,  Acting  Secretary  of  State. 

THE    FUNERAL. 
WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,   Wednesday,  A^l  IT,  1  P.  M. 

Major-General  Dix: 

The  arrangements  for  conveying  the  President's  remains  to  Spring 
field,  Illinois,  have  been  changed  this  morning.  They  will  go  direct  from 
Washington  to  Philadelphia,  Harrisburg,  Pittsburg,  Fort  Wayne,  and 
thence  to  Springfield.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 


ORDERS  FROM  SECRETARY  STANTON.  789 


SECOND    DI8PATCH. 
WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  19,  1865,  11  p.  M. 

Major-General  JOHN  A.  Dix  New  York : 

It  has  been  finally  concluded  to  conform  to  the  original  arrangements 
made  yesterday  for  the  conveyance  of  the  remains  of  the  late  President. 
Abraham  Lincoln,  from  Washington  to  Springfield,  viz. :  By  way  of  Bal 
timore,  Harrisbnrg,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Albany,  Buffalo,  Cleveland, 
Columbus,  Indianapolis,  and  Chicago,  to  Springfield. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

OFFICIAL    ANNOUNCEMENTS. 

WASHINGTON,  April  15,  1865. 

To  J.  C.  DERBY,  United  States  Dispatch  Agent,  New  York : 

Send  a  copy  of  the  following  to  Mr.  Adams  at  London  by  the  steamer 
of  to-day,  if  in  time : — 
CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS,  &c.,  &c. : 

The  sad  duty  devolves  upon  me  to  announce  the  assassination  of  the 
President,  at  Ford's  Theatre,  last  night,  by  a  pistol-shot  from  a  person 
who  entered  his  box  for  the  purpose.  The  assassin  escaped,  but  it  is 
supposed  has  since  been  arrested. 

The  President  died  at  half-past  seven  o'clock  this  morning. 

Vice-President  Johnson  has  assumed  the  functions  of  President,  having 
been  sworn  in  by  the  Chief- Justice. 

About  the  same  time  an  attempt  was  made  by,  it  is  believed,  a  differ 
ent  person,  to  assassinate  Mr.  Seward ;  but  the  murderer  only  succeeded 
in  inflicting  painful  and  severe  wounds,  principally  upon  his  face. 

Mr.  F.  W.  Seward  was  beaten  over  the  head  with  a  heavy  weapon  in. 
the  hands  of  the  person  who  attacked  his  father,  and  is  grievously  hurt. 
His  brother  was  also  wounded  by  the  dagger  of  the  assassin,  as  was  Mr". 
Hansell,  a  messenger  of  the  department,  who  was  with  the  Secretary, 
and  the  male  nurse  in  attendance. 

WILLIAM  HUNTER,  Acting  Secretary  of  State. 

[The  above  telegraphic  dispatch  was  sent  off  by  the  Portland  steamer 
at  three  P.  M.  on  Saturday,  April  15.] 

ACTING    SECRETARY    HUNTER    TO    HIS    SUBORDINATES. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE,  WASHINGTON,  April  17, 1865. 

It  it  hereby  ordered  that,  in  honor  of  the  memory  of  our  late  illustrious 
Chief  Magistrate,  all  officers  and  others  subject  to  the  orders  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  wear  crape  upon  the  left  arm  for  the  period  of  six 
months.  Wr.  HUNTER,  Acting  Secretary. 

ORDERS    FROM    SECRETARY    STANTON    AND    GENERAL    GRANT. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S  OFKICK,  ( 
WASHINGTON,  AprillQ,  1865.  | 

GENERAL  ORDERS,  No.  66. — The  following  order  of  the  Secretary  of 
War  announces  to  the  armies  of  the  United  States  the  untimely  and 
lamentable  death  of  the  illustrious  Abraham  Lincoln,  late  President  of 

the  United  States : — 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  16,  1S65. 

The  distressing  duty  has  devolved  upon  the  Secretary  of  War  to 
announce  to  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  that  at  twenty-two  minutes 


790  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

after  seven  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  Saturday,  the  15th  day  of  April, 
1865,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  died  of  a  mortal 
wound  inflicted  on  him  by  an  assassin.  The  armies  of  the  United  States 
will  share  with  their  fellow-citizens  the  feelings  of  grief  and  horror 
inspired  by  the  most  atrocious  murder  of  their  great  and  beloved  Presi 
dent  and  Commander-in-Chief  with  profound  sorrow,  will  mourn  his 
death  as  a  national  calamity.  The  head-quarters  of  every  department, 
post,  station,  fort,  and  arsenal  will  be  draped  in  mourning  for  thirty  days, 
and  appropriate  funeral  honors  will  be  paid  by  every  army,  and  in  every 
department,  and  at  every  military  post,  and  at  the  Military  Academy  at 
West  Point,  to  the  memory  of  the  late  illustrious  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
nation,  and  Coramander-in-Chief  of  the  armies.  Lieutenant-General 
Grant  will  give  the  necessary  instructions  for  cariying  this  order  into 
effect.  EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

On  the  day  after  the  receipt  of  the  order  at  head- quarters  of  every 
military  division,  department,  army-post,  station,  fort,  and  arsenal,  arid 
at  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  the  troops  and  cadets  will  ho 
paraded  at  ten  o'clock  A.  M.,  and  the  order  read  to  them.  After  which 
all  labor  and  operations  for  the  day  will  cease,  and  be  suspended,  as  far  as 
practicable  in  a  state  of  war.  The  national  flag  will  be  displayed  at  half- 
staff.  At  the  dawn  of  day  thirteen  guns  will  be  fired,  and  afterwards  at 
intervals  of  thirty  minutes  between  the  rising  and  the  setting  of  the  sun 
a  single  gun,  and  at  the  close  of  the  day  a  national  salute  of  thirty-six 
guns.  The  officers  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States  will  wear  the 
badge  of  mourning  on  the  left  arm  and  on  their  swords,  and  the  colors 
of  their  commands  and  regiments  will  be  put  in  mourning  for  the  period 
of  six  months. 

By  command  of  Lieutenant-General  GRANT. 

(Signed)     W.  A.  NICHOLS,  Assistant  Adjutant- General. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  16, 186{j. 

Lieutenant-General   GRANT,   U.  S.  Army,  Commanding  Armies   of  the 

United  States,  Washington,  D.  C : 

GENERAL  : — You  will  please  announce  by  general  order  to  the  armies 
of  the  United  States,  that  on  Saturday,  the  15th  day  of  April,  1865,  by 
reason  of  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States  devolved  upon  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice-President,  who,  on 
the  same  day,  took  the  official  oath  prescribed  for  the  President,  and 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  office. 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON,  Secretary  of  War. 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,  ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S  OFFICE,  ( 
WASHINGTON,  April  16,  1805.  f 

GENERAL  ORDERS,  No.  7. — It  is  hereby  announced  to  the  armies  of  the 
United  States,  that  on  Saturday,  the  15th  day  of  April,  1865,  by  reason 
of  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  office  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  devolved  upon  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice-President,  who,  on 
the  same  day,  took  the  official  oath  prescribed  for  the  President,  and 
entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  office. 

By  command  of  Lieutenant-General  GRANT. 

W.  A.  NICHOLS,  Assistant  Adjutant- General. 

ORDERS    FROM    SECRETARY    WELLES. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT  WASHINGTON,  April  17,  1805. 

SPECIAL  ORDERS. — Vice- Admiral  D.  G.  Farragat  and  Rear- Admiral 
William  B.  Shubrick  have  been  designated  to  make  the  necessary  arrange 


PROCLAMATION  BY  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON.  791 

merits  on  the  part  of  the  Navy  and  Marine  Corps  for  attending,  on  Wed 
nesday  next,  the  funeral  of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States. 

GIDEON  WELLS,  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  17, 1S65. 

SPECIAL  ORDERS. — Officers  of  the  Navy  and  Marine  Corps  will  assem 
ble  at  the  Navy  Department,  in  uniform,  at  10  o'clock  A.  M.,  on  Wednes 
day  next,  for  the  purpose  of  attending  the  funeral  of  the  late  President 
of  the  United  States. 

GIDEON  WELLES,  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

NAVY  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  17, 1SS5. 

SPECIAL  ORDER. — By  order  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the 
Navy  Department  will  be  closed  on  Wednesday  next,  the  day  of  the 
funeral  solemnities  of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States.  Labor 
will  also  be  suspended  on  that  day  at  each  of  the  navy-yards  and  navy 
stations,  and  upon  all  the  vessels  of  the  United  States.  The  flags  of  all 
vessels  and  at  all  navy-yards  and  stations  and  marine  barracks  will  be 
kept  at  half-mast  during  the  day,  and  at  12  o'clock,  meridian,  twenty- 
one  minute-guns  will  be  fired  by  the  senior  officer  of  each  squadron  and 
the  commandants  of  each  of  the  navy-yards  and  stations. 

GIDEON  WELLES,  Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

ORDER    FROM    SECRETARY    M'CULLOCH. 

TREASURY  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  18, 1865. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  with  profound  sorrow,  announces  to 
the  revenue  marine  the  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late  President  of  the 
United  States.  He  died  in  this  city  on  the  morning  of  the  15th  inst., 
at  twenty -two  minutes  past  seven  o'clock.  The  officers  of  the  revenue 
marine  will,  as  a  manifestation  of  their  respect  for  the  exalted  charac 
ter  and  eminent  public  services  of  the  illustrious  dead,  and  of  their 
sense  of  the  calamity  the  country  has  sustained  by  this  afflicting  dispen 
sation  of  Providence,  wear  crape  on  the  left  arm  and  upon  the  hilt  of 
the  sword  for  six  months.  It  is  further  directed  that  funeral  honors  be 
paid  on  board  all  revenue  vessels  in  commission,  by  firing  thirty-six  minute- 
guns,  commencing  at  meridian  on  the  day  after  the  receipt  of  this  order, 
and  by  wearing  their  flags  at  half-mast. 

HOGH  MoCuLLOon,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

ORDER    FROM    POSTMASTER-GENERAL    DENNISON. 

POST-OFFICE  DEPARTMENT,  WASHINGTON,  April  17. 

To  DEPUTY  POSTMASTERS  : 

Business  in  all  the  post-offices  of  the  United  States  will  be  suspended, 
and  the  offices  closed,  from  11  A.  M.  to  3  p.  M.  on  Wednesday,  the  19th 
instant,  during  the  funeral  solemnities  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

W.  DENNISON,  Postmaster- General. 

PROCLAMATION    BY    PRESIDENT    JOHNSON    OF    A    DAY    OF    HUMILIATION 
AND    MOURNING. 

Whereas,  By  my  direction  the  acting  Secretary  of  State,  in  a  notice  to 
the  public,  on  the  17th  of  April,  requested  the  various  religious  denomi 
nations  to  assemble  on  the  19th  of  April,  on  the  occasion  of  the  obsequies 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  late  President  of  the  United  States,  and  to  observe, 
the  same  with  appropriate  ceremonies ;  and 


792  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

WTiereas,  Our  country  has  become  one  great  house  of  mourning-, 
where  the  head  of  the  family  has  been  taken  away,  and  believing  that  a 
special  period  should  be  assigned  for  again  humbling  ourselves  before 
Almighty  God,  in  order  that  the  bereavement  may  be  sanctified  to  the 
nation : 

Now,  therefore,  in  order  to  mitigate  that  grief  on  earth  which  can 
only  be  assuaged  by  communion  with  the  Father  in  Heaven,  and  in  com 
pliance  with  the  wishes  of  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress, 
communicated  to  me  by  a  resolution  adopted  at  the  national  capital,  I, 
Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States,  do  hereby  appoint 
Thursday,  the  25th  day  of  May  next,  to  be  observed,  wherever  in  the 
United  States  the  flag  of  the  country  may  be  respected,  as  a  day  of 
humiliation  and  mourning,  and  recommend  my  fellow-citizens  then  to 
assemble  in  their  respective  places  of  worship,  there  to  unite  in  solemn 
service  to  Almighty  God  in  memory  of  the  good  man  who  has  been 
removed,  so  that  all  shall  be  occupied  at  the  same  time  in  contemplation 
of  his  virtues  and  sorrow  for  his  sudden  and  violent  end. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  caused  the  seal 
of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 

Done  at  the  City  of  Washington,  the  twenty-fifth   day  of    April,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-five, 
[L.  B.]     and  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  of  America  the 
eighty-ninth.  ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

By  the  President : 

W.  HUNTEE,  Acting  Secretary  of  State. 

SECRETARY    STANTON    TO    MINISTER    ADAMS. 

The  following  is  the  official  report  of  the  death  of  MY.  Lincoln,  Ad 
dressed  to  the  Legation  in  London : — 

WASHINGTON,  AprillS. 

SIR: — It  has  become  my  distressing  duty  to  announce  to  you  that  last 
night  his  Excellency  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States, 
was  assassinated,  about  the  hour  of  half-past  ten  o'clock,  in  his  private 
box  at  Ford's  Theatre,  in  this  city.  The  President,  about  eight  o'clock, 
accompanied  Mrs.  Lincoln  to  the  theatre.  Another  lady  and  gentleman 
were  with  them  in  the  box.  About  half-past  ten,  during  a  pause  in  the 
performance,  the  assassin  entered  the  box,  the  door  of  which  was  un 
guarded,  hastily  approached  the  President  from  behind,  and  discharged  a 
pistol  at  his  head.  The  bullet  entered  the  back  of  his  head,  and  pene 
trated  nearly  through.  The  assassin  then  leaped  from  the  box  upon  the 
stage,  brandishing  a  large  knife  or  dagger,  and  exclaiming,  "/Sic  semper 
tyrannis  /"  and  escaped  in  the  rear  of  the  theatre.  Immediately  upon 
the  discharge,  the-  President  fell  to  the  floor  insensible,  and  continued 
in  that  state  until  twenty  minutes  past  seven  o'clock  this  morning,  when 
he  breathed  his  last.  About  the  same  time  the  murder  was  being  com 
mitted  at  the  theatre,  another  assassin  presented  himself  at  the  door  of 
Mr.  Seward's  residence,  gained  admission  by  representing  he  had  a  pre 
scription  from  Mr.  Seward's  physician,  which  he  was  directed  to  aee 
administered,  and  hurried  up  to  the  third-story  chamber,  where  Mr.  Sew- 
.nrd  was  lying.  He  here  discovered  Mr.  Frederick  Seward,  struck  him 
over  the  head,  inflicting  several  wounds,  and  fracturing  his  skull  in  two 
places,  inflicting,  it  is  feared,  mortal  wounds.  He  then  rushed  into  the 
room  where  Mr.  Seward  was  in  bed,  attended  by  a  young  daughter  and  a 
male  nurse.  The  male  attendant  was  stabbed  through  the  lungs,  and  it 
is  believed  will  die.  The  assassin  then  struck  Mr.  Seward  with  a  knife  or 


LETTER  FROM  J.  WILKES  BOOTH.  793 

dagger  twice  in  the  throat  and  twice  in  the  face,  inflicting  terrible  wounds. 
By  this  time  Major  Seward,  eldest  son  of  the  Secretary,  and  another 
attendant  reached  the  room,  and  rushed  to  the  rescue  of  the  Secretary  ; 
they  were  also  wounded  in  the  conflict,  and  the  assassin  escaped.  No 
artery  or  important  blood-vessel  was  severed  by  any  of  the  wounds 
inflicted  upcu  him,  but  he  was  for  a  long  time  insensible  from  the  loss  of 
blood.  Some  hope  of  his  possible  recovery  is  entertained.  Immediate 
ly  upon  the  death  of  the  President,  notice  was  given  to  Vice-President 
Johnson,  who  happened  to  be  in  the  city,  and  upon  whom  the  office  of 
President  now  devolves.  He  will  take  the  office  and  assume  the  functions 
of  President  to-day.  The  murderer  of  the  President  has  been  discovered, 
and  evidence  obtained  that  these  horrible  crimes  were  committed  in 
execution  of  a  conspiracy  deliberately  planned  and  set  on  foot  by  rebels, 
under  pretence  of  avenging  the  South  and  aiding  the  rebel  cause  ;  but  it 
is  hoped  that  the  immediate  perpetrators  will  be  caught.  The  feeling 
occasioned  by  these  outrageous  crimes  is  so  great,  sudden,  and  overwhelm 
ing,  that  I  cannot  at  present  do  more  than  communicate  them  to  you. 
At  the  earliest  moment  yesterday  the  President  called  a  Cabinet  meeting, 
at  which  General  Grant  was  present.  He  was  more  cheerful  and  happy 
than  I  had  ever  seen  him,  rejoiced  at  the  near  prospect  of  firm  and  dura 
ble  peace  at  home  and  abroad,  manifested  in  a  marked  degree  the  kind 
ness  and  humanity  of  his  disposition,  and  the  tender  and  forgiving  spirit 
that  so  eminently  distinguished  him.  Public  notice  had  been  given  that 
he  and  General  Grant  would  be  present  at  the  theatre,  and  the  opportu 
nity  of  adding  the  Lieutenant-General  to  the  number  of  victims  to  be 
murdered  was  no  doubt  seized  for  the  fitting  occasion  of  executing  the 
plans  that  appear  to  have  been  in  preparation  for  some  weeks,  but  Gen 
eral  Grant  was  compelled  to  be  absent,  and  thus  escaped  the  designs 
upon  him.  It  is  needless  for  me  to  say  any  thing  in  regard  of  the  influ 
ence  which  this  atrocious  murder  of  the  President  may  exercise  upon  the 
affairs  of  this  country ;  but  I  will  only  add  that,  horrible  as  are  the  atroci 
ties  that  have  been  resorted  to  by  the  enemies  of  the  country,  they  are 
not  likely  in  any  degree  to  impair  the  public  spirit  or  postpone  the  com 
plete  final  overthrow  of  the  rebellion.  In  profound  grief  for  the  events 
which  it  is  my  duty  to  communicate  to  you,  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very 
respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON. 
To  CHAELES  FRANCIS  ADAMS,  London. 


E. 
IMPORTANT  LETTEPt  FROM  J.  WILKES  BOOTH. 

HIS    ORIGINAL    PURPOSE    WAS    TO    TAKE    MR.    LINCOLN    A    PRISONER. HIS 

REASONS    FOR    HIS    ACTION. 
[From  the  Philadelphia  Press,  April  19.] 

WE  have  just  received  the  following  letter,  written  by  John  Wilkes 
Booth,  and  placed  by  him  in  the  hands  of  his  brother-in-law,  J.  S.  Clarke. 
It  was  written  by  him  in  November  last,  and  left  with  J.  S.  Clarke  in  a 
sealed  envelope,  and  addressed  to  himself,  in  his  own  handwriting.  In 
the  same  envelope  were  some  United  States  bonds  and  oil  stocks.  This 
letter  was  opened  by  Mr.  Clarke  for  the  first  time  on  Monday  last,  and 
immediately  handed  by  him  to  Marshall  Milward,  who  has  kindly  placed 
it  in  our  hands.  Most  unmistakably  it  proves  that  he  must  for  many 


794  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

months  have  contemplated  seizing  the  person  of  the  late  President;.  It  is, 
however,  doubtful  whether  he  imagined  the  black  deed  which  has 
plunged  the  nation  into  the  deepest  gloom,  and  at  the  same  time  awa 
kened  it  to  a  just  and  righteous  indignation:  — 


MY  DEAR  SIR  :  —  You  may  use  this  as  you  chink  best.  But  as  some 
may  wish  to  know  when,  who,  and  why,  and  as  I  do  not  know  how  to 
direct  it,  I  give  it  (in  the  words  of  your  master)  :  — 

u  To  ichom  it  may  concern" 

Right  or  Avrong,  God  judge  me,  not  man.  For  be  my  motive  good  or 
bad,  of  one  thing  I  am  sure,  the  lasting  condemnation  of  the  North. 

I  love  peace  more  than  life.  Have  loved  the  Union  beyond  expression. 
For  four  years  have  I  waited,  hoped,  and  prayed  for  the  dark  clouds  to 
break,  and  for  a  restoration  of  our  former  sunshine.  To  wait  longer 
would  be  a  crime  All  hope  for  peace  is  dead.  My  prayers  have  proved 
as  idle  as  my  hopes.  God's  will  be  done.  I  go  to  see  and  share  the  bit 
ter  end. 

I  have  ever  held  that  the  South  were  right.  The  very  nomination  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  four  years  ago,  spoke  plainly  war  —  war  upon  Southern 
rights  and  institutions.  His  election  proved  it.  u  Await  an  overt  act." 
Yes  ;  till  you  are  bound  and  plundered.  What  folly  !  The  South  were 
wise.  Who  thinks  of  argument  or  patience  when  the  finger  of  his  enemy 
presses  on  the  trigger?  In  &  foreign  war,  I,  too,  could  say,  "Country, 
right  or  wrong.*'  But  in  a  struggle  such  as  ours  (where  the  brother  tries 
to  pierce  the  brother's  heart),  for  God's  sake  choose  the  right.  When  a 
country  like  this  spurns  justice  from  her  side,  she  forfeits  the  allegiance 
of  every  honest  freeman,  and  should  leave  him,  untrammelled  by  any 
fealty  soever,  to  act  as  his  conscience  may  approve. 

People  of  the  North,  to  hate  tyranny,  to  love  liberty  and  justice,  to 
strike  at  wrong  and  oppression,  was  the  teaching  of  our  fathers.  The 
study  of  our  curly  history  will  not  let  me  forget  it,  and  may  it  never. 

This  country  was  formed  for  the  white,  not  for  the  black  man.  And, 
looking  upon  African  slavery  from  the  same  stand-point  held  by  the  noble 
framers  of  our  Constitution,  I,  for  one,  have  ever  considered  it  one  of  the 
greatest  blessings  (both  for  themselves  and  us)  that  God  ever  bestowed 
upon  a  favored  nation.  Witness  heretofore  our  wealth  and  power;  wit 
ness  their  elevation  and  enlightenment  above  their  race  elsewhere.  I 
have  lived  among  it  most  of  my  life,  and  have  seen  less  harsh  treatment 
from  master  to  man  than  I  have  beheld  in  the  North  from  father  to  son. 
Yet,  Heaven  knows,  no  one  would  be  more  willing  to  do  more  for  the 
negro  race  than  I,  could  I  but  see  a  way  to  still  better  their  condition. 

But  Lincoln's  policy  is  only  preparing  the  way  for  their  total  annihila 
tion.  The  South  are  not,  nor  have  they  been,  fighting  for  the  contiauance 
of  slavery.  The  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  did  away  with  that  idea.  Their 
causes  since  for  war  have  been  as  noble  and  greater  far  than  those  that 
urged  our  fathers  on.  Even  should  we  allow  they  were  wrong  at  the 
beginning  of  this  contest,  cruelty  and  injustice  have  made  the  wrong  be 
come  the  right,  and  they  stand  now  (before  the  wonder  and  admiration 
of  the  world)  as  a  noble  band  of  patriotic  heroes.  Hereafter,  reading  of 
their  deeds,  Thermopylae  will  be  forgotten. 

When  I  aided  in  the  capture  and  execution  of  John  Brown  (who  was  u 
murderer  on  our  western  border,  and  who  was  fairly  tried  and  convicted, 
before  an  impartial  judge  and  jury,  of  treason,  and  who,  by-the-way,  has 
since  been  made  a  god),  I  was  proud  of  my  little  share  in  the  transaction, 
for  1  deemed  it  my  duty,  and  that  I  \vus  helping  our  common  country  to 


LETTER  FROM  J.  WILKES  BOOTH.  795 

perform  an  act  of  justice.  But  what  was  a  crime  in  poor  John  "Brown  13 
now  considered  (by  themselves)  as  the  greatest  and  only  virtue  of  the 
whole  Republican  party.  Strange  transmigration!  Vice  to  become  a 
virtue  simply  because  more  indulge  in  it! 

I  thought  then,  as  now,  that  the  abolitionists  were  the  only  traitors  in 
the  land,  and  that  the  entire  party  deserved  the  same  fate  as  poor  old 
Brown  ;  not  because  they  wish  to  abolish  slavery,  but  on  account  of  the 
means  they  have  ever  endeavored  to  use  to  effect  that  abolition.  If 
Brown  were  living,  I  doubt  whether  he  himself  would  set  slavery  against 
the  Union.  Most,  or  many  in  the  North  do,  and  openly,  curse  the  Union 
if  the  South  are  to  return  and  retain  a  single  right  guaranteed  to  them  by 
every  tie  which  we  once  revered  as  sacred.  The  South  can  make  no 
choice.  It  is  either  extermination  or  slavery  for  themselves  (worse  than 
death)  to  draw  from.  I  know  my  choice. 

I  have  also  studied  hard  to  discover  upon  what  grounds  the  right  of  a 
State  to  secede  has  been  denied,  when  our  very  name,  United  States, 
and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  loth  provide  for  secession.  But 
there  is  no  time  for  words.  I  write  in  haste.  I  know  how  foolish  I  shall 
be  deemed  for  undertaking  such  a  step  as  this,  where,  on  the  one  side,  I 
have  many  friends  and  every  thing  to  make  me  happy,  where  my  profes 
sion  alone  has  gained  me  an  income  of  more  than  twenty  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  and  where  my  great  personal  ambition  in  my  profession  has  such 
a  great  field  for  labor.  On  the  other  hand,  the  South  has  never  bestowed 
upon  me  one  kind  word;  a  place  now  where  I  have  no  friends,  except 
beneath  the  sod;  a  place  where  I  must  either  become  a  private  soldier 
or  a  beggar.  To  give  up  all  of  the  former  for  the  latter,  besides  my 
mother  and  sisters,  whom  I  love  so  dearly  (although  they  so  widely  differ 
with  me  in  opinion),  seems  insane;  but  God  is  my  judge.  I  love  justice 
more  than  I  do  a  country  that  disowns  it;  more  than  fame  and  wealth; 
more  (Heaven  pardon  me  if  wrong),  more  than  a  happy  home.  I  have 
never  been  upon  a  battle-field ;  but  oh !  my  countrymen,  could  you  all 
but  see  the  reality  or  effects  of  this  horrid  war  as  I  have  seen  them  (in 
every  State,  save  Virginia),  I  know  you  would  think  like  me,  and  would 
pray  the  Almighty  to  create  in  the  Northern  mind  a  sense  of  right  and 
justice  (even  should  it  possess  no  seasoning  of  mercy),  and  that  he  would 
dry  up  this  sea  of  blood  between  us,  which  is  daily  growing  wider. 
Alas !  poor  country,  is  she  to  meet  her  threatened  doom  ?  Four  years 
ago  I  would  have  given  a  thousand  lives  to  see  her  remain  (as  I  had 
always  known  her)  powerful  and  unbroken.  And  even  now  I  would 
hold  my  life  as  naught  to  see  her  what  she  was.  Oh!  my  friends,  if  the 
fearful  scenes  of  the  past  four  years  had  never  been  enacted,  or  if  what 
has  been  had  been  but  a  frightful  dream,  from  which  we  could  now 
awake,  with  what  overflowing  hearts  could  we  bless  our  God  and  pray 
for  his  continued  favor !  How  I  have  loved  the  old  flag  can  never  now  bo 
known.  A  few  years  since,  and  the  entire  world  could  boast  of  none  so 
pure  and  spotless.  But  I  have  of  late  been  seeing  and  hearing  of  the 
bloody  deeds  of  which  she  has  been  made  the  emblem,  and  would  shudder 
to  think  how  changed  she  had  grown.  Oh!  how  I  have  longed  to  see 
her  break  from  the  mist  of  blood  and  death  that  circles  round  her  folds, 
spoiling  her  beauty  and  tarnishing  her  honor.  But  no,  day  by  day  has  she 
been  dragged  deeper  and  deeper  into  cruelty  and  oppression,  till  now  (in 
Miy  eyes)  her  once  bright  red  stripes  look  like  bloody  gashes  on  the  face 
of  heaven.  I  look  now  upon  my  early  admiration  of  her  glories  as  a 
dream.  My  love  (as  things  stand  to-day)  is  for  the  South  alone.  Nor  do 
I  deem  it  a  dishonor  in  attempting  to  make  for  her  a  prisoner  of  this 
man,  to  whom  she  owes  so  much  of  misery.  If  success  attend  me,  I  go 


796  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

penniless  to  her  side.  They  say  she  has  found  that  "last  ditch"  which 
the  North  have  so  long  derided  and  been  endeavoring  to  force  her 
in,  lorgetting  they  are  our  brothers,  and  that  it  is  impolitic  to  goad  an 
enemy  to  madness.  Should  I  reach  her  in  safety,  and  find  it  true,  I  will 
proudly  beg  permission  to  triumph  or  die  in  that  same  "ditch"  by  her 
side. 

A  Confederate  doing  duty  upon  his  own  responsibility. 

J.  WILKES  BOOTH. 


F. 

INDICTMENT  OF  THE  CONSPIRATORS. 

CHARGES    AND    SPECIFICATIONS. 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  charge  and  specification  against  David  E. 
Harold,  George  A.  Atzerodt,  Lewis  Payne,  Michael  O'Laughliu,  John  H. 
Surratt,  Edward  Spangler,  Samuel  Arnold,  Mary  E.  Surratt,  and  Samuel 
Mudd  :— 

Charge  1st. — For  maliciously,  unlawfully,  and  traitorously,  and  in  aid 
of  the  existing  armed  rebellion  against  the  United  States  of  America,  on 
or  before  the  6th  day  of  March,  A.  D.  1865,  and  on  divers  other  days  be 
tween  that  day  and  the  15th  day  of  April,  1865,  combining,  confederating, 
and  conspiring  together  with  one  John  H.  Surratt,  John  Wilkes  Booth, 
Jefferson  Davis,  George  N.  Saunders,  Beverly  Tucker,  Jacob  Thompson, 
William  0.  Cleary,  Clement  C.  Clay,  George  Harper,  George  Young,  and 
others  unknown,  to  kill  and  murder  within  the  Military  Department  of 
Washington,  and  within  the  fortified  and  intrenched  lines  thereof,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  at  the  time  of  said  combining,  confederating,  and  conspiring, 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America  and  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Army  and  Navy  thereof;  Andrew  Johnson,  now  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States  as  aforesaid ;  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State  of  the 
United  States  aforesaid,  and  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  Lieutenant-General  of  the 
Army  of  the  United  States  aforesaid,  then  in  command  of  the  armies  of 
the  United  States,  under  the  direction  of  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  and 
in  pursuance  of,  and  in  prosecuting  said  malicious,  unlawful,  and  traitor 
ous  conspiracy  aforesaid,  and  in  aid  of  said  rebellion,  afterwards,  to  wit : 
On  the  14th  day  of  April,  1865,  within  the  military  department  of  Wash 
ington  aforesaid,  and  within  the  fortified  and  intrenched  lines  of  said 
military  department,  together  with  said  John  Wilkes  Booth  and  John  H, 
Surratt,  maliciously,  unlawfully,  and  traitorously  murdering  the  said 
Abraham  Lincoln,  then  President  of  the  United  States,  and  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States,  as  aforesaid,  and 
maliciously,  unlawfully,  and  traitorously  assaulting,  with  intent  to  kill 
and  murder  the  said  William  H.  Seward,  then  Secretary  of  State  of  the 
United  States  as  aforesaid,  and  lying  in  wait  with  intent,  maliciously,  un 
lawfully,  and  traitorously,  to  kill  and  murder  the  said  Andrew  Johnson, 
then  being  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  and  the  said  Ulysses  S. 
Grant,  then  being  Lieutenant-General  and  in  command  of  the  armies 
of  the  United  States  aforesaid. 

Specification  1st.— In  this  that  they,  the  said  David  E.  Harold,  Edward 
Spangler,  Lewis  Payne,  John  II.  Surratt,  Michael  O'Laughlin,  Samuel 
Arnold,  Mary  E.  Surratt,  George  A.  Atzerodt,  and  Samuel  A.  Mudd,  in 
cited  and  encouraged  thereunto  by  Jefferson  Davis,  George  N".  Saunders, 
Beverly  Tucker,  Jacob  Thompson,  William  C.  Cleary,  Clement  C.  Clay, 
George  Harper,  George  Young,  and  others  unknown,  citizens  of  the 
Uuiied  States  aforesaid,  and  who  were  then  engaged  in  armed  rebellion 


INDICTMENT  OF  THE  CONSPIRATORS.  797 

against  the  United  States  of  America,  within  the  limits  tLereof,  did,  in 
aid  of  said  armed  rebellion,  on  or  before  the  6th  day  of  March,  A.  D.  1865,' 
and  on  divers  other  days  and  times  between  that  day  and  the  15th  day 
of  April,  A.  D.  1865,  combine,  confederate,  and  conspire  together,  at 
"Washington  City,  within  the  military  department  of  Washington,  and 
within  the  intrenched  fortifications  and  military  lines  of  the  said  United 
States,  there  being,  unlawfully,  maliciously,  and  traitorously,  to  kill  and 
murder  Abraham  Lincoln,  then  President  of  the  United  States  aforesaid, 
and  Commander-in-Ohief  of  the  army  and  navy  thereof,  and  unlawfully, 
maliciously,  and  traitorously,  to  kill  and  murder  Andrew  Johnson,  now 
Vice-President  of  the  said  United  States,  upon  whom,  on  the  death  of  the 
said  Abraham  Lincoln,  after  the  4th  day  of  March,  A.  D.  1865,  the  office 
of  President  of  the  said  United  States,  and  the  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  army  and  navy  thereof,  would  devolve,  and  to  unlawfully,  maliciously, 
and  traitorously  kill  and  murder  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  then  lieutenant-gen 
eral,  and  under  the  direction  of  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  command 
of  the  armies  of  the  United  States  aforesaid,  and  unlawfully,  maliciously, 
and  traitorously  to  kill  and  murder  William  H.  Seward,  then  Secretary 
of  State  of  the  United  States  aforesaid,  whose  duty  it  was  by  law,  upon 
the  death  of  said  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  afore 
said,  to  cause  an  election  to  be  held  for  electors  of  President  of  the  United 
States ;  the  conspirators  aforesaid  designing  and  intending  by  the  killing 
and  murder  of  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  Andrew  Johnson,  Ulysses  S. 
Grant,  and  William  H.  Seward  as  aforesaid,  to  deprive  the  army  and  navy 
of  the  said  United  States  of  a  constitutional  commander-in-chief,  and  to 
deprive  the  armies  of  the  United  States  of  their  lawful  commander,  and 
to  prevent  a  lawful  election  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  aforesaid ;  and  by  the  means  aforesaid  to  aid  and  comfort  the  in- 


federated,  and  conspiring  together  in  the  prosecution  of  said  unlawful  and 

• _       J.V     „        _,.  1  ,-"U  A.       .-*£4-1^n       1/14-1,.        /I  .-*  -.r-      ,r*4-*        A    l-vwl  A  •»-*          IQrJPk  f\4" 


traitorous  conspiracy  on  the  night  of  the  14th  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1865,  at 
the  hour  of  about  ten  o'clock  and  fifteen  minutes  p.  M.,  at  Ford's  Theatre, 
on  Tenth  Street,  in  the  City  of  Washington,  and  within  the  military  de 
partment  and  military  lines  aforesaid,  John  Wilkes  Booth,  one  of  the 
conspirators  aforesaid,  in  pursuance  of  said  unlawful  and  traitorous  con 
spiracy,  did  then  and  there,  unlawfully,  maliciously,  and  traitorously,  and 
with  intent  to  kill  and  murder  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  discharge  a 
pistol  then  held  in  the  hands  of  him  the  said  Booth,  the  same  being  then 
loaded  with  powder  and  leaden  ball,  against  and  upon  the  left  and  poste 
rior  side  of  the  head  of  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  did  thereby  then 
and  there  inflict  upon  him,  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  then  President  of  the 
said  United  States,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and  navy  there 
of,  a  mortal  wound,  whereof  afterwards,  to  wit :  on  the  15th  day  of  April, 
A.  D.  1865,  at  Washington  City  aforesaid,  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln  died, 
and  thereby  then  and  there,  and  in  pursuance  of  said  conspiracy  the  said 
defendants  and  the  said  John  Wilkes  Booth  did  unlawfully,  traitorously, 
and  maliciously,  with  the  intent  to  aid  the  rebellion,  as  aforesaid,  kill  and 
murder  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the  United  States,  as 
aforesaid,  and  in  further  prosecution  of  the  unlawful  and  traitorous  con 
spiracy  aforesaid,  and  of  the  murderous  and  traitorous  intent  of  said  con 
spiracy,  the  said  Edward  Spangler,  on  the  said  14th  day  of  April,  A.  D. 
1865,  at  about  the  same  hour  of  that  day,  as  aforesaid,  within  said  mili 
tary  department  and  the  military  lines  aforesaid,  did  aid  and  assist  the 
said  John  Wilkes  Booth  to  obtain  an  entrance  to  the  box  in  the  said 


798  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

theatre  in  which  the  said  Abraham  Lincoh.  was  sitting  at  the  time  lie 
Avas  assaulted  and  shot  as  aforesaid  by  John  Wilkes  Booth  ;  and  also  did 

•  then  and  there  aid  said  Booth  in  barring  and  obstructing  the  door  of  the 
box  of  said  theatre  so  as  to  hinder  and  prevent  any  assistance  to  or  rescue 
of  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  against  the  murderous  assault  of  the  said 
John  Wilkes  Booth,  and  did  aid  and  abet  him  in  making  his  escape  after 
the  said  Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  murdered  in  the  manner  aforesaid: 
and  in  further  prosecution  of  said  unlawful,  murderous,  and  traitorous 
conspiracy,  and  in  pursuance  thereof,  and  with  the  intent  as  aforesaid, 
the  said  David  E.  Harold  did,  on  the  14th  of  April,  A.  D.  1865,  within  the 
military  department  and  military  lines  aforesaid,  aid  and  abet,  and  assist 
the  said  John  Wilkes  Booth  in  the  killing  and  murder  of  the  said  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  did  then  and  there  aid  and  abet  and  assist  him,  the  said 
John  Wilkes  Booth,  in  attempting  him  to  escape  through  the  military 
lines  aforesaid,  and  did.  accompany  and  assist  the  said  John  Wilkes  Booth 
in  attempting  to  conceal  himself  and  escape  from  justice  after  killing  and 
murdering  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln  aforesaid;  and  in  further  prosecu 
tion  of  said  unlawful  and  traitorous  conspiracy,  and  of  the  intent  thereof 
as  aforesaid,  the  said  Lewis  Payne  did  on  the  same  night  of  the  14th  day 
of  April,  1865,  about  the  same  hour  of  ten  o'clock,  fifteen  minutes  p.  M., 
at  the  City  of  Washington,  and  within  the  military  department  and  the 
military  lines  aforesaid,  unlawfully  and  maliciously  make  an  assault  upon 
the  said  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  Statn  as  aforesaid,  in  the  dwell 
ing-house  and  bed-chamber  of  him,  the  said  William  II.  Seward,  and  the 
suid  Payne  did  then  and  there,  with  a  large  knife  held  in  his  hand,  unlaw 
fully,  traitorously,  and  in  pursuance  of  said  conspiracy,  strike,  stab,  cut, 
and  attempt  to  kill  and  murder  the  said  William  II.  Seward,  arid  did  there 
by  then  and  there  and  with  the  intent  aforesaid,  with  said  knife,  inflict 
upon  the  face  and  throat  of  said  William  H.  Seward  divers  grievous 
wounds ;  and  said  Lewis  Payne,  in  further  prosecution  of  said  conspiracy, 
at  the  same  time  and  place  last  aforesaid,  did  attempt,  with  the  knife 
aforesaid,  and  a  pistol,  held  in  his  hand,  to  kill  and  murder  Frederick 
W.  Seward,  Augustus  H.  Seward,  Emrick  W.  Hansel,  and  George  F.  Rob 
inson,  who  were  then  striving  to  protect  and  rescue  the  said  William  H. 
Seward  from  being  murdered  by  the  said  Lewis  Payne,  and  did  then  and 
there,  with  the  said  knife  and  pistols  held  in  his  hands,  inflict  upon  the 
head  of  said  Frederick  W.  Seward,  and  upon  the  persons  of  said  Augustus 
II.  Seward,  Emrick  W.  Hansel,  and  George  F.  Robinson,  divers  grievous 
and  dangerous  wounds,  with  intent  then  and  there  to  kill  and  murder  the 
said  Frederick  W.  Seward,  Augustus  II.  Seward,  Emrick  W.  Hansel',  and 

^George  F.  Robinson. 

Arid  in  further  prosecution  of  said  conspiracy,  and  its  traitorous  and 
murderous  designs,  the  said  George  A.  Atzerodt  did,  on  the  night  of  the 
14th  of  April,  A.  D.  1865,  and  about  the  same  hour  aforesaid,  within  the 
military  department  and  the  military  lines  aforesaid,  lie  in  wait  for  An 
drew  Johnson,  then  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  aforesaid,  with 
the  intent  unlawfully  and  maliciously  to  kill  and  murder  him,  the  said 
Andrew  Johnson. 

And  in  the  further  prosecution  of  the  conspiracy  aforesaid,  arid  of  its 
murderous  and  treasonable  purpose  aforesaid,  on  the  nights  of  the  13th 
and  14th  of  April,  A.  D.  1865,  at  Washington  City,  and  within  the  military 
department  and  military  lines  aforesaid,  the  said  Michael  O'Laughlin  did 
then  and  there  lie  in  wait  for  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  then  Lieutenant- General 
find  Commander  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States  as  aforesaid,  with  in 
tent  then  and  there  to  kill  and  murder  the  said  Ulysses  S.  Grant. 

And  in  the  further  prosecution  of  said  conspiracy,  the  said  Samuel  Ar- 


THE  FINDING  OF  THE  COURT.       799 

nold  did,  within  the  military  department  and  military  lines  aforesaid,  on 
or  before  the  Gth  day  of  March,  A.  D.  1865,  and  on  divers  other  days  and 
times  between  that  day  and  the  15th  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1805,  combine, 
conspire  with,  and  aid,  counsel,  abet,  comfort,  and  support  the  said  John 
Wilkes  Booth,  Lewis  Payne,  George  A.  Atzerodt,  Michael  O'Laughlin, 
and  their  confederates  in  said  unlawful,  murderous,  and  traitorous  con 
spiracy,  and  in  the  execution  thereof  as  aforesaid. 

And,  in  further  prosecution  of  the  said  conspiracy,  Mary  E.  Surratt  did 
at  Washington  City,  and  within  the  military  department,  and  the  military 
lines  aforesaid,  on  or  before  the  Gth  day  of  March,  A.  D.  1865,  and  on  di 
vers  other  days  and  times  between  that  day  and  the  20th  of  April,  A.  D. 
1865,  receive,  entertain,  harbor  and  conceal,  aid  and  assist  the  said  John 
Wilkes  Booth,  David  E.  Harold,  Lewis  Payne,  John  II.  Surratt,  Michael 
O'Laughlin,  George  A.  Atzerodt,  Samuel  Arnold,  and  tfceir  confederates, 
with  knowledge  of  the  murderous  and  traitorous  conspiracy  aforesaid, 
and  with  intent  to  aid,  abet,  and  assist  them  in  the  execution  thereof, 
and  in  escaping  from  justice  after  the  murder  of  the  said  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  as  aforesaid;  and  in  further  prosecution  of  said  conspiracy,  the  said 
Samuel  A.  Mudd  did,  at  Washington  City,  and  within  the  military  de 
partment  and  military  lines  aforesaid,  on  or  before  the  Gth  doy  of  March, 
A.  D.  1865,  and  on  divers  other  days  and  times  between  that  day  and  the 
20th  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1865,  advise,  encourage,  receive,  entertain,  harbor, 
and  conceal,  aid,  and  assist  the  said  John  Wilkes  Booth,  David  E.  Harold, 
Lewis  Payne,  John  II.  Surratt,  Michael  O'Laughlin,  George  A.  Atzerodt, 
Mary  E.  Surratt,  and  Samuel  Arnold,  and  their  confederates,  with  knowl 
edge  of  the  murderous  and  traitorous  conspiracy  aforesaid,  and  with  in 
tent  to  aid,  abet,  and  assist  them  in  the  execution  thereof,  and  in  escaping 
from  justice  after  the  murder  of  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  pursuance 
of  said  conspiracy  in  manner  aforesaid. 

By  order  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

J.  HOLT,  Judge- Advocate- General. 


THE    FINDING    OF    THE    COURT. 

WAB  DEPARTMENT,  ADJUTANT-GKNKHAL'S  OFFICE,  I 
WASHINGTON,  July  5,  1&65.  ) 

To  Major-General  W.  S.  HANCOCK,  U.  S.  Volunteers,  commanding  MiddU 
Military  Division,  Washington  D.  G.  : 

Whereas,  By  the  Military  Commission  appointed  in  paragraph  4,  Special 
Orders  211,  dated  War  Department,  Adjutant-Getteral's  Office,  May  6, 
1865,  and  of  which  Major-General  David  Hunter,  United  States  Volun 
teers  is  President,  the  following  persons  were  tried  and  sentenced  as 
hereinafter  stated,  as  follows : — 

First.— David  E.  Harold. 

Finding.— Of  the  specification  "Guilty,"  except  combining,  confedera 


te  which  part  of  the  charge  "Not  Guilty." 

Sentence.— And  the  Commission  therefore  sentence  him,  the  said  David 
E.  Harold,  to  be  hanged  by  the  neck  until  he  is  dead,  at  such  time  and 
place  as  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  direct,  two-thirds  of  the 
members  of  the  Commission  concurring  therein. 

Second.— George  A.  Atzerodt. 

Finding. — Of  the  specification  "Guilty,"  except  combining,  confeder- 
-  and  conspiring  with  Edward  Spangler.  Of  this  "  Not  Guilty." 


800  THE  LIFE  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

Sentence. — And  the  Commission  does  therefore  sentence  him,  the  stiid 
George  A.  Atzerodt,  to  be  hanged  by  the  neck  until  he  is  dead,  at  such 
time  and  place  as  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  direct,  two- 
thirds  of  the  members  of  the  Commission  concurring  therein. 
*•  Third. — Lewis  Payne. 

Finding. — Of  the  specification  "  Guilty,"  except  combining,  confedera 
ting,  and  conspiring  with  Edward  Spangler.  Of  this  not  guilty.  Of  the 
charge  "  Not  Guilty,"  except  combining,  confederating,  and  conspiring 
with  Edward  Spangler.  Of  this  not  guilty. 

Sentence. — And  the  Commission  does,  therefore,  sentence  him,  the  said 
Lewis  Payne,  to  be  hanged  by  the  neck  until  he  be  dead,  at  such  time 
and  place  as  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  direct  ;  two-thirds 
of  the  members  of  the  Commission  concurring  therein. 

Fourth. — Mary  E.  Surratt. 

Finding. — Of  the  specification  "  Guilty,"  except  as  to  the  receiving, 
entertaining,  harboring,  and  concealing  Samuel  Arnold  and  Michael 
O'Laughlin,  and,  except  as  to  combining,  confederating,  and  conspiring 
with  Edward  Spangler.  Of  this  not  guilty.  Of  the  charge  "  Guilty,"  ex 
cept  as  to  combining,  confederating,  and  conspiring  with  Edward  Span 
gler.  Of  this  not  guilty. 

Sentence. — And  the  Commission  does  therefore  sentence  her,  the  said 
Mary  E.  Surratt,  to  be  hanged  by  the  neck  until  she  be  dead,  at  such  time 
and  place  as  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  direct,  two-thirds  of 
the  members  of  the  Commission  concurring  therein  ;  and 

Whereas,  The  President  of  the  United  States  has  approved  the  forego 
ing  sentences  in  the  following  order,  to  wit : — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  July  5, 1865. 

The  foregoing  sentences  in  the  cases  of  David  E.  Harold,  George  E. 
Atzerodt,  Lewis  Payne,  and  Mary  E.  Surratt,  are  hereby  approved ;  and 
it  is  ordered  that  the  sentences  in  the  cases  of  David  E.  Harold,  G.  A. 
Atzerodt,  Lewis  Payne,  and  Mary  E.  Surratt,  be  carried  into  execution 
by  the  proper  military  authority,  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of 
War,  on  the  7th  day  of  July,  1865,  between  the  hours  of  10  o'clock  A.  M. 
and  2  o'clock  p.  M.  of  that  day. 

ANDREW  JOHNSON   President. 

Therefore,  You  are  hereby  commanded  to  cause  the  foregoing  sentences 
in  the  cases  of  David  E.  Harold,  G.  A.  Atzerodt,  Lewis  Payne,  and  Mary 
E.  Surratt,  to  be  duly  executed  in  accordance  with  the  President's  order. 

By  command  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

E.  D.  TOWNSEND,  Assistant  Adjutant- General. 

In  the  remaining  cases  of  O'Laughlin,  Spangler,  Arnold,  and  Mudd,  the 
findings  and  sentences  are  as  follows : — 

Fifth.— Michael  O'Laughlin. 

Finding. — Of  the  specification  *'  Guilty,"  except  the  words  thereof  as 
follows:  a  And  in  the  further  prosecution  of  the  conspiracy  aforesaid, 
and  its  murderous  and  treasonable  purposes  aforesaid,  on  the  nights  of 
the  18th  and  14th  of  April,  A.  D.  1865,  at  Washington  City,  and  within 
the  military  department  and  military  lines  aforesaid,  the  said  Michael 
O'Laughlin  did  then  and  there  lie  in  wait  for  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  then  Lieu- 
tenant-General  and  Commander  of  the  Armies  of  the  United  States,  with 
intent  then  and  there  to  kill  and  murder  the  said  Ulysses  S.  Grant."  Of 
said  words,  u  Not  Guilty,"  and  except  "  combining,  confederating,  and 


THE  FINDING  OF  THE  COURT.  801 

conspiring  with  Edward  Spangler."  Of  this  not  guilty.  Of  the  charge 
"  Guilty,"  except  combining,  confederating,  and  conspiring  with  Edward 
Spangler.  Of  this  not  guilty. 

Sentence.— The  Commission  sentence  Michael  O'Laughlin  to  be  impris 
oned  at  hard  labor  for  life. 

Sixth. — Edward  Spangler. 

Finding.— Of  the  specification,  "Not  Guilty,"  except  as  to  the  words, 
"the  said  Edward  Spangler,  on  said  14th  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1865,  at 
about  the  same  hour  of  that  day  as  aforesaid,  within  said  military  depart 
ment  and  the  military  lines  aforesaid,  did  aid  and  abet  him,"  meaning 
John  Wilkes  Booth,  "  in  making  his  escape,  after  the  said  Abraham  Lin 
coln  had  been  murdered  in  the  manner  aforesaid,"  and  of  these  words, 
"Guilty."  Of  the  charge,  not  guilty,  but  guilty  of  having  feloniously 
and  traitorously  aided  and  abetted  John  Wilkes  Booth  in  making  his  es 
cape  after  having  killed  and  murdered  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  tho 
United  States— he,  the  said  Edward  Spangler,  at  the  time  of  aiding  and 
abetting  as  aforesaid,  well  knowing  that  the  said  Abraham  Lincoln,  Pres 
ident  as  aforesaid,  had  been  murdered  by  the  said  John  Wilkes  Booth  as 
aforesaid. 

The  Commission  sentenced  Spangler  to  be  confined  at  hard  labor  for 
six  years. 

Seventh.— Samuel  Arnold.     Of  the  specifications— 

Guilty — Except  combining,  confederating,  and  conspiring  with  Edward 
Spangler ;  of  this,  not  guilty. 

Of  the  charge — 

Guilty — Except  combining,  confederating,  and  conspiring  with  Edward 
Spangler ;  of  this,  not  guilty. 

The  Commission  sentence  him  to  imprisonment  at  hard  labor  for  life. 

Eighth.— Samuel  A.  Mudd.     Of  the  specification— 

0tafty—Exoept  combining,  confederating,  and  conspiring  with  Edward 
Spangler ;  of  this  not  guilty ;  and  excepting  receiving  and  entertaining, 
and  harboring  and  concealing  said  Lewis  Payne,  John  H.  Surratt,  Mi 
chael  O'Laughlin,  George  A.  Atzerodt,  Mary  E.  Surratt,  and  Samuel 
Arnold ;  of  this,  not  guilty.  Of  the  charge  "  Guilty,"  except  combining, 
confederating,  and  conspiring  with  Edward  Spangler ;  of  this,  not  guilty. 

Sentence. — The  Commission  sentenced  Dr.  Mudd  to  be  imprisoned  at 
hard  labor  for  life. 

The  President's  order  in  these  cases  is  as  follows : — 

It  is  further  ordered  that  the  prisoners,  Samuel  Arnold,  Samuel  A. 
Mudd,  Edward  Spangler,  and  Michael  O'Laughlin,  be  confined  at  hard  la 
bor  in  the  penitentiary  at  Albany,  New  York,  during  the  period  desig 
nated  in  their  respective  sentences. 

ANDEEW  JOHNSON,  President. 

The  sentences  -were  duly  executed,  except  the  Dry  Tortugas  was  substituted  for  tie  Albany 
Penitentiary,  for  the  imprisonment  of  Arnold,  Mudd,  Spaugler,  and  O'Laughlin. 
51 


INDEX. 


803 


INDEX 


Adams,  0.  F. — remonstrance  against  depart 
ure  of  rebel  cruisers  from  British  ports,  461. 

Address  of  Mr.  Lincoln— at  Springfield,  181 ; 
at  Tolono,  132 ;  at  Indianapolis,  132 ;  before 
Indiana  Legislature,  133  ;  at  Cincinnati,  134; 
at  Columbus,  135 ;  at  Steubenville,  136 ;  at 
Pittsburg,  136,  137;  at  Cleveland,  140;  at 
Buffalo,  141 ;  at  Rochester,  142 ;  at  Utica, 
143;  at  Albany,  143;  at  Troy,  145;  at  Hud 
son,  146;  at  Poughkeepsie,  146;  at  Peeks- 
kill,  14T;  at  Astor  House,  N.  Y.,  148;  to 
Republican  Association,  148;  at  City  Hall, 
150 ;  at  Jersey  City,  150 ;  at  Newark,  151 ; 
at  Trenton,  151 ;  at  Philadelphia,  153 ;  at 
Independence  Hall,  154;  at  Lancaster,  156 ; 
at  Harrisburg,  156;  at  Washington,  158, 159; 
inaugural,  162 ;  to  members  of  Congress  from 
Border  States,  235;  to  Chicago  committee 
on  emancipation  of  slaves,  254;  at  Wash 
ington  about  McClellan,  324;  at  serenade, 
September  24, 1862, 342 ;  at  Gettysburg,  412.; 
at  Washington,  July  5, 1863, 415 ;  to  working- 
men  of  New  York,  498 ;  at  lair  in  Washing 
ton,  501 ;  at  fair  in  Baltimore,  501 ;  at  fair  in 
Philadelphia,  503 ;  to  deputation  of  colored 
persons,  505 ;  to  the  country,  526 ;  at  Wash 
ington,  526;  at  Washington,  539;  in  re 
sponse  to  nomination  for  re-election,  559, 
560 ;  to  Ohio  regiments,  606,  60T ;  at  Wash 
ington,  609;  upon  result  of  election,  613, 
614,615;  at  Washington,  617,  618,  620;  to 
envoy  of  Hawaiian  Islands,  623 ;  at  Wash 
ington,  643 ;  on  adoption  of  Constitutional 
amendments,  646;  second  inaugural,  670; 
concerning  the  rebel  conscription  of  negroes, 
674 ;  on  victory  and  reconstruction,  6S4 

Alabama  sunk,  535. 

Anecdotes  and  reminiscences  of  President 
Lincoln,  725 ;  his  sadness,  726-728 ;  his  fa 
vorite  poem,  728-730;  his  religious  expe 
rience,  730-735;  his  sympathy,  735-743 ;  his 
humor,  shrewdness,  and  sentiment,  7-13-759 ; 
the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  759-766. 

Appendix — letters  on  sundry  occasions,  767; 
tne  President  and  General  McClellan,  772; 
warnings  against  assassination,  779  ;  reports, 
dispatches,  and  proclamations  relating  to  the 
assassination,  783 ;  important  letter  from  J. 
Wilkes  Booth,  793 ;  trial  of  conspirators,  796. 


Arbitary  arrests— action  of  Government,  861 ; 
debate  in  Congress,  873. 

Arguelles  surrendered  to  Cuban  authorities, 
565. 

Arkansas— President's  letter  to  Gen.  Steele, 
491 ;  President's  letter  about  Convention, 
492 ;  election  and  adoption  of  a  Free  Stat* 
Constitution,  493,  511. 

Assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  697 ;  the  seen* 
of  death,  698,  785;  grief  throughout  th« 
land,  701 ;  warnings  against  assassination, 
779;  reports,  &c.,  relating  to,  783;  letter 
from  Booth,  793 ;  trial  and  sentence  of  con 
spirators,  796. 

Assault  on  Mr.  Seward,  699. 

Atlanta  captured,  544. 


Banks — takes  Port  Hudson,  415;  proclama 
tion  for  an  election  in  Louisiana,  4SS ;  Red 
River  expedition,  516. 

Battle  of  Bull  Run,  1861,  202;  of  Williams- 
burg,  276 ;  of  Seven  Pines  and  Fair  Oaks, 
285;  of  Games'  Mills,  293;  Malvern  Hill, 
294;  Antietam,  317;  Pittsburgh  Landing, 
827 ;  Frederick sburg,  407 ;  Chancellorsville, 
408;  Gettysburg,  409 ;  Vicksburg,  414;  Tul- 
lahoma,  419 ;  Chickamauga,  419 ;  Chattanoo 
ga,  420 ;  Olustee,  514  ;  Sabine  Cross-Roads, 
516  ;  Fort  Pillow,  519  ;  the  Wilderness,  524; 
Spottsylvania,  52S ;  Coal  Harbor,  529 ;  Nash 
ville,  640;  Fort  Fisher,  642;  Richmond,  678. 

Blair,  F.  P.,  Jr.,  reappointment  as  Major-Gen- 
eral,  472. 

Blair,  F.  P.,  Sen.,  visit  to-  Richmond,  648. 

Booth,  J.  Wilkes — assassinates  the  President, 
696;  death  of,  713,788;  letter  of,  793. 

Border  States — reply  of  the  members  to  Presi 
dent's  address,  236;  Hon.  Mr.  Maynard1* 
reply,  238. 

Brazil,  relations  wifn,  622. 

Buchanan — official  action  on  Secession,  111 ; 
last  message,  117 ;  dissolution  of  his  Cabinet, 
117;  message  on  Secession,  1  IS. 

Burnside,  Gen. — succeeds  McClellan  in  Army 
of  Potomac,  823 ;  battle  of  Frederick  sburg, 
407;  arrests  Vallandigham,  384;  relieved 
from  command,  407;  defence  of  Knoxville, 
420. 


804 


INDEX. 


Butler,  Gen.— seizes  City  Point,  527 ;  expedi 
tion  to  Fort  Fisher,  640 ;  removal  from  com 
mand,  642. 


Cabinet— dissolution  of  Buchanan's,  117;  or 
ganization  of  Lincoln's,  170 ;  resignation  of 
Secretary  Cameron,  248. 

Cameron — resignation  of,  as  Secretary  of  War, 
248;  President's  message  concerning,  248. 

Chambersburg  burned,  541. 

Charleston,  evacuation  of,  663. 

Chase,  S.  P.,  appointed  Chief  Justice,  624. 

Christian  Commission,  letter  from  President 
to,  500. 

City  Point  occupied  by  Gen.  Butler,  527. 

Colfax,  elected  Speaker  of  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  445. 

Colonization— President's  views  on,  229 ;  Presi 
dent's  interview  with  colored  men  on,  505 ; 
attempts  to  colonize  New  Grenada,  508; 
colony  to  He  a  Vache,  508. 

Commissioners  from  rebels,  170. 

Compromise — Crittenden's,  119;  special  com 
mittee  of  Congress  on,  120 ;  report  of  resolu 
tions  by  committee,  121 ;  adoption  of  the 
resolutions,  122. 

Confederacy — organization  of  the  Eebcl  Gov 
ernment,  112;  objects  of  the  Confederacy 
stated  by  Mr.  Stephens,  115. 

Conference  at  Hampton  Roads,  648;  rebel  re 
port  of,  651 ;  correspondence  in  relation 
thereto,  653 ;  remarks  on,  661. 

Confiscation  Bill,  200;  debate  in  Congress  on, 
201,  240;  its  provisions,  243;  supplementary 
resolution,  244 ;  message  approving,  245. 

Congress  —  appoints  committee  on  Compro 
mise,  120;  adoption  of  Compromise  resolu 
tion,  121 ;  action  on  amendment  of  Constitu 
tion,  122;  action  on  Crittenden  resolution^ 
and  Peace  Conference,  12S ;  meeting  in  extra 
session,  July  4, 1861, 186 ;  adoption  of  reso 
lution  on  the  objects  of  the  war,  200 ;  bills  on 
confiscation  —  employment  of  slaves,  200; 
meeting  in  December,  1861,  212 ;  resolution 
on  slavery,  231 ;  effect  of  Bull  Run  defeat  on 
legislative  action  of,  226;  abolishes  slavery 
in  Territories,  228;  abolishes  slavery  in  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  228;  approves  compen 
sated  emancipation,  231 ;  debate  on  Confisca 
tion  Bill,  240 ;  the  Currency  Bill,  239 ;  meet 
ing,  December,  1862,344;  debate  on  arbitrary 
arrests,  861 ;  authorizes  letters  of  marque, 
871 ;  admission  of  members  from  Louisiana, 
§70 ;  meeting,  December,  1863,  445 ;  action  in 
reference  to  French  in  Mexico,  467 ;  debates 
of,  1863,  468 ;  action  on  slavery,  469 ;  repeals 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  470;  action  in  regard  to 
senators  and  representatives  from  Arkansas, 
493 ;  adoption  of  bill  for  reconstruction  of 
States,  494;  meeting,  December,  1864,  620; 
action  upon  Reciprocity  Treaty,  644;  rebel 


States  not  entitled  to  representation  in  elec 
toral  college,  644,  664 ;  passage  of  constitu 
tional  amendment  prohibiting  slavery,  645; 
establishes  Freedmen's  Bureau,  645 ;  declara 
tion  in  regard  to  rebel  debt,  665 ;  authorizes 
a  loan  of  $600,000,000,  666. 

Constitution— amendment  forbidding  interfer 
ence  with  slavery,  121;  amendment  abolish 
ing  slavery,  469. 

Correspondence  in  regard  to  peace,  571. 

Crittenden  Compromise,  119;  resolution  de 
claring  the  objects  of  War,  200. 

Curtis,  Gen. — appointed  to  command  in  Mis 
souri,  428 ;  his  removal,  428. 


Dayton,  Mr.,  interviews,  &c:,  with  French  Min 
ister  in  regard  to  Mexico,  464. 

Democratic  Party — its  position  at  time  of  elec 
tion,  I860, 108;  defeat  in  1S63,  443;  position 
in  1864,  591 ;  nominates  McClellan,  593. 

Douglas — on  Missouri  Compromise,  43;  speech 
at  Springfield,  44, 46;  on  Lecompton  Bill,  50 '; 
elected  senator,  76. 

Dred  Scott  decision,  47,  49,  64. 


Election  of  President,  1861, 107 ;  State  elections 
of  1862,  State  elections  of  1863,  443;  election 
of  President,  1864,  612,  664. 

Emancipation— President's  reply  to  Chicago 
committee  on,  254 ;  Proclamation  of  Septem 
ber,  1862, 257 ;  incidents  connected  with,  759; 
Proclamation  of  January,  1863,  260;  in  Mis 
souri,  511 ;  amendment  of  Constitution,  645. 

England — instructions  to  our  Minister  at  out 
break  of  the  rebellion,  182 ;  protest  against 
her  recognition  of  the  rebels  as  belligerents, 
183 ;  the  Trent  affair,  209 ;  privateers,  833  ; 
stoppage  of  rebel  rams,  462. 

Everett,  Edward,  death  of,  642. 


Fac  simile  of  letter,  589. 

Farragut,  Com.  enters  Mobile  harbor,  543. 

Florida,  expedition  of  General  Gillmore,  518; 
defeat  at  Olustee,  514 

Forged  proclamation,  566. 

Fort  Fisher  captured,  640. 

Fort  Pillow,  capture  of,  519. 

France— offer,  of  mediation,  335 ;  reply  of  Mr, 
Seward,  835 ;  our  relations  with,  463. 

Freedinen— proposition  to  colonize,  504;  un 
successful  efforts  to  plant  colonies  in  New> 
Grenada  and  He  ^  Vache,  508 ;  enlistment  of,, 
into  the  army,  510 ;  at  Presidential  recep 
tion,  637 ;  bureau  established  for,  665. 

Fremont  —  appointed  to  Department  of  thtf 
West,  order  of  emancipation,  207 ;  President'* 
revocation  of  order,  208 ;  removal  from  corn* 
mand  of  Western  Department,  424 :  agree* 
ment  with  Price,  424;  popular  demonstra* 


INDEX. 


805 


tians  in  favor  of,  425;  asks  to  bo  relieved, 
302;  nominated  for  President,  551;  with 
drawal  from  canvass,  595. 

Fugitive  Slave  Bill  repealed,  470. 

Funeral  services  at  Executive  Mansion,  70a 


Grant,  Gen.— siege  and  capture  of  Vicksbnrg, 
418;  appointment  as  Lieutenant  -  General, 
476 ;  letter  to  President,  523 ;  moves  forward 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  524;  fights  the 
battles  of  the  "Wilderness,  524 ;  dispatch  of, 
528  ;  crosses  the  James  Eiver  and  besieges 
Petersburg  and  Kichmond,  530,  541,  640,  6GG, 
677 ;  final  assault,  678 ;  receives  the  capitula 
tion  of  Lee,  683,  684 

Greeley  —  President  Lincoln's  letter  to,  258; 
correspondence  of,  in  reference  to  alleged 
peace  commissioners,  571. 

Gettysburg— battle  of,  409  ;  President's  procla 
mation  of  victory,  411 ;  dedication  of  Ceme 
tery,  412. 


Habeas  Corpus — first  instance  of  suspension, 
375 ;  action  of  the  Government,  373 ;  procla 
mation  suspending,  381 ;  proclamation  on 
subject,  398. 

Hahn,  M. — elected  Governor  of  Louisiana,  489 ; 
invested  with  powers  of,  4S9. 

Halleck,  Gen.— letter  to  McClellan  on  the  ne 
cessity  of  aiding  Pope,  299 ;  letter  about  his 
leaving  the  Peninsula,  299 ;  orders  McClellan 
to  advancevafter  Antietam,  318  ;  letter  about 
fugitive  slaves,  330. 

Hampton  Eoads,  conference  at,  648. 

Harris,  B.  G.,  censured  by  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  472. 

*Iooke.r,  Gen. — succeeds  General  Burnside  in 
Army  of  Potomac,  408 ;  is  relieved  from  com 
mand,  408. 

Hunter,  Gen. — his  order  abolishing  slavery  in 
South  Carolina,  233 ;  Lincoln's  letter  to,  in 
Missouri,  424 ;  wins  a  victory  at  Piedmont, 
530. 

House  of  Eepresentatives  censures  Alexander 
Long  and  B.  G.  Harris,  472. 


Invasion  —  proposed  rebel  invasion  of  the 
North,  177;  invasion  of  Pennsylvania  by 
General  Lee,  409. 


Johnson,  Andrew  —  Provisional  Governor  of 
Tennessee,  483 ;  proclamation  regulating 
election,  596,  597;  elected  Vice-President, 
664 ;  takes  oath  of  office  and  becomes  Presi 
dent,  714, 


Kilpatrick— raid  to  Kichmond,  515. 


Knoxville,  siege  of,  raised,  420. 


Letter  of  the  President— to  Governor  Hicks, 
of  Maryland,  174;  to,  commissioners  from 
Virginia,  179 ;  to  General  Fremont,  revoking 
his  order,  208;  to  H.  Greeley,  253;  to  Mc 
Clellan  concerning  an  advance  on  Eichmond, 
266;  to  McClellan  about  retaining  Blenker 
271 ;  to  McClellanabout  strength  of  his  army 
273;  to  McClellan  about  McDowell,  280;  tr 
McClellan  about  withholding  McDowell,  281 
to  McClellan  about  Jackson,  281 ;  to  McCTe* 
Ian  about  Hanover  Junction,  233 ;  in  reply 
to  McGksllan,  290;  about  re-enforcements 
after  seven  days'  battles,  293,  294,  295;  on 
the  strength  of  MoClellan's  army,  297 ;  to 
McClellau  after  Antietam,  319 ;  to  McOlelian 
about  horses,  321 ;  to  Fernando  Wood,  341 ; 
to  committee  of  Albany  meeting,  380 ;  com 
mittee  of  Ohio  Convention,  394 ;  to  Gover 
nor  Seymour  on  the  draft,  403 ;  second  letter 
on  the  same  subject,  405 ;  dispatches  to  Chi 
cago,  406;  letter  of  thanks  to  General  Grant, 
416;  to  General  Hunter  on  taking  command 
in  Missouri,  424;  to  General  Schofield,  428; 
to  committee  from  Missouri,  432 ;  on  church 
quarrels  in  Missouri,  438 ;  to  Union  conven 
tion  in  Illinois,  440 ;  on  payment  of  bounties, 
478 ;  to  House  of  Eepresentatives  on  General 
Blair,  473;  on  aiding  people  of  East  Tennes 
see,  475:  to  editor  of  N.  A.  Eeview,  482;  to 
C.  Bullitt,  Louisiana,  484 ;  to  Governor  Shep- 
ley,  on  electing  members  of  Congress  in 
Louisiana,  486;  to  committee  of  planters, 
Louisiana,  487 ;  to  M.  Hahn,  Louisiana,  4S9  ; 
to  General  Banks,  Louisiana,  490 ;  to  Gen 
eral  Stcele,  of  Arkansas,  491 ;  about  Arkansas 
Convention,  492 ;  to  General  Gillmore,  about 
Florida,  514;  to  workingmen  of  Manchester, 
496 ;  to  workingmen  of  London,  498 ;  to 
Christian  Commission.  500 ;  to  H.  W.  Hoff 
man,  Maryland,  512 ;  to  General  Grant,  523 ; 
to  Colonel  Loomis,  524;  to  F.  A.  Conkling, 
558  ;  to  committee  of  Convention,  563 ;  to  J. 
C.  Welling,  564 ;  in  regard  to  alleged  peace 
commissioners,  578,  575,  576,  580;  to  H.  J. 
Eaymond,  587,  588;  in  reply  to  protest  of 
Tennesseans,  598;  to  M.  Blair,  602;  tender 
ing  thanks  to  General  Sheridan,  604;  to  H. 
W.  Hoffman,  60S,  to  J.  Phillips,  615;  toMra. 
Bixby,  616;  to  Mrs.  Gurney,  616;  to  J.  Mac 
lean,  619  ;  to  Governor  Smith,  Vermont,  667 ; 
to  Mr.  Hodges,  Kentucky,  767 ;  to  General 
Hooker,  763,  769  ;  to  General  McClellan,  77S ; 
to  J.  B.  Fry,  770;  to  Governor  Magoffin, 
770 ;  to  Connt  Gasparin,  771. 

Lincoln,  Abraham — autobiography,  17;  split 
ting  rails,  23 ;  flatboatman,  23,  24 ;  grocery 
keeper,  25 ;  Captain  in  Black  Hawk  War,  25 ; 
elected  to  Legislature,  26 ;  letter  to  Col.  Allen, 
27;  protest  on  slavery,  28;  defends  Ana> 


806 


INDEX. 


strong,  29 ;  estimation  by  the  bar,  82 ;  elect 
ed  to  Congress,  33;  opposes  the  Mexican 
war,  33;  resolutions  on  Mexican  war,  35; 
speech  on  internal  improvements,  36;  on 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  39 ;  on 
"Wilmot  proviso,  41 ;  on  Pacheco  case,  41 ; 
candidate  for  Senator,  41,  44,  51 ;  invents  a 
boat,  42  ;  on  popular  sovereignty,  44,  79 ;  in 
Fromont  campaign,  46;  speech  at  Spring 
field,  4T,  52;  speech  at  Chicago,  58;  debate 
with  Douglas,  62;  questioned  by  Douglas, 
64;  questions  Douglas,  65;  speech  at  Col 
umbus,  78 ;  speech  at  Cincinnati,  81 ;  speech 
at  Cooper  Institute,  New  York,  85;  visit  to 
New  York,  100;  visit  to  Five  Points,  100;  • 
letter  on  Jefferson,  101 ;  nominated  at  Chi 
cago,  102;  visited  by  committee,  104 ;  accepts 
nomination,  105 ;  election  to  Presidency,  107 ; 
departure  for  Washington,  131;  arrival  at 
Washington,  158;  inauguration,  161;  inter 
view  with  the  mayor  of  Baltimore,  175;  visit 
to  the  army  before  Petersburg,  532 ;  nomi 
nated  for  re-election  to  Presidency,  55S;  ac 
cepts  nomination,  559,  568;  interview  with 
western  men,  568;  course  pursued  in  regard 
to  salary,  600 ;  re-election  to  Presidency,  612, 
664;  receives  colored  people,  637;  holds  con 
ference  with  rebel  commissioners  at  Hamp 
ton  Koads,  650 ;  second  inauguration,  1865, 
670  ;  visits  Army  of  Potomac,  677 ;  remarks 
on  military  position  of  Sherman,  678;  tele 
graphs  from  City  Point  the  progress  of  bat 
tle.  679;  visits  Kichmond,  681;  interviews 
with  leading  men  of  Kichmond,  683 ;  disre 
gards  warnings  in  regard  to  his  personal 
safety,  692;  remarks  to  Mr.  Colfax,  694;  at 
tends  a  meeting  of  the  Cabinet,  April  14, 
1865,  694;  interview  with  Colfax  and  Ash- 
mun,  695;  attends  the  theatre,  695;  his  as 
sassination,  697 ;  the  scene  of  death,  698, 778; 
funeral  services  at  Executive  Mansion,  708; 
funeral  cortege,  704;  its  progress  from  Wash 
ington  to  Springfield,  706-711;  burial,  712; 
estimate  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character,  715. 

For  official  papers,  &c.,  see  ADDRESS,  LET 
TER,  MESSAGE,  ORDER,  PROCLAMATION. 

For  traits  of  character,  see  ANHCDOTES  AND 

EEMINISCENSES. 

Long,  Alexander,  censured  by  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  471. 

Louisiana — admission  of  members  of  Congress, 
370  ;  movements  for  reorganization,  483 ; 
President's  letter  to  Governor  Shepley,  486 ; 
application  for  authority  to  call  a  Convention 
486 ;  application  of  planters  to  the  President, 
487 ;  Preeident's  reply,  487 ;  General  Banks's 
proclamation  ordering  an  election,  488 ;  elec 
tion  of  Governor  Hahn,  489;  abolition  of 
,  511;  President's  remarks,  684, 


Magruder's  report  of  rebel  strength  at  York- 
town,  274. 

Maryland — passage  of  troops  through  Balti 
more,  173;  President's  correspondence  with 
Governor' Hicks,  174;  President's  interview 
with  authorities,  175;  arrest  of  members  of 
the  Legislature,  378 ;  abolition  of  slavery,  511. 
Maynard,  Horace,  reply  to  President's  address 

on  emancipation,  238. 

McClellan  —  appointed  commander-in-chiefi 
265 ;  report  of  rebel  strength  at  Yorktown, 
274;  movement  to  the  Chickahominy,  277; 
reports  of  Williamsburg,  276;  wants  McDow 
ell  to  join  him  by  water,  279,  287;  letter  o 
advice  to  the  President,  296 ;  ordered  to  with 
draw  from  the  Peninsula,  298;  ordered  t 
superintend  the  forwarding  of  re-enforce 
meuts  to  Pope,  303 ;  his  failure  to  aid  Popo 
803;  suggests  that  Pope  be  left  to  "get  ou 
of  his  scrape,"  310 ;  stops  Franklin's  advance 
811;  failure  to  pursue  Lee  after  Antietam, 
312;  ordered  to  advance,  318;  nominated  foi 
Presidency,  593. 
Meade,  Gen.— succeeds  Hooker,  409 ;  fights  at 

Gettysburg,  410. 

Message  of  the  President — extra  session  of  Con 
gress,  July,  1861,  186;  first  annual,  Decem 
ber,  1861,  212;  recommending  aid  to  States 
emancipating  slaves,  229 ;  approving  bill  tc 
abolish  slavery  in  District  of  Columbia,  228 
approving  confiscation  bill,  245;  sustaining 
Secretary  Cameron,  248 ;  second  annual,  1862 
844;  recommending  aid  for  emancipation 
354;  on  the  currency,  366;  third  annual 
1863, 445 ;  in  reference  to  commission  of  Gen 
eral  F.  P.  Blair,  473,  474  ;  in  regard  to  relief 
of  people  of  East  Tennessee,  475 ;  recom 
mending  continuance  of  bounties  to  volun. 
teers,  478;  fourth  annual,  1864,  624;  trana 
mitting  correspondence  relative  to  Hamptoi 
Eoads  conference,  653 ;  concerning  represen 
tation  in  electoral  college,  664 
Mexico— the  new  empire,  463;  Mr.  Seward1 
letter  on,  465;  President  declines  to  rocog 
nize,  466 ;  resolution  of  House  of  Eeprescnt 
atives,  467. 

Missouri— condition  of  the  State  at  outbreak  o* 
the  rebellion,  422;  emancipation  in,  427;  ap 
pointment  of  Gen.  Curtis,  428;  President's 
dispatch  about,  428 ;  Gen.  Schofield's  appoint 
ment,  428;  President's  instructions  to,  436 
his  removal,  437 ;  President's  interview  with 
radicals  of,  429 ;  abolition  of  slavery  in,  431, 
511 ;  mass  convention,  481 ;'  President's  let 
ter  to  Mo.  committee,  432 ;  President's  letter 
on  church  contests,  428;  President's  letter 
to  Gen.  Hunter,  424 
Mobile  harbor  defences  captured,  543. 


National  Militia— passage  of  the  conscription 
bill,  864;    its   provisions,  364;    President's 


INDEX. 


807 


proclamation  concerning,  865;  draft  and  riots 
inN.Y.,  402;  Gov  Seymour's  correspondence 
with  the  President,  403;  President's  dis- 
patchos  to  Chicago,  406, 


Order  of  the  President— retiring  Gen,  Scott, 
204;  for  advance  of  U.  8.  armies,  265;  for 
advance  of  Army  of  Potomac,  266,  818;  to 
leave  Washington  properly  defended,  268; 
to  military  and  naval  commanders  in  regard 
to  property  and  persons  of  African  descent* 
881 ;  concerning  the  Sabbath,  842 ;  for  draft 
for  500,000  men,  479 ;  calling  for  an  additional 
200,000  men,  479 ;  defining  military  liability 
of  citizens  recognized  as  consuls  of  foreign 
powers,  and  revoking  exequatur  of  consul  of 
Belgium  for  St.  Louis,  480;  investing  M. 
Hahn  with  powers  of  military  governor  of 
Louisiana,  4S9 ;  extending  protection  to  col 
ored  troops,  520;  tendering  thanks,  &c.,  upon 
successes  at  Mobile  Bay  »nd  Atlanta,  545, 
546 ;  tendering  thanks  to  hundred-day  volun 
teers,  605;  requiring  passports  in  certain 
cases,  688;  in  regard  to  death  of  Edward 
Everett,  643;  appointing  Mrs.  Bushnell  post 
mistress,  665;  concerning  blockade-runners, 
676;  to  Gen.  Grant,  about  peace  negotiations, 
676;  in  reference  to  Virginia  Legislature  and 
Its  annulment,  683;  to  reduce  war  expendi 
tures,  and  remove  military  restrictions  on 
trade,  690. 


Peace  Conference— its  action,  124;  action  of 
Congress  on  it,  128. 

Petersburg  besieged,  530,  541,  640,  666,  677. 

Plymouth,  N.  C..  surrendered  to  the  rebels, 
521. 

Presidential  Election,  1861— popular  and  elec 
toral  vote,  109,  presidential  election,  1SG4, 
547;  nomination  of  Fremont,  551;  nomina 
tion  of  Lincoln,  558;  his  acceptance,  559, 
568;  McClellan  nominated,  593;  Fremont 
withdraws,  595;  Incidents  of  the  canvass, 
596;  result,  612,  664 

Proclamation  by  the  President — calling  for 
75,000  troops,  and  convening  Congress,  172; 
of  blockade,  177;  increasing  army  and  navy, 
181;  instructing  commander  of  U.  S.  forces 
in  Florida,  181 ;  revoking  order  of  Gen.  Hun 
ter,  233;  in  regard  to  blockade,  251 ;  of  eman 
cipation,  Sept.,  1862,  257;  of  emancipation, 
Jan.  1,  1863,  260;  for  Thanksgiving,  April 
10,  1862,  827;  to  the  rebels,  332;  admitting 
"West  Virginia,  369 ;  suspending  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  881,  898;  in  regard  to  na 
tional  forces  bill,  400;  of  victory  at  Gettys 
burg,  411 ;  for  Thanksgiving,  July  15,  1863, 
417 ;  Thanksgiving  for  victories  in  East  Ten 
nessee,  420;  for  Thanksgiving,  Oct.  3.  1&53. 
420;  of  amnesty  and  reconstruction,  457, 


459;  calling  for  300,000  vc.unteers,  477;  in 
rejfurd  to  bill  of  Congress  for  reconstruction, 
495;  appointing  a  day  of  humiliation  and 
prayer,  634;  declaring  martial  law  in  Ken 
tucky,  586;  ordering  draft  of  500,000  men, 
540;  for  Thanksgiving,  603;  in  regard  to 
blockade,  622;  calling  for  800,000  men,  688; 
calling  extra  session  of  Senate,  666;  to  de 
serters,  672;  in  reference  to  Indian  hostili 
ties,  675;  concerning  the  blockade,  688,  689; 
restrictions  placed  upon  national  vessels  by 
foreign  powers  must  be  withdrawn,  689. 


Reconstruction — President's  movements  to 
wards  and  message  on,  455;  proclamation 
for,  458;  remarks  on,  481;  letter  to  N.  A, 
Eeview,  482;  movements  towards,  in  Louis 
iana,  483;  movements  in  Arkansas,  490;  bill 
providing  for,  passed  by  Congress,  494;  pro 
clamation  of  President  concerning,  495;  elec 
tions  in  Tennessee,  596;  Preside at's  view* 
on,  684. 

Ecd  Eiver  expedition,  516. 

Eichmond  besieged,  642,  640,  666,  677;  occu 
pied,  681. 

Eiots  in  N.  Y.,  402. 


Savannah  captured,  689. 

Scott,  Gen.— resignation  of,  203;  President's 
order  retiring,  204, 

Schofleld — appointment  to  "Western  Depart 
ment,  428;  President's  instructions  to,  428; 
removal  from  command,  408. 

Secession  conspiracy — at  Washington,  112 ;  Mr. 
Stephens's  speech  against  it,  114. 

Secession— of  South  Carolina,  111 ;  of  Virginia, 
180. 

Seward,  "Wm.  H. — instructions  to  our  minister 
in  England,  182,  183;  reply  to  French  olTcf 
of  mediation,  835;  diplomacy  of  1868*  46D; 
letter  to  Mr.  Adams  on  dancer  of  war  with 
England,  462;  letter  on  the  Mexican  ques 
tion,  465 ;  letter  concerning  Hampton  Eoads 
conference,  650 ;  accident  to,  683,  698 ;  mur 
derous  assault  on,  699. 

Seymour,  Governor  of  New  York— correspond 
ence  with  President  on  the  draft,  403. 

Sheridan,  General — raid  upon  Lee's  flank,  527 ; 
takes  command  in  Shenandoah  Valley,  541 ; 
victories  over  Early,  603,  604;  cavalry  raid 
to  the  west  of  Eichmond,  677 :  successful  at 
tack  on  Lee's  right  flank,  678,  679,  680. 

Sherman,  General — expedition  from  Vicksburg, 
515;  moves  towards  Atlanta,  530,  538;  cap 
tures  Atlanta,  544;  marches  through  Georgia' 
and  captures  Savannah,  63P  ;  march  through 
South  Carolina,  668;  at  Goldsboro',  North 
Carolina,  677. 

Slavery  and  Slaves — relations  of  slavery  to  the 
rebellion,  199 ;  employment  of  slaves,  bill  in 


808 


INDEX. 


regard  to,  200;  President's  views  regarding 
fugitive  slaves,  206 ;  abolition  in  Territories, 
228;  abolition  in  District  of  Columbia,  228; 
resolution  approving  President's  policy  of 
aiding  emancipation  in  States,  231 ;  adoption 
in  both  Houses,  282;  emancipation  procla 
mations,  257,  260 ;  negroes  authorized  to  be 
employed  in  army,  468;  action  of  military 
commanders  concerning,  329 ;  Ilalleck'e  let 
ter  about  slaves,  380 ;  constitutional  amend 
ment  prohibiting,  645. 

States— relation  of  rebel  States  to  the  general 
government,  362,  481. 

State  Prisoners — executive  order  relative  to, 
879;  order  releasing,  883;  appointment  of  a 
commission  on,  881 ;  case  of  Yallandigham, 
884. 

Stephens,  A.  H. — speech  against  seccession, 
114;  statement  of  objects  of  the  Confedera 
cy,  115 ;  report  on  Hampton  Roads  confer 
ence,  652. 

St.  Albans,  raid  upon,  611,  637. 

Suinter,  bombardment  of  Fort,  171. 


Taney,  Chief-Justice,  death  of,  624. 

Taussig,  James,  his  account  of  an  interview 

with  the  President,  429. 
Tennessee,  elections  in,  596. 


Union  and  Eepublican  Convention,  1864,  554; 


resolutions  adopted,  956 ;  nominates  Mr.  Lin 
coin,  55a 

Vallandigham— his  arrest,  trial,  and  sentence, 
884;  President's  letter  to  Albany  meeting 
concerning,  886;  President's  letter  to  Ohio 
meeting  concerning,  394 ;  nominated  for 
Governor  of  Ohio,  443 ;  is  defeated,  44a 

Yicksburg — siege  and  surrender,  418. 

Virginia— secession  of,  180 ;  Lincoln's  reply  to 
commissioners,  179 ;  admission  of  West 
Virginia,  867. 

"War — Crittenden  resolution  declaring  its  ob 
jects,  200. 

War  Department  —  order  for  protection  of 
Washington,  270 ;  order  for  seizure  of  rebel 
property,  331;  to  reduce  war  expenditures 
and  remove  military  restrictions  on  trade, 
690. 

Workingmen  of  Manchester,  England,  address 
to  President,  496;  of  London,  address  to 
President,  498;  of  New  York,  visit  to  Presi 
dent,  498. 

Wilderness,  battles  of  the,  524. 

Wilmington  occupied,  668. 

Yorktown  —  McClellan's  report  of  rebel 
strength,  274;  Magruder's  report,  374;  evac 
uation  of,  275. 


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